アルフターのおすすめランニングルート

The route follows the old Roman aqueduct from the Eifel region to Cologne. Interesting information panel.

Once you reach the “water tower”, you have either reached the top or it goes steeply downhill 😎 (depending on the direction you are heading). I am happy when I see it.

The hut is slowly becoming overgrown, as you can see from the photo series. The name made me think of the Johanniter clinic in Bad Godesberg.

komoot- Adventure- Spring, Part-d, Picnic while taking a break, (eating outside) sandwiches, one with sweet chocolate cream and one with salty peanut butter in the lunch box and cold isotonic drink in the thermos flask sitting on the bench on the mat and enjoying nature

Even in the sections of the Roman Eifel aqueduct to Cologne, where the masonry was mostly broken down in the Middle Ages, individual sections of the route have been preserved. Although the excavation shown here only allows a glimpse of the vault above the pipeline channel, it nevertheless reveals a special feature of Roman long-distance pipeline construction north of the Alps: the pipeline, which was built in an open trench, had to be covered with a layer of around one meter of soil after the structure was completed. This ensured the frost protection required in our latitudes. Source: https://www.roemerkanal.de/bauwerk

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

I don't quite understand why the hut is called the Forest Hospital. But a hut is a hut and a good resting place. Opposite there is a birdhouse on a tree trunk.

A typical late Wilhelmine water tower. Built in 1900.