Discover Mehren: Hiking Trails, Cycling Routes and Culture

You can get to know Mehren through its trails and local history. Hiking trails begin at the information pavilion next to the church, ranging from around 2 to 4 kilometres around the village to around 15 kilometres through forests, meadows and farmland. The route lengths and landscapes give you different points of reference for planning your days.

Hiking trails, wetlands and maars

The hiking trail network provides access to the Daun Maars nature reserves. Mürmes and Sangweiher are wetlands and resting areas for migrating birds. Mürmes is a renaturalised, infilled maar with remarkable biodiversity. The Vulcano Trail leads from Schalkenmehren through the Mürmes nature reserve and Mehren, then returns to Schalkenmehren. The neighbouring maars—Schalkenmehrener Maar, Weinfelder Maar and Gemündener Maar—are known as the “Eyes of the Eifel.” Forest youth games are held on the grounds of the forest school; some hikers find shade beneath the beech trees.

Cycling routes with different connections

The Maare-Mosel Cycle Route passes through Mehren. The signposted S1 cycling loop also passes the Church of St. Matthias. For mountain biking, Mehren is part of the VulkanBike TrailPark, a Vulkaneifel trail network with around 750 kilometres of routes and more than 17,500 metres of elevation gain. This means your trip planning can take account of different options: a cycle route through Mehren, a loop connected to the church, and a large-scale mountain bike network.

Churches, crosses and traditions

The cemetery cross in Mehren is a 3.10-metre-high Renaissance sandstone cross dating from 1542. The Renaissance portal of the parish church came from Himmerod Abbey. Another historic landmark is the Zimmermann family wayside shrine: it stands on the B 421 at the exit from Mehren towards Daun and was lovingly restored by the Mehren church choir.

Local traditions are also part of the cultural offerings. The Fat Thursday tradition in Mehren dates back to 1948. Cultural highlights also include exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances, carnival events and a village festival. If you would like to combine your trip with a particular event, check the dates in advance.

The Vulkaneifel in its regional context

In the wider travel destination of the Vulkaneifel, hiking trails, maars and geotopes bring the volcanic history to life for visitors. The Vulkaneifel is designated both a nature park and a UNESCO Global Geopark. So far, 77 maars have been identified in the region; 350 eruption centres have also been counted, around 270 of them from the more recent phase. Ulmener Maar marks the Vulkaneifel’s most recent volcanic eruption, which took place around 10,900 years ago.

For hikes in the Vulkaneifel, the marked and signposted Vulkaneifel Paths offer a range of durations: half-day hikes, full-day hikes and multi-day hikes. They lead to scenic highlights on both sides of the Eifelsteig. The museums also each have their own focus: the Eifel Volcano Museum in Daun displays three-dimensional landscape models of cinder cones, maars and mineral springs, as well as exhibits on West Eifel volcanism. The Strohn Volcano House is an interactive museum featuring a lava fissure wall around 30,000 years old, about six metres long and four metres high. The Gerolstein Natural History Museum is considered the largest and oldest geo-museum in the Eifel and displays stone records of the region’s geological history across three floors.

Weighing up accommodation and travel interests

When looking for accommodation in Mehren, you can decide on your preferred focus: hiking trails, cycling connections or local history. Mehren has motorway access via the A1 and A48; you can also take this travel consideration into account when choosing your base.

Discover more destinations: Oberstadtfeld, Deudesfeld, Dreis-Brück, Darscheid, Steineberg, Kradenbach, Ellscheid, Strotzbüsch.

For the wider travel overview: Daun.