Gemünd-Vogelsang-Wolfhagen-Gemünd 20 km

Nice hike in the Eifel with the former Nazi estate Ordensburg Vogelsang, the Urftsee and the Urft valley, woods, and wide Eifel views. You can find something to eat and drink in Gemünd and in Vogelsang. At the start is free parking within Gemünd. The level of the Urftsee was very low during my hike: the Urft is clearly visible as a river, rather than a lake.
From the start you make a small detour past the church and Neustrasse with colorful houses. You then follow the Dreiborner Strasse, the main street in the center. Shortly after you start to climb along the Alter Römerweg, and then follow a path along a woody slope on one side and houses on the other. Clearly, wild pigs had foraged along this path just before my trip. You descend again and walk through the village and the Schöttgasse to the edge of town. You choose an unpaved road through a farm with timber-framed buildings and then along the Horrenbach. You climb a bit further, and then descend on the other side of the Horrenbach to the main hiking route to Morsbach. You follow this path, with the Urft far below, cross the Lassbach, and climb towards Morsbach. When you get a bit higher, forest is substituted with pasture and the views get wider. Near Morsbach you turn back on the Willibrodusweg to the Modenhübel, a hill with a wide view across the Eifel. From here, you descend on a wide path, past the viewpoint Kickley towards the Morsbach stream. Close to the stream the path is substituted with an elongated bridge across the marshy area. You then climb to the entrance of the Burg Vogelsang. You walk around grey buildings to the viewpoint Wollseifenblick and then continue to the heart of the Voggelsang area (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordensburg_Vogelsang), with more grey barracks, a cinema for soldiers, and when you get near the edge of the plateau, wide views across the Urft valley and reservoir. You walk towards a viewpoint, where there is also a museum, and a restaurant. You walk around the ‘Turm mit Ehrenhalle’, a large tower with a Hall of Honour built by the Nazis, to a lower viewpoint. You continue further down past some barracks to a relief of torch bearer, Nazi art. Then you descend on a road towards the Victor-Neels bridge across the Urft reservoir. The level was low during my trip, so there was only the river Urft, and not a lake. You walk along the Urft on an unpaved forest road for 2.3 km, and then take a path (‘Wildnistrail – or wilderness trail) along the Grosser Böttenbach stream all the way up to the village Wolfgarten at the highest point of the day around 530 meters. From the village you take a path through the woods. There were some sections of dead conifer trees (‘Waldsterben’): watch out for falling trees… A bit further you take a path down to Gemünd. In Gemünd you walk through the Kurpark along the Urft, and then along the Urft to the center of Gemünd. At the end you pass a weir where the Urft tumbles down, and two bridges across the Olef, another river that flows into the Urft. A short while later, you are back to the starting point.