Müllerthal is everywhere

As soon as someone in a group of hikers mentions Echternach or Luxembourg's Little Switzerland, another one will mumble Müllerthal.

We wanted to find out - and discovered that Müllerthal describes an area, or feeling, rather than just a simple trail. Having said this, there is a signposted Müllerthal trail, which consists of three connected major loops, totalling more than 110 kilometers. There is an official website of this trail and hotels and tourist infos will readily supply you with a map. Inevitably, you will be forced to pick and chose your portions of the trail that you want to hike in a single day, especially if you wish to hike a smaller loop. You'll find out that there are countless other bits and pieces of trail strewn around the Echternach area, that are as good as the original signposted path. Müllerthal is everywhere.

If you travel with a GPS, we recommend to use a map such as the freely avaiable OSM-based Freizeitkarte BEL_NLD_LUX. This map has rather accurate positions of the various cliffs and attractions, as well as footpaths, and enables you to construct your own route.

This trail touches the original Müllerthal village, which today is an assemblage of restaurants. You may start the trail in Müllerthal, or - as we did - at a hiker's parking near Consdorf. The trail is interesting throughout, without any boring parts. There are always side trails that explore the cliffs, their top, or the cracks. This also makes the hike quite time consuming, as you will frequently stop for admiring the cliffs and taking photographs, and not least because there is a lot of up and down on stairs and sometimes ladders.

The trails below the cliffs usually offer more dramatic views than those above them.

Next to many others, two absolute highlights of the trail are the Eulenburg (owls castle) and the Goldfralay. Both have a system of cracks and tunnels, with surprises at every turn. It is good to bring a light (smartphone or similar). The roundtrip at the Goldfralay (up and down) was so interesting, I did it twice!