Rheinland-Pfalz

We just had to visit the town of Manderscheid because it is the name of our niece and nephew's family!

Our Board Atlas told us the stopover was a resaurant car park that was free to stay at if we bought a meal. We both expected a greasy spoon on the road side, but as we wound our way down a steep hill around several 180° turns towards the dead end and hotel signed at at the bottom of the valley, we had a suprise in store. The overflow car park where we stayed was surrounded by tall trees climbing up the side of the valley. There were some man made ponds, adjacent to a small river where a water mill was previously sited. The Heids Mühle hotel stocked their ponds with trout that they netted when they were ready to serve at the restaurant. We had delicious meals of 'blue trout' and 'miller style trout' with a local bottle of dry white Riesling and were really impressed with the quality!

A steep hike up to the town of Manderscheid revealed the town dressed in bunting for an antiques market. The streets were lined with a mixture of professional sellers, traditional crafts and car boot couples. The main square hosted a pop up bar, cakes, music and a few fairground stalls.

One feature of this area is its maars; small volcanic eruptions that have left round craters with raised sides, the majority of which have filled with rainwater to form lakes. We visited Windsborn Kratersee which had circular walks around the edge of the crater and the lake at the bottom. Because water doesn't flow in or out, the plantlife in the lake doesn't all decompose, making the water acidic and a good environment for bog plants. We got to see a wonderful variety of flowers and minibeasts.

Our last activity in Manderscheid was to visit one of its two castles. For a €2 entry fee we had a great time clambering up inside the turrets and peering through the archers' window slits. We found quite a few little lizards sun bathing on the stones too! Mandersheid does have a second castle but after all the steep hikes we'd made over the last few days we decided to save our feet for another adventure!Read more