Hiking in Westfalia

In May, we will be going to Germany, staying in Mechernich, which is, according to my maps, near both the Eifel Park and at least part of the Rheinsteig trail (the Bonn end). My biggest problem is being able to find books about hiking there in English. I was able to get a brochure about the Rheinsteig off of the Internet in both languages, but it appears that all of the details are available only in German. Not that I'm complaining, of course (because that wouldn't be fair! - there's not a lot of German books in Canada!) - but my question is: when I get through the Rocket German course, will I be able to at least understand part of the German hiking books? Or should I get the books ahead of time, and start to painstakingly translate them by hand (I hope not!!). Also, by any chance, do you know any hiker we could chat with from that area? Thanks Judy

Hi Judy, I'm sure you will enjoy your time in Germany. All the cherrie trees are in full bloom in May, so it will look beautiful. I will try to find out if there are any books available in English, but you will definitely understand a lot too if you did the full Rocket German course. With the Mega Vocab game you can add all the specific hiking terms you need to know and practise them in a fun way. In the meantime you might want to have a look at http://www.traildatabase.org/countries/germany.html to get some more information. Remember, with Rocket German you have a German teacher virtually "on call" 24 hours a day! If you have any questions, you can always either email me personally or post a message on this Forum, where other members or our team of German teachers, natives and enthusiasts will answer your query. Nathalie

Super - thanks Judy

What a super web site! We spent several hours checking things out. Thanks so much for your help. Judy :D

Hey, you must be getting ready for your trip soon?! I hope you could find all the information you needed. Have a great time!

We have finalized our trip plans - we'll be there the middle 2 weeks of June. I have a bunch of material on hiking in the area - a friend in Germany mailed me one book (in German), and I've been translating it (thanks to Google Translate, which is sometimes quite humourous). My brother was in Germany a few weeks ago, in the same area, and picked up several tourist books and brochures on the hiking there, too. Some of it was even in English! And I've completed the Rocket German lessons, and am reviewing them now. I also regularly play MegaGerman, and I am making my way through the written materials (about half way through). I am so looking forward to this trip. Thanks so much for your help. Judy