The Weinsteig Part III Deidesheim to Neustadt a d Weinstreaße and disaster strikes.

We took the S-Bahn from Mannheim to Haßloch (Pfalz) and changed to bus 513 to Deidesheim. If you are tempted to take this route be warned: We had three minutes to get from the platform to the bus stop. We did not hang about and as soon as we sat down the bus was away.  We left Deidesheim station and took the Bahnhofstraße past the fountain in front of the Tourist Information Office. The fountain is worth five minutes of your time. You can take each others' photographs "wearing" bronze clothing and admire the goat with droppings and the mouse without. We picked up the yellow and red waymarkers showing the feeder route to the Weinsteig easily. We turned left at the end of the Bahnhofstraße to reach the Marktplatz, the square in front of the Deidesheimer Hof, a restaurant visited by the great and the good when Helmut Kohl was Federal Chancellor. However the restaurant still serves basic Pfälzer food like live dumplings, Saumagen (stuffed pigs stomach) and sauerkraut at reasonable prices. You can also eat a four course gourmet meal for €66 with a different wine for each course. We put ourselves out of temptation and took the Heumarktstraße on the far side of the town hall following the red and yellow waymakers. We passed the swimming baths and climbed through the vineyards towards the Pfalzblick, a restaurant. Along the way the markers changed colour to the familiar red and white squares. We walked along the edge of the forest overlooking the vineyards before dropping down into Gimmeldingen and then climbing back in to the forest into the Gimmeldingener Valley with its three guest houses. By Forsthaus Benjental, the last one we started the four kilometre up hill hike (300m) to the summit of Weinbiet hill. The path is not good and care was needed. The Pfälzer Wald Verein (Palatinate Forest Club) restaurant was shut. It was Friday and Ruhetag. Once away from the summit the wide smooth path dropped steadily and somewhere along here I tripped over my feet. I fell heavily, cut my knee and bruised my left side. I will take walking poles in future. Judith played the nurse and applied sticking plasters. I hobbled along dribbling blood on my trousers to the stone deer, a carving by whom we don't know.

There is a wet red spot on my right leg.
We climbed down the technically difficult section by Wolfsburg (the exposure is quite fierce) and took another waymarked feeder into Neustadt. We visited an Apotheke - a chemist's shop to buy plasters, a bakers for a cup of coffee and the station to catch the S-Bahn back to Mannheim.
The route is well waymarked and we did not use our guide or our map.