Circular hike around Virneburg

This tour takes you to the land of castles and knights. Three magnificent castles are the highlights of this tour: Sinzenich Castle, Langendorf Castle and Zülpich Castle.

Until a few decades ago, slate mining shaped large parts of our region as far as the Moselle. The population in Kehrig also lived partly from work in the slate pits.

Bad Münstereifel is a small romantic town that has grown historically over the years, with picturesque timber-framed houses and the City Outlet, with attractive shops that are worth paying a visit. You can take a break in the many cosy cafés and restaurants.

With around 3.3 km² and a depth of 53 m, Laacher See is the largest lake in Rhineland-Palatinate. The area around the lake has been a nature reserve for almost 80 years. The last eruption of the former “Laacher volcano” occurred around 10,930 BC. B.C., about 13,000 years ago. Traces of volcanic activity can still be found in the form of volcanic outgassing, the so-called mofettes, on the eastern shore of the lake. The total ejection quantity of the outbreak at that time was about 16 km³. The eruption was one and a half times as strong as that of Pinatubo in 1991, or 6 times as strong as the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Although Laacher See is widely regarded as the largest maar in the Vulkaneifel, it is scientifically not a maar and also not a real crater lake, but a water-filled caldera - a burglary crater that resulted from a collapse after the magma chamber was emptied below the volcanic cone. The volcanic mountain collapses and only the ring bead on the outer edge remains. Over time, the remaining boiler fills up with water. The Laacher See is in the Eifel, next to the neighboring Wehrer Kessel, the largest caldera and the only water-filled one in Central Europe.