A picturesque half-hour’s drive south of Aachen brings you to the Schwammenauel reservoir at the Rur Valley Dam, containing 203 million cubic metres and with a water surface area of eight square kilometres (the second-largest reservoir in Germany), in the heart of the vast forest area of the Eifel National Park. This, together with the lakes Obersee and Urftsee, makes up the Eifel Lake District. The tour takes you once around the entire Rursee lake and offers breathtaking views of the lake and the surrounding Eifel landscape. On large parts of the hike, you will be walking through dense deciduous forest along the shore. On the cycling tour, in addition to power stations and dam walls you will experience a unique refuge for rare plants and animals, because the route crosses the Eifel National Park, the only national park in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. Here, you may see the very symbol of nature conservation, the beaver, as well as eagle owls and wildcats, honey buzzards and red kites, fields of spignel and daffodil, or hart’s-tongue fern and beech ferns.

Highlights along the way:

• Eifel National Park
• Obersee with Rursee ferry
• National Park Gate Rurberg
• Art Nouveau power station of Heimbach
• Schwammenauel Reservoir