Hiking trails to the heather blossom

The heath of the Vordereifel offers a fascinating landscape with evergreen juniper trees and lily-flowering heather grasses. Juniper trees are unique plants: robust yet slender as cypresses, a spicy ingredient for fine delicacies. And they grow where there are wide clearings. This vast heathland was created by a special form of land cultivation until the end of the 1950s, known as "Schiffelwirtschaft".

Especially in August and September, when the small purple flowers of the heather grasses and the green junipers create a beautiful play of colors.

With a bit of luck, you may encounter rare butterflies, while other shy inhabitants remain hidden... but they are there, rustling, flitting and buzzing along the edge of the path. A carefree, Mediterranean feeling inevitably sets in on warm summer days: And on refreshing autumn days, a sense of all the legends and secrets that are at home in this area.

In the "Drover Heide" nature reserve near Kreuzau in the north of the Eifel, you will find open heathland, green meadows as well as wild woodlands and idyllic small bodies of water where primeval crayfish and great crested newts can be found. The Drover Heide is also an important bird sanctuary with a habitat for various bird species.