Two Weekend Walks

Saturday, the 11th of March, was another beautiful sunny day with cobalt blue skies. The village band where O.K. plays the trumpet were holding their annual general assembly that evening, and it is their custom to attend Saturday evening mass before the assembly. At that mass they provide the music, and the names of all band members (some of them long retired from active music making) who have died in the last year are read out and commemorated that way.

As O.K. had to be up and ready to play at church late afternoon, we did not venture far from the village, but just had a nice walk around it. Spring is definitely here, and even if there should be (and there have been since) some more frosty nights or the occasional snow fall, it can't and won't be stopped.

 

Meteorologists say it has been much warmer than average this year, but I can remember a February more than 20 years ago when it was so warm we went out in short sleeves and had ice cream by the lake. Anyway, it was a beautiful afternoon, and we enjoyed it.

 

It was still mild and sunny on Sunday (March 12), but there were clouds as well, and the sky did not have quite the same brilliance as the day before.

In 2020, O.K. had his 20th anniversary working at the same company. Normally, the company invites all those with "big" anniveraries to celebrate together, hosting a dinner for them and their partners. In 2020, this was not possible; restaurants were closed because of the pandemic, and other restrictions in place, as we all know.

Therefore, O.K. was given a voucher for a restaurant in Prinzbach, a small village near the town where he works. The voucher was valid for 3 years, and so it was time to use it or lose it.

We had booked a table at the restaurant for midday, and arrived well in time. The food was excellent and staff friendly, and we put the voucher to good use.

Prinzbach is nestled in a valley surrounded by the Black Forest, and popular with walkers and hikers. We had a leaflet with a round tour and, after wrapping up our sumptous Sunday lunch with an espresso, donned our hiking boots and set off.

At first, following the sign posts was no problem. Then we arrived at a point where road work had been done recently, and trees cut down. Unfortunately, the signs originally fixed to the trees had not (yet) been replaced properly, and the map on the leaflet was not detailed enough to give us more than a general idea of the intended route.

Please note: Somehow, the following pictures were added to the post in the wrong order. What you see first are the last pictures I took that day; I suggest you start from the bottom up. 

The castle on the hill in the distance is Hohengeroldseck, where we've been a few times in the past 7 years. Our last visit was in October 2021, and you can see the pictures here.

Trees are still bare - won't be long until the first tender green leaves appear.

Tiny wooden chappel at a crossing, next to a dairy farm and cheese maker

I liked this house particularly. We think it is only used on weekends, not permanently lived in.

It's amazing how autumnal the woods still look.

Prinzbach

Looking at Prinzbach from half way up to the woods

Prinzbach Church

To cut a long story short, we took at least one wrong turn but still ended up on the right path after a while. We were back at the car after about 11.5 km instead of the full 19 km the leaflet suggested, but that was enough for us, and we were home at about 5:30 pm. 

O.K. did not feel all that well by then, and on Monday morning we knew why... But that's for another post.