The Oster Valley in the Odenwald, Germany

We left Bensheim by car in carpool and drove up to Reichelsheim. We turned off right by a bakers and climbed the Krautweg to the car park at Teufelstein. We got out the car into a window that came straight from Greenland via Siberia. It was cold. We climbed south and soon found shelter in the woods, thank goodness! We dropped into Unter Ostern, climbed through Rohrbach, Erzbach and Ober-Ostern to then drop to the Zum Ostertal country pub. We ate well and then worked off the lunch by climbing to the heights on the other side of the valley to return to our starting spot. We reckoned we'd walked 17 km by the end. It is possible to go to Reichelsheim even on Sundays by bus from Bensheim and there are return buses in the evening. The journey takes about 50 minutes. Check vrn.de for times.