Odenwald Break: Day 4 (Part II)

(Tuesday, Sept. 20, continued)

Arriving at the car park after our bit of exploring in the village of Waldkatzenbach, we were not desperate to go directly back to the hotel, and since we were already using the car, we took advantage of that. O.K. drove us into the small town of Neckargerach and up the hill on the opposite side of the river valley. From there, we had a good view of the Minneburg, the ruined castle we had walked to the day before.

Imagine to live in one of the houses on the slope and enjoy that view every day!

It was time for coffee, which we took at the hotel as usual. One of the cats we'd seen around was in the hotel grounds, but did not seem comfortable with me getting closer, and so I just left him or her in peace. 

It was still relatively early, and the weather looked good enough to fit in another walk - the roughly 5 km or so we had covered during our Katzenbuckel walk were hardly enough to make the day feel "full" in terms of walking.

The hotel had provided us with a few suggestions of tours starting directly from there, and this time we chose a short one on the other side of Neunkirchen where we had not yet walked.

Part of the circuit was in the woods, but the path also crossed fields and orchards which were beautiful on that early autumn afternoon, even though I did not take any pictures.

We came across this small pavilion, looking like something out of a fairytale. A stone well nearby was trickling down the hill; I am sure if one drinks of the water, something magical happens, but we didn't try it :-)

By now we had about 11 km under our belts and were ready to head back. The rest of the afternoon we spent in the spa, as usual ending the day with a delicious meal.

Odenwald Break: Day 4 (Part I)

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Because we took two shorter instead of one long walk on Tuesday, Sept. 20, I am splitting this day into two posts.

View from our balcony across Neunkirchen that morning.

For our first walk of the day, we used the car for the first (and only) time since arriving here. O.K. drove us the short distance to the village of Waldkatzenbach, less than 20 km but too far to walk there AND back AND do the walk we actually wanted to do all in one day.

Our goal was the Katzenbuckel ("cat's arched back"), the Odenwald's highest point; click here for the wikipedia entry if you are interested in some facts. It isn't very high and appears even less so as one approaches from the car park just outside the village, as we did.

The path from the car park leads across fields and orchards before reaching the woodland of the hill. It is not far to the steps leading to the top of the hill and the viewing tower:

 

Although not very high, the views from up there were great and gave us a good idea of the entire area:

No rain at all was forecast for the day, but you can see from the pictures that there were quite a few clouds gathering, and we were indeed caught in a brief shower on our way down. But of course it wasn't a problem - we simply waited for a little while, sheltering under the trees, before we continued our circuit of the Katzenbuckel.

View from the spot where we sheltered from the shower

We came across this hut, called Freya-Hütte. It is the same age as I - built in 1968. The hut is usually locked but can be rented from the community of Waldbronn. There is generous space for seating and BBQs, and even a tiny outbuilding at the back with toilets, and the stone well on the other side of the hut must be a welcome spot on a hot day.

Coming out of the woods, we took a left turn to find the small lake we'd heard about, the Katzenbuckelsee.

And there it was - totally quiet, with no people and no cars about. The lake is at the site of an abandoned quarry, and similar to the Reihersee we explored on our first walk in this area, it is protected: no swimming or fishing allowed, and the rocky path around it is forbidden for visitors. Only the part leading from the lane to the lake is accessible.

 

It was quite enchanting in its stillness, and had we needed or wanted to rest and eat, I would have wanted it to be there.

We decided that we wanted to look around the village a little more before going back to the car park and driving back to the hotel, and so we extend our walk a little, which otherwise would have been just about 5 km.

Part II of this post will cover the afternoon of that day, and the second walk.

Odenwald Break: Day 3

We were ready - weather-wise and equipped with a map - for our first proper hike here on Monday, the 19th of September. The grey clouds did not worry us, and several times the sun even managed to get through (sort of).

Leaving the hotel and changing into our hiking boots in the car park (we kept the crate with our boots in the trunk of O.K.'s car most of the time), we soon made it deeper into the woods.

Our circuit took us across a field, and the wide open space was a nice contrast before we were back under the canopy of the trees.

The Minneburg, a ruined castle overlooking the river Neckar, was our goal, and we reached the site without meeting more than a handful of other people.

 

As the walls are not as stable as they look, the inner area of the ruins is closed to the public. But the outer courtyard is open and provides great views of both the ruins and the Neckar valley, with the small town of Neckargerach at the bottom.

The way back took us through a settlement of a few houses around a farm, with this small chapel ("Hubertuskapelle") at its entrance. It was locked, quite unusual for such places. The rowan tree and the well were on the other side of the road just a bit further on.

The lane leading back into Neunkirchen

About 13.5 km and less than 3 hours later, we were back at the hotel in time for coffee before going to the spa, which we had entirely to ourselves that afternoon. Most other hotel guests had either left after the weekend or were sitting in a seminar - good for us! 

We took our habitual two turns in the sauna, resting for a while afterwards before going back upstairs to our room and dress for dinner. If you detect a pattern there, you are right; it is exactly what we want and look forward to during our May and September holidays. 

A few facts about the castle (Minneburg):

Although its origins are much older, the castle was first mentioned in official documents in the year 1339. Like most castles in this part of the world, it changed hands several times and suffered damage in various conflicts, worst of all during the Thirty Years' War. 

The partly destroyed castle was given up on March 22 in 1622 (I noted that date because my birthday is March 22) and then used as a source for building material by the locals. 

