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.

The Weinsteig Part I Neuleiningen to Bad Dürkheim

The Weinsteig is a new trail that runs parallel to the Weinstraße on the western edge of the Rhine Valley from Neuleiningen near Grünstadt  to Wissembourg just over the border in France . It is a little more strenuous than the older Weinstraße trail.  We intended to walk the Weinsteig on cold clear days this winter, not in one fell swoop but on individual days.  We had just two days this winter which were not half bad when we walked the Weinstraße trail from Bad Bergszabern to Wissembourg to prepare a tour for a Mannheim club. Unfortunately the weather this winter was mainly wet and cold. so we have had to wait  for spring to start the walks.
We took public transport to the start and had a sense of an older more romantic Europe on Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (main station) when we saw the Copenhagen - Basel CityNightLine train with a sleeping car from Moscow. When the carriage left Moscow I am not too sure. In my early days as a commuter from Weinheim to Frankfurt I used to regularly see the Zürich - Moscow sleeper that  stopped in Weinheim with its coke stove heated Russian carriages three times a week. I always wanted to climb on board and drink tea from the samovar.
We took  less romantic regional trains and then a bus from Grünstadt up to Neuleiningen and walked into the village clustered around the partly ruined castle. It seems to be home to an amazing number of architects' houses and offices. We had the usual problem: The lack of signs. Any sign whether Weinsteig, Weinstraße, Drei Burgen (Three Castles)… all lead the same way. There are plenty of good looking pubs in the village. We dropped off the edge of the village and went through Neuleiningen Tal (valley) which is in the valley and then climbed up to Battenberg. The Weinstraße Trail went off to the left before the climb up to Battenberg became serious and so we only had three sets of markers, the red and white Weinsteig sign, a Pfalzer Waldverein sign consisting of a white and a blue horizontal strip and the  Drei Burgen to follow. We wandered off to the right to look at the Blitzrohren - tubes of iron oxides originally laid down horizontally and then shifted vertically as the rift valley was formed. 

We followed a track through the forest slight up and down but climbing all the time. Hill walking is different to cycling. When cycling one looks for short steep climbs where one can push, but not for long followed by a long gentle descent, whereas walkers prefer the reverse.
We visited the Bismark Tower, wandered past the Celtic wall and descended very steeply past the Roman quarry with its ancient graffiti to arrive on the outer edges of Bad Dürkheim. We found our way in to the centre of the town, more by good luck that judgement and found a café to eat the celebratory cake. There were few signs.
The next problem we faced was how we got out of the town, but enquired of a native and managed to find the tram station by the DB railway station to head for home.

Self-guided Walking Holidays in Germany

We visited the Mannheim Travel Fair early in the new year and picked a brochure from Kleins Wanderreisen. The company offers self-guided tours with luggage transfer all over Germany. Their website is partly in English. We have booked a walk through the southern Black Forest gorges later in the year. I am impressed by their attention to detail. There is a Stadtfest, i.e. a jolly event but obviously fairly noisy in one of the villages we are due to visit. We were duly asked whether we were prepared to stay overnight there or did we wish to have two nights in one of the adjacent villages with taxi or bus transfer. We will report later about our experience.

A cold day in the Odenwald

Our cycle club in the form of the section where we were formerly members: Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrradclub Kreis Bergstraße organises excellent walks every winter. Today we met in Bensheim and went by car up to Neunkirchen, a hamlet in the Odenwald. We set up carpools to cut down the environmental impact. In Neunkirchen we walked through knee deep snow over the Germannshöhe via Freiheit (Freedom) to the hamlet of Winterkasten. We ate well in the Raupenstein Guesthouse and then set off along the local road to climb through sticky rather unpleasant snow over Raupenstein Hill. We followed the border between Heppenheim and Bensheim through a the forest on an unmarked way. Fortunately the snow was deep enough that we could follow the tracks of others. From Schleichenhöhe we followed the red square route to the foot of the Kaiserturm, before turning off left to skirt the Neunkirchener Höhe and reach Neunkirchen once more. We had the obligatory Kaffee und Kuchen in the Höhenhaus restaurant, before returning to Bensheim. A four hour 14 km walk with about 400 m climbing and several million calories. An excellent day.

Bad Bergzabern to Wissembourg

The "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like" fountain in Bad Bergzabern

On an earlier attempt the weather was much clearer.

Meanwhile we haven't got too far with our winter walking aim of doing the Weinsteig Trail along the W edge of the Rhine Valley 10 to 14 km sections at a time - the weather has mostly just been too nasty and unsettled. However yesterday buoyed falsely by the weather forecast - cloudy, cold but mostly dry - we headed out by local train to Bad Bergzabern, a wine growing centre and spa towards the southern end of the Weinstraße. 

