Why fly to New England?

We have enjoyed a superb autumn/fall this year and if you wish to enjoy walking through golden woods with good food and wine, then it is worth thinking about southwest Germany in October. The photographs below were taken over the last month or so in the vineyards of Rhineland Palatinate, in the Löwensteiner Hills near Heilbronn, in the Odenwald and in the Viernheim forests.

Die Weinstraße

The Pfälzer Weinsteig (Palatinate Wine Trail runs for about 160 km (100 miles) from Neuleiningen to the Weintor at Schweigen-Rettenbach, just north of Wissembourg in Alsace. The route traverses the foothills of the Pfalzerwald (Palatine Forest) through vineyards, past castles and Ludwigshöhe, a Royal Bavarian summer residence. The climate is warm here in the summer with almond, fig and edible chestnut trees. This is a major German wine growing area. It is especially fine in October when the leaves on the grape vines change colour from deep green to yellow, orange and deep red. It is a bit late for this year, but next year maybe? You will need some time to sample the wine and the local food which is rural, robust and simple, but not to be missed - Saumagen (pigs' stomach stuffed with hotpot and then sliced and grilled or  fried. This is the favourite food of Helmut Kohl, the former German Chancellor.), liver dumplings, Bratwurst, sauerkraut… The trail can be easily walked in either direction in 10 days - about 16 km and 700 m, just 2000' a day. You can expect to pay about €80 a night for a double room with B&B. Practically every village has a wine festival in the autumn, so booking head has a lot to recommend it. The organisations whose websites follow will help you find rooms: www.deutsche-weinstrasse.de, www.suedlicheweinstrasse.de or www.pfaelzer-wanderwege.de for details of pre-booked holidays with luggage transport, allowing you to just carry a day sack with a picnic and a waterproof.

Deutsche Weinstraße Trail

Autumn in the Pfalz, the wine growing area in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate is a explosion of colours. We were pleased to have the chance to take part in a guided walk along the trail with the Mannheim Section of the Odenwaldklub. The trail itself runs for 100 km from the German Weintor on the border with Alsace near Wissembourg to Bockenheim roughly south - north along the edge of the Pfälzerwald Hills. We walked about ten km from Burrweiler to St Martin past the Ludwigshöhe, the former residence of the Bavarian Kings. Public transport is adequate in the area. We took a suburban train to Neustadt an der Weinstraße and a bus to Burrweiler. The group then followed paths through forests and vineyards to St Martin, stopping occasionally to look across the rhine Valley. We picked up a bus on the same line in St Martin to return to Neustadt.

Ludwigshöhe

St Martin

Pembroke Coastal Path Sandy Haven to St Anne's Head Head

Pembroke Coastal Path Introduction

About thirty years ago in her former life as a geography teacher which included running Duke of Edinburgh's Award courses, Judith took a party of kids to Pembrokeshire. She was much impressed by the coastal path and when we looked at where we wanted to walk this spring she suggested we walked the route. We decided to have a self-guided holiday rather than going on a group trip. Although we have walked carrying all our own gear in the past we did not wish to this time and so looked for a company offering pre-booked tours with luggage transfer. Fortunately the first company in the list was Celtic Trails.* We booked a ten day trip with them. A few days before our departure for Wales we received a thick envelope containing a file with full details of our trip including instructions and/or maps of how to get to the accommodation, a guide book and two OS maps. From what we can gather from talking to other walkers in our overnight accommodation at least one company does not offer maps and a guide and does not go into detail
We had specified walking around 10 miles a day which was good choice for our roughly 70 year old bodies. The Coast Path is tough at times with a number of descents and ascents across bays and over headlands.
*Just to stress we have no financial interest in Celtic Trails.

Hello

For years we have cycled in summer and done some walking in winter, either with the Odenwald Club or our cycling club the ADFC or on organised tours with the Ramblers' Association Spain and Italy, but have limited our longer trips to the Christmas period. Recently we have decided that as long as we are able we will try to go on holiday in the autumn and spring. We wanted to write about these trips. The ideal would be an equivalent to the Crazy Guy on a Bike website. We do have a cycling blog, but we don't want to dilute the bike content, so decided to start an infrequent blog where we can ramble about our rambles.