A Wish Come True

As I said in my previous post, last Saturday (12 April) we went for a walk that I had wanted to do ever since I found its description in a booklet a few years ago. For various reasons - lack of time, inclement weather, us spending the weekend at my place - we'd not managed this particular walk at the right time, i.e. when the orchards along the way would be in bloom.

But last weekend, we found that we had no pressing obligations or appointments lined up for the Saturday, and the weather was going to be great. No time like the present, as the saying goes, and therefore we got up early-ish (for us, on a weekend at least) and were at the starting point for the suggested tour by 11:00 am.

To give you a bit of background: About half an hour's drive from O.K.'s village is the town of Oberkirch. Its surroundings are famous for there being many orchards, and nearly every farm or older family home in the area has its own distillery. Many sell their products (schnaps, liqueur and other things made from the fruit of their orchards) directly on premise, often from some kind of self-serving kiosk or other.

While O.K and I rarely have schnaps, we love walking among orchards, vineyards and woodland, and so this trail sounded perfect for us.

"Brennersteig" means "Distiller's Hike". The tour included several informative boards about the area and the work of the distilleries, and of course several of the farms could be visited along the way.

The dominant fruit cultivated in this particular area is cherry - maybe you have heard of Blackforest gâteau and other traditional Blackforest products, which often center around cherries. But of course there are many other trees in the orchards, too; all sorts of plums (some varieties I had never heard of), pears, apples, and much more.

We were not only lucky with the weather - sunny and warm at 23C/73F -, but also in catching the best and almost last of the brief period when most of the orchards are in bloom. A week later, and there would have been few blossoms left; a week earlier, and many would not have opened yet.

For lunch, we found a bench and long, narrow table positioned above a valley; it made for great views while we were eating what we'd brought in our rucksacks. A red kite kept gliding across the valley, beautiful to watch especially when the sun lit up the orange-red colour in its tail feathers.

The view we had from the bench where we stopped for lunch

One of the things I love when out for longer walks :-)

The trail included a viewing tower where we'd been before, the Geigerskopfturm. You can see pictures of the tower and its immediate surroundings in my post from May 2022; just click here if you are interested.

These two pictures were taken by O.K. from the tower. Click to enlarge, especially the panoramic one:

For most of the 14 km, we encountered very few people, and even fewer bikes. There was a rather noisy group of young men around the tower, which is why I took no pictures there. Fortunately, they left soon after we arrived, and peace was restored once more.

The first tender green in the woods is particularly beautiful.

One of several farms with their own distillery along the way

Exactly 4 hours after we'd set off we were back at the car. According to O.K.'s smart watch, we had walked for 3 hours and 20 minutes. I had enjoyed every step and every minute, and this walk really was a Wish Come True for me.