The stylised bunch of green grapes waymarks the trail.

As one does we've promised to lead a group from our cycling club on 17th March, along this section. As the time does go faster apparently or more slowly somehow we were beginning to run out of days when we could take another dry run at this - looming up are dentist visits, museum trips, other walks, retirement parties, visiting friends recovering from hospital and all the other activities that take time, and that is even before one of us has laid a foot in the garden apart from taking the compost out. Clearly the weather gods over in Rheinland Pfalz had not received yesterday's SW Germany's weather forecast since it was snowing almost the whole day with a wind direct from the Urals, but calling on the spirits of Shackleton and Shipton we marched on, meeting just one youth and a rather roly poly sausage dog underway. We ate our sandwiches rather quickly, sheltering behind a log pile and then hastening through some blasted vines (surely these withered sprouts will never produce Riesling, as the notices proclaimed) and then into the shelter of the woods where great fallen trees rubbed against other branches with unearthly squeaks. A buzzard flew silently past and later a kestrel hovered yards away and then swooped on a tiny mouse, enough for a few minutes of tearing apart on the fence post across the fields.
We had climbed through vineyards and forest to Dörrenbach,  dropped through Oberrotterbach and climbed to a ridge before we had a our first view of the the Weintor. It was probably one of the coldest walks I've ever done, though neither of us was ever cold for more than a few minutes, well protected by high tech layers as we were. We reached Wissembourg, just over the French border, following the wine route to its close on the German side via the Weintor, a totally pointless and brutalist style gateway, built in the time of the late, unlamented NS.
Rather than walk down the footpath by the side of the main road from Schweigen into Wissembourg, we turned off right by the large restaurant by the roundabout south of the Weintor. There we discovered a whole set of small vintners and interesting looking family style hotels and eateries - mostly closed for the winter.   Five minutes later we crossed the French border on foot, reached the outer suburbs of Wissembourg after two kilometres, climbed over the remains of the earth ramparts into town past the protestant church. We wandered into town past a house where Charles de Foucauld, a French mystic and missionary amongst the Touregs in Algeria had spent his early years and also past a house formerly belonging to the Bartholdi family. One member of this family was Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi who designed the Statue of Liberty. Interestingly enough there are plaques on various houses with information about them in French, German and English. The French appear to receive the most information, the Germans somewhat less and the British very little. Maybe the city fathers of Wissembourg think  English speakers are less than interested in European history.
In Wissembourg too some of our favourite watering holes were closed but promising to reopen before March 17th, when we may indulge in cafe au lait and mille feuilles after we have guided the walking cyclists to this paradise for pastry freaks (These delights are not available in Viernheim, fortunately).  We had time to nip into a supermarket to buy some cheese and then we took the train home. A good day.

Ramblers' Holidays: Avignon and Roman Provence

Our intention with this blog is to write descriptions of day walks, but our latest holiday was an organised walking trip based in Avignon. Like many people without close family links anymore we often go on holiday at Christmas. We’ve been walking with Ramblers’ Holidays, over Christmas several times, on city visits and walking holidays. We have always enjoyed our trips. This trip was no exception. We chose Avignon as our destination, because we’d driven past on the autoroute several times, plus we have been studying French at night school and we could travel easily to Avignon by train. We were fortunate to find room on the trip even though we booked very late at the end of November. 

We took high speed trains from Mannheim to Avignon, changing in Karlsruhe and Strasbourg. We met the group at Avignon TGV station and then took a taxi to the hotel. The weather was awful on our arrival, bucketing with rain. After a short break to unpack we retired to the breakfast room to meet Rob our leader and the other members of the group. Rob from the Wirral gave us quick description of the five days to come. As a Northerner I was glad to hear him speaking clear English. The group were mainly retired people who’d worked in various fields and seemed to have lead interesting lives. 

The hotel only supplied breakfast, so we went out to eat that evening. According to the trip description dinner was to be taken in local restaurants. We only ate in two. They were reasonable, fortunately not Michelin starred restaurants, which meant we got enough to eat. Some meals were excellent, others less so. We noticed the vegetarians had a rough deal, confirming our opinion that the French catering industry does not understand the concept of “no meat, no fish”.  

Ramblers’ Holidays grade their holidays to reflect the effort involved (E easy, D for slightly longer days to C for hard work) with an additional sightseeing category (SS). This trip was graded SS/D. One walks while sightseeing. There is no sitting on a bus, admiring the urban scenery. 

