アルフターの山小屋＆キャビン・トップ19

With summer temperatures and high humidity after a rainy low pressure system had passed through, I preferred to carry on walking 😂. The mosquitoes eat you alive - and not just in this shelter 🦟 .

Beautiful, large shelter that offers us welcome shelter during an unexpected rain shower. The wooden man who "guards" the shelter is a worthwhile photo opportunity.

The Iron Man is an iron stele that protrudes approximately 1.20 m from the ground and measures 15 x 15 cm. It is 2.18 m long in total, with the buried end being T-shaped to ensure better anchoring in the ground. It is believed to be a surveying point, a boundary marker, or a memorial. The stele was first mentioned in documents in 1625 and for a long time served as a landmark for the border between the communities of Heimerzheim and Alfter. A 1978 investigation indicates that it is made of charcoal pig iron that was poured into an open earth trough in the form of an ingot. This is a technique that was used in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, but not yet in Roman times. The precise alignment of the line of sight from Augustusburg Palace in Brühl and its baroque garden to the Iron Man is remarkable. The Iron Man may have been relocated in 1727, when a new trail system for par force hunting was also being created in the Kottenforst forest. Several forest and hiking trails intersect at the Iron Man. The Roman Eifel aqueduct to Cologne also runs nearby. It is a popular meeting and resting place. Seating and a shelter are located in its immediate vicinity. Source: Wikipedia

In addition to the Way of St. James towards Tier - the stage from Bonn to Rheinbach - there are also a number of local circular hiking trails that are managed by the Rhineland Nature Park. These are the => "Waldville-Weg", see https://www.komoot.com/de-de/tour/712145384 and the => “Heimatblick-Runde”, see https://www.komoot.com/de-de/tour/712146609

Clean and spacious protective hats on the pilgrimage route right at the turnoff to Gielsdorf.

The sculpture of the "Wooden Man" in the forest above Rösberg was created in the mid-1980s by a local carver named Cader, who also made nativity figures, for example. With this work on the Villewald on the foothills, he also wanted (according to tradition) to create a figurative counterpart to the - much more famous - "Iron Man" in the Kottenforst. The year 1996, which can be seen at the foot of the sculpture, probably refers to a general overhaul/renovation of the "Wooden Man".

The iron pole, over two meters high, is an impressive relic from the late Middle Ages. The iron was probably heated with coal and poured into a trough. Its shape was probably used for transport for further processing. But it never came to that. The iron post served as a border post for a long time. An information board explains the details. The Iron Man is history you can touch. At the crossroads there is also a seating area and a weather shelter.

Nice, open place at a crossroads of forest paths. In addition, weather protection if the worst comes to the worst.