Hiking Holiday - Day 8

Day 8 and our last proper day was here; it was Wednesday, the 12th of September. We had decided on today's hike the evening before: The "Große Falkenstein" (Great Falcon's Stone) was our goal.

Another sunny and warm day (25C/77F) was in store:

At 8.34 in the morning on our balcony

 For the first time since our arrival more than a week ago, we took the car. Yes, we could have used several different buses and a train to get to the starting point of our hike, but it would have taken at least 1 1/2 hours, and at least the same amount of time back to the hotel. Therefore, we decided against public transport for once.

After parking the car, our first point of interest was this lake, the Höllschwelle ("Hell's Swelling", the swelling bit meaning that the lake was man-made, making the original small creek "swell" by building a wall through it). Such man-made lakes are to be found here and there in the Bavarian Woods; they are a remnant of the days when a lot of wood was harvested here for industrial use, mainly to fire the ovens of glass makers in the area. The trees were chopped down and the wood cut to manageable pieces, then to be floated on the creeks to the factories. It was hard and dangerous work, but the only way they knew how, and using the waterways for transport was certainly easier and faster than men and horses carrying everything along the difficult paths.

On the summit of the Falkenstein, 1,315 m (4,314 ft) . Note the glass sphere in the middle of the cross.

Small chapel near the summit

After a rest and a refreshing drink on a sunny bench, we continued our tour. The path now took us across a plain that suffered particularly from the big storm Kyrill in 2007. As everywhere else in the National Park, the trees were left as they fell, and now, 11 years after Kyrill, new plants have emerged. From the pictures, you can tell that even here, the summer has been unusually hot and dry.

Some 15 km  (9.3 miles) later, we were back at the car. It had been our longest tour so far, and at times the path was rather difficult - steep and very rocky, so that more than once, we scrambled up on all four. The shandy on top of the Falkenstein was very welcome!

Back at the hotel, we repeated our established pattern of time in the spa until going to dinner for one last time - we were leaving the next day.