Day 1 (21.12.2012) Avignon: We wandered through the old town. There was a Christmas market (Marché de Noël) on the main square of the city. Most of the group indulged in a cup of coffee. We don’t normally bother with such fripperies and wandered off to buy a book or two. After coffee the group reassembled, climbed to the heights above the river to view the bridge. This was our next port of call and afterwards we dispersed to eat lunch. Later we hit the papal palace and then wandered through the old town back to the hotel. We walked about 11 Km including a 2 Km trip through the papal palace. That evening we ate in our second appointed restaurant and whilst some of us enjoyed the meal many did not. 

Day 2 (22.12.2012) We took a train to Arles where our leader left his rucksack on the train and set off in hot pursuit to the next station down the line. The group agreed to meet him an hour and a half later at the arena. This was good chance for the group to indulge in a leisurely coffee. We wandered off to peer at the town. Our leader appeared with rucksack. We visited the arena and after lunch a roman cemetery, the catacombs under the town hall,  and the church of St Triophime with its cloister before returning to the station.

Day 3 (23.12.2012) We took a bus to St Remy and wandered round the pleasant old town, before pausing for coffee, yet again. We then followed a trail up to the psychiatric hospital where Van Gogh was interred following his attempt to chop off his ear. He was lucky enough to be allowed to wander out through the area to paint. Along the way there are a number of reproductions of his paintings showing the view as seen by Van Gogh over a hundred years ago. One can compare then and now. After a picnic lunch in the garden of the hospital we set off into the woods and passed the site of the roman city of Glanum, before walking up into the woods. We returned to St Remy to catch our bus back to Avignon. We were in luck and our bus was delayed by a parade of locals in Provençal clothing which we were glad not to have missed.

Day 4 (24.12.2012) We took a bus to the village of Vers Pont du Gard to wander along the line of the roman water supply to Nîmes. First we had to have a coffee break in La Fournil de Pont du Gard, so we wandered off as usual. We reached the Pont du Gard, ate lunch, visited the exhibition about the history of the water supply - excellent, watched a film about the site, of which the less said the better and enjoyed a good walk through woods to Remoulins to take the bus back to Avignon. The restaurant pulled out all the stops for a festive meal that evening, Christmas Eve being the high point of celebrations in France.

Day 5 (25.12.2012) On Christmas Day we visited Villeneuf-lès-Avignon and had long rather boring walk along the Rhone. The evening meal was fairly dreadful, basically thinly disguised leftovers from the night before. Fortunately some folks had eaten well at lunchtime in Villeneuf.

Day 6 (26.12.2012) On our last full day we visited Nîmes, to see yet another arena. I suspect the organisers of such trips would do well to learn a variation of Vargo's law laid down by the daughter of American friends of ours on a visit to Britain: “Not more than one castle or museum a day!” My variation would be “Not more than one arena a week.” We visited the ruins of the cistern where water from the Pont du Gard aqueduct reached the city, which were a bit disappointing. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and very warm in the sun, so we enjoyed poking about in the little squares and alleyways of Nîmes, a delightful, lively place. After lunch we saw a film about the history of the city of Nîmes in the Maison Carré, a former roman temple, before wandering back to the station. We all enjoyed our evening meal together in the other restaurant in the old printing works.

Day 7 (27.12.2012) We all went our separate ways.

Epilogue 

The company, as usual on Ramblers’ trips was entertaining and the weather was fine, if grey and dull at times. Two out of the three walks were excellent. We saw a lot of history. Rob had worked out a good programme, but we suspect the description of the holiday should be revised. This holiday tries to be all things to all men. Two members of the party came expecting a sightseeing trip with leisurely meals in a range of restaurants.  Another, a keen walker wanted to walk in the countryside more. We noticed today that Ramblers' Holidays offer two leaders on some holidays with two walks daily: one long and one short. In this case it might be an idea to offer both a cultural and a hearty walk daily. Although all the places suggested as lunch stops did have cafés or shops, this was not certain. The exceptio to this was the tower in the park above Nîmes. Each day some of us rushed around Avignon to buy provisions for lunch, not always easy when one of the days was a Sunday, closely followed by Christmas Day. Our French was useful since we asked the waitresses in the hotel where to go, but others found that bakeries or shops were closed. The hotel lacked a sitting room, and there was absolutely no place to socialise after walking or evening meals. Some party members enjoyed leisurely ambles around Avignon in the evening. Ramblers’ leaders report their experiences in a document that is continually updated. Our admiration of this report system is less than it was. One of the earlier leaders had written in his report that there was no public transport on Christmas Day which is true for Britain, but nowhere else in Europe. Trains and some buses were certainly running. Are these reports never checked by head office or a critical group of experienced leaders? The slog (13 miles by my pedometer) we ‘enjoyed’ on Christmas Day was suggested by an earlier leader.

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.