On Sunday, the 6th of November, O.K. and I decided to walk another one of the circuits suggested in a booklet his sister gave us some time ago. Of course, with the Black Forest being so close, one never runs out of walking and hiking paths, but it is nice to know where to go and make sure to end up at the starting point again.
This time, we chose a circuit that has two names - AugenBlick-Runde and 7-Täler-Weg, starting at the village of Oberharmersbach, about half an hour's drive from O.K.'s village.
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| The sign above the headboard of this bed reads "Welcome to Oberharmersbach". O.K. has allowed me to show this picture with him in it, so that you can see the size of the bed. |
In spite of it being good hiking weather and a Sunday, for most of the circuit we met very few people.
The
uphill bits were a little challenging (for me) at times, but
altogether, it was not too hard. We found a bench with beautiful views
where we rested a little and ate our sandwiches.
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| A bit of sun - that was the most we would see during our hike. |
The signs for the circuit were sometimes unclear (or simply not there!), and the small map printed in our booklet was not helpful at those unclear spots; we figured it out eventually, but ended up with nearly 17 km under our belts instead of the 14.5 described in the booklet. I don't mind walking a detour as long as I have orientation as to the general direction, and we always roughly knew that.
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| This one is for Neil. |
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| I liked the cat-shaped hole in this shed! |
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| Oberharmersbach |
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| Who lives here? |
The descent back into Oberharmersbach took in parts of a path designed for families with children, getting them interested and teaching them about the woodland in a fun way. As you can see, the daylight was beginning to fade by that time, and it was getting dusky there in the woods, but we could still see enough, and I liked the tree made to look like a little house.
I won't be back at O.K.'s until the first Advent weekend, and so I was glad that we had had the chance for this beautiful hike.
That ended up being quite a hike--good the weather was mild. While I'm not crazy about uphill climbs, walking downhill is sometimes even more taxing. But then my knees aren't what they used to be--figuratively--and in the case of my right one--literally. I had ACL reconstruction on it this past summer, so still have to be careful. Will find out today whether some of the metal screws they had to use will set off the airport scanner. :) Will be in Germany until Friday. And after working on my German language skills for the past four months, all I can say is, Ich studiere Deutsch, aber ich spreche nur ein bisschen. Wünsch mir Glück!
ReplyDeleteLove the (Neil) photo looking down the leafy path and the one overlooking the green, green hills of Oberharmersbach.
Gute Reise, Mary! Wo in Deutschland bist Du?
DeleteThe green hills of Oberharmersbach were very green for November. According to our main news on TV, we had the warmest October on record, and some rain every now and then.
Wow! What beautiful views you had on your hike! Going up those hills would have me huffing and puffing but the lovely view at the top would make it worth it!
ReplyDeleteYou bet I do a lot of huffing and puffing every time I go uphill! But as you say, the views are usually worth it, and I guess it is good for my health to exert myself a little.
DeleteWhat a beautiful (and fun) hike. The bed was a comical thing.
ReplyDeleteThe bedding could have done with a wash!
DeleteWell that looks a lot longer than it's first name would imply.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely much longer than an Augenblick. But in this case, AugenBlick refers to a project initiated by the organisation behind the Blackforest as a Nature Park. They offer trails and circuits designed so that walkers/hikers can stop and take in beautiful views. The Nature Park logo looks like an eye composed of a wooded hill, a lake and green meadows. More information is here, if you are interested:
Deletehttps://www.naturpark-augenblicke.de/
Thanks for the explanation, Meike. I assumed that it wasn't as simple as I was making out because of the capital B for Blick. Anyway I was glad to see that the website was also in English and was very informative.
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