Germany: Home of My Heart

Eifel Scenery in Germany1

Luminata needed a setting for a big adventure. Early on I decided that the perfect setting for my novel was where my family is from in the Eifel Germany. I loved to visit my Grandparents there as a kid. I have been fortunate to take my husband there too and share the wonders of the region. The lush forests hide wonders like castles, giant toadstool mushrooms that look too magical to be real and amazing wildlife. It is a geologically active area and has many natural mineral springs and lakes. All of this is so different from California that it has held my imagination captive my whole life.

Chapel at Weinfelder Maar 2

For a majority of Luminata the castle that needs rescuing is submerged below water in a crater lake or a 'Maar' based on the Weinfelder Maar. A small chapel perches on the rim of the crater and it is said that the chapel is a memorial to the small village that was wiped out by the Black Plague in ~1522. You can still visit the chapel and read headstones in the small cemetery of people long gone. (So, this chapel may play an important role in Luminata…)
 
If you'd like to learn more I recommend the English Wiki page that talks about some of the local lakes, the German Wiki page specifically about Weinfelder Maar, or this OutdoorActive page that shows some photos and can be read in either German or English.
 
I would love to hear from you if you’ve been to this region and have any stories or experiences you’d like to share. Please leave a comment below or send me a message.
 
As always, thank you for visiting my Blog and I hope you’ll come back and visit me.

Photo Credits:
1.  Eifel Scenery; Walter Koch Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6005399
2.  Kapelle Am Maar; Von Vertumnus - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7487074