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Let's continue with my discovery tour through the Volcanic Eifel. Next stop: Strohn! For Strohn we have taken a whole day. After all, there is more to see here than "just" the lava bomb. Thanks to very good signposting, we quickly found our first destination, the lava bomb. Passing through a residential area, at the end of the road our daughter called out from the back seat in the car: There's the bomb!

Cold, clear and dark was the night, and just as cold and clear and bright will the sunrise... At 6:30 in the pitch dark it went off for me to Steineberg. I was of course well equipped, had a thick jacket on, warm shoes, gloves, hat and a thermos filled to the brim with coffee ... I still had to cross a small forest in the darkness to get to my destination. I had of course thought of everything...just not of my flashlight - it lay nicely at home in the drawer. As always, so there, where it (today) definitely (not) belonged.

Firmly walled in the earth stands the mold, baked from clay... You hear them several times every day all over the world. Sometimes more, sometimes less loud and many of them come from the beautiful Volcanic Eifel - from Brockscheid. What am I talking about? Church tower bells, of course! Once again on the road, this time I went to the Mark bell foundry in Brockscheid. As already mentioned, you can hear them ringing several times a day, the church tower bells, for many a blessing, for many a curse.

Tools, wax blocks, molds and figures Oh yes, if only one had paid more attention in school. In certain situations this sentence always comes to mind. It happened to me last night when I tried to remember what I had learned in history class about manufactories and their importance.

My tour began in complete fog that darkened everything. However, it was not a threatening darkness, but rather an auspicious one. All the leaves and grasses were covered with hoarfrost in the most beautiful textures, shapes and patterns. Even the spider webs were covered in frost and everything was somehow connected. Abstract art, created by nature but not at all artificial, just pure, pure nature. With every movement, the frost crackles under the soles of my shoes.

A little tip to clear your head for once. Last week I set the alarm clock to quarter past 5 and set off with thick, sleepy eyes, a thermos of coffee and a loaf of bread on the way to Meerfeld. With the backpack on my back and the camera around my neck, I now marched off to my favorite maar - the Meerfelder Maar. At the beginning it was still a bit gloomy and the combination with the rising mist even had something slightly mystical. Total silence - except for the refreshing splashing of the ducks was absolutely nothing to hear.

I look out the window and lo and behold: the sun is shining and it's not raining for once! So, hiking boots on and nix like out. From my hotel in Meerfeld it goes once around the Meerfelder Maar and then through the forest on the height to the viewpoint Landesblick , there you should have a wonderful view over the Maar and the whole unique GesundLand Vulkaneifel have.

With the camera in the luggage, today's volcanic Eifel tour leads to the Windsborn crater lake, between Manderscheid and Bettenfeld. A, as it turned out afterwards, very quiet and unique excursion in the Volcanic Eifel. The way to the Windsborn crater lake Did you know that the Windsborn crater lake is the only real crater lake north of the Alps? A small forest path (about 700m), surrounded by green trees on the left and right, leads directly to the crater lake.

At the Ulmen castle ruins, I immersed myself in the world of knights at the weekend. In bright sunshine, I walked alongside many other visitors through the narrow streets of the small Eifel town up to the castle ruins, to look at the promised knight fights, merchants and craftsmen, who had announced themselves for two days above the Ulmen Maar, times from close.

With my comfortable walking shoes in my luggage, I set off for the Meerfelder Maar, near Manderscheid. The Meerfelder Maar is 200 m deep, embedded in the largest Maar funnel of the Eifel. South of the Maar is the village of the same name, Meerfeld. A very small, idyllic place in the Eifel.