Your first destination is the National Park Gate. The exhibition, designed using the most modern means, is dedicated to the topics of "Forest Change" and "Valley Meadows". You will also find numerous materials on the Eifel National Park as well as leisure and hiking tips for your stay in the town of Monschau. Walking through the side streets with little traffic is an experience. The harmonious juxtaposition of historic and modern buildings, broken up by courtyard meadows and framed by beech hedges, characterizes the village. Höfen is an absolute must for lovers of historic half-timbered houses. Some of the Vennhäuser are over 300 years old and have been restored and maintained with great attention to detail. Some are still thatched. From Schmiedegasse, you will be walking along the route of the Eifelsteig for the next 1.2 kilometers. The premium hiking trail leading from Aachen to Trier is one of the 10 "Top Trails of Germany". After crossing the "Wiesengrund" road, you enter the eastern pastureland. You will experience a varied landscape with impressive views. From Mützenich in the west with the 659-metre-high Steling, the highest elevation in the Monschau region, the view sweeps over Imgenbroich and Eicherscheid in the north to the Rohrener Weideland in the east. A good place to continue your "hedge study" is the "Eifel-Blick" near the southern edge of the village. From here, you can see hedgerows of different ages and in different states of maintenance. In the past, they served as "living fences" and protected the crops from hungry cows and the harsh weather. The hedges are topped by "through-growths", which are used at regular intervals for firewood. Via Hermesstraße and Hauptstraße you reach the Eifelverein's Seebend Nature House with its weaving museum. The exhibitions there provide information about the hedgerow landscape, the daffodil meadows in the Perlenbach valley and the weaving trade in the old days. The street "Im Sief" is rich in impressions. These include the steep ravine leading down into the Perlenbach valley, a village fountain framed by a quarry stone wall and a magnificent cross at the junction with the main road. On the way back, you can once again marvel at magnificent house hedges, old half-timbered houses and romantic corners such as "Heckel's Pad". The house hedges, which are up to 6 meters high, 1 meter deep and 30 meters long, are not only beautiful to look at, but also serve a practical purpose. They provide protection from wind, driving rain and snow. A house hedge also improves the heat balance of a house, reduces heating costs, dampens street noise and acts as a dust filter. Before you return to the starting point, we recommend two more detours to the typical old farm garden at Hauptstraße 114 and through the tastefully arranged park by the swan pond.