The Longest Day

As everybody knows, the longest day of the year (i.e. with the longest time of daylight and the shortest time between sunset and sunrise) is June 21st.

O.K. and I chose that day for a hike we've long been wanting to do: To Mummelsee and Hornisgrinde, two famous points of interest in the Black Forest.

The Mummelsee is a small lake, no deeper than 17 m. It used to be a very lonely spot, and people spun all sorts of stories around it, imagining it being inhabited by water fairies, and ghostly appearances were reported throughout the centuries. Now it is packed with tourists, but nonetheless a beautiful spot.

A walk around the lake is quickly done, and we were soon on our way to the highest point of our hike, the Hornisgrinde. At 1,164 m (3,820 ft), is the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest.

Apart from offering beautiful views across the Black Forest, the mostly flat top of the mountain is covered in moorland, where you are allowed to walk only on designated paths (some are boardwalks, which I love).Rare grasses and other plants grow there, making it an important area for nature conversation.

You can read more about Hornisgrinde here on Wikipedia.

On the way down, we came past the Dreifürstenstein (literally "rock of three princes"), a large natural sandstone slab which marks the border between the old duchies of Baden and Wuerttemberg (OK's and my home counties). It is also the highest point of Wuerttemberg at 1,151 m.

Since its designation as a border marker (and possibly before that) in 1722, people have been engraving upon it. The coats of arms of the bordering duchies are official, but the other markings - such as the heart that is barely visible in one of the photos - were made by tourists of long ago.

It had been a pleasant hike (more of a walk most of the time, actually), and we ended this longest day of 2019 with a barbeque on the balcony and watching the sun set.