About 200 years later, in the early 19th century, a hermit lived in the ruins, making a small income by crafting wooden clockworks. At the end of the 19th century, attempts were made at securing what was left of the castle, but this happened on a professional scale only from 1970 onwards.

Legend has it that the name Minneburg comes from a noble lady, Minna von Horneck. She was forced to marry a man she did not want and fled into the woods, hiding in a cave near the site where the castle was later erected. She loved a knight who was away on a crusade, and desperately waited for him. But by the time he returned she was very ill, and on her deathbed, her beloved promised to erect a castle in her memory.

The wikipedia entry about the castle (only in German) shows many good pictures I was not able to take, since we could not go in but had to admire the ruins from outside.

Read in 2022 - 27: Rapunzelturm

Rapunzelturm by Mark Stichler is a crime mystery set in my hometown, Ludwigsburg - and that was the only reason for me reading this book, and sticking with it until the end.

A murdered woman is found hanging from Rapunzel's braid in the fairytale garden within the palace grounds. When the two young detectives begin to question witnesses, some of them quickly turn into suspects. But the most obvious is not always the truth, is it, and the couple need to cope with two more deaths - one of them similarly staged in the fairytale garden again - before they solve the crimes.

There is also a lot going on in their private lives, and at the same time Ludwigsburg's famous palace grounds and fairytale garden is under threat by plans of a big makeover, not appreciated by the majority of citizen but welcome by the municipal council because it means money coming in.

And what do the two ex GIs living in Ludwigsburg's former US military housing area of Pattonville have to do with it all?

The story had potential but didn't live up to it for me, I'm afraid. Much of that was due to the rather wooden dialogues between the protagonists, and the entire style of writing seemed more like something a hobby writer would produce than coming from an author who has been working as a journalist for many years.

Mark Stichler was born the same year as I, and with him writing a book set in my town, maybe I expected too much but was disappointed. 

Back in 2018, I had read another book set in the fairytale garden, and enjoyed that one very much. You can find my review here. You can see a picture of the real Rapunzelturm in this post.

Odenwald Break: Day 2

Sunday, Sept. 18, is quickly told: It rained for much of the afternoon and all evening, and so we spent the day quietly.

Unlike other mornings, Sundays at this hotel mean brunch instead of breakfast. Guests have time to help themselves with hot and cold food and drinks from the generous buffet until noon, and there is a cook at one table who fries eggs on order. We took advantage of this and enjoyed a long, leisurely breakfast. The place was busy with not just hotel guests but also visitors coming in specifically for brunch, but it was never so busy as to feel uncomfortable.

The forecast rain had not yet begun to fall by the time we finished, and so we donned our rain coats and set off on a walk around the village. We made a complete circuit of just over 7 km, and as always on such walks, enjoyed looking at people's houses and gardens. Neunkirchen sits at the bottom and the slopes of a valley, so there is a lot of uphill and downhill to cover; I can imagine it being a bit of a challenge in winter when the roads are slippery. 

Our walk gave us a good feeling for the village and the lay of the land, and from there were some wide open skies and great views - much better than what my two pictures can convey:

Back at the hotel, we rested in our room, reading and playing games on our ipads. The spa opened at 3:00 pm, and in spite of the weather it was not quite as busy as expected, and so we could take two turns in the sauna before it was time to shower and dress for another delicious dinner.

All in all, it was a day of Gemütlichkeit - welcome and by no means disappointing.

Odenwald Break: Day 1

The first full day of our Odenwald break was Saturday, Sept. 17. The weather forecast was not brilliant, but after a leisurely and delicious breakfast, it looked good enough for us to attempt a first venture into the woods right behind the hotel.

We had appointments for pedicure and massages in the early afternoon and so did not plan on staying out very long, but we managed to see quite a lot on that first walk, including what became my favourite view of the whole area.

A signpost "Prinzenstein" (prince's stone) caught our attention almost as soon as we entered the woods, and of course we followed that path, arriving at this monument a few minutes later:

It was erected in memory of Prince Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden, who according to the stone once took breakfast here during a hunt. It amused me to see a memorial for someone's breakfast, but I noted that the prince made it not even to his 23rd birthday. Reading up on him on wikipedia, I found that the official cause of death was given as pneumonia at the time, but there were other reports that he really died in or after duelling. In any case, he did not seem to have left a lasting legacy (apart from the "breakfast stone"), but I found the photo of him with his siblings and brother-in-law somehow touching.

Our next stop was a 400+ year old oak tree - grown high rather than broad, in fact so high that it was impossible to get the entire tree in one picture. It is a beautiful tree on a small, quiet clearing:

On we walked through the woods that looked much greener than expected, obviously refreshed from the recent rain falls we'd had:

We had no particular plan to go anywhere specific, but followed sign posts to "Reihersee" (heron lake):

This small lake was specifically created in 1971 to provide a local colony of herons with food and shelter. It has since evolved into a refuge for many kinds of birds (even kingfishers!), insects and plants struggling for habitat elsewhere, and it is protected - no fishing, swimming or dog bathing is allowed here.

The place was so quiet, it felt as if it was under a spell, especially when the sun broke through the clouds and gave it all a golden shine.

We walked further on and suddenly found ourselves at this wonderful view of the Neckar valley, with the river Neckar far below:

In the course of our stay here, we passed this spot (aptly called "Neckarblick", Neckar view) several times, and I really loved it no matter the weather.

It was time to return to the hotel for our appointments. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel's own spa before getting dressed for dinner, which was as delicious as the evening before.