Tag Archives: Heidelberg

Heidelberg to Lossburg

Germany, Hiking, Travel, ,

8/7 – Today we start our Schwarzwald hike!  We rode the train two hours south from Heidelberg to Freudenstadt, then took a local tram to the little town of Lossburg (The character on the sign that looks sort of like a capital B is the German letter indicating a double S).  As the train went south, we saw more hills, more chalet architecture, and more tall, dark pine trees.  The Black Forest, for sure!

Our guest house, Gastehaus Kilgus, was just 1.5 kilometers from the tram stop, in a pretty little town with sunflowers for sale, and lots of blooms all around.



It also has some wall art, which I try to capture wherever I see it.

 

Frau Kilgus had no English, but fetched her granddaughter to answer our questions about where to find a restaurant for supper, and where to pick up the trail to start our hike in the morning. She was a gracious hostess, but again, no wifi! Hope this is not a trend.

We walked down the lane to a nice outdoor restaurant where we had our pick of dishes, as long as they contained pork.  I had pork loin with cheese and tomato, and Jim had pork with cheese and mushrooms.  Cheese also seems to be a trend here.  Supper was delicious, and included complimentary cookies for dessert.  Can’t wait to start walking in the morning!

Hanau to Heidelberg 

Germany, Travel, ,

8/6 – Gerard and Kathleen will spend several more days in Hanau and Bonn with his children, but it is time for us to move on.  Jim always says that once you pay the airfare, you might as well stick around for a while, and see what else there is to do!  We plan to hike for a week in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) in southern Germany.  We took the train from Hanau back to Frankfurt, then south about one and a half hours to Heidelberg.  We hear they have an old castle there.

We got a room at the Classic Inn, just down the road from the train station. We cruised over to the Tourist Information to find out about the castle, and were directed to jump on bus 33 for the 30 minute ride.  When we arrived at the Heidelberger Schloss, we were dismayed to find Disneyland conditions, with tourists of many languages pushing and jostling to buy tickets and get into the mob (sorry, but Asians excepting the Japanse have no concept of getting in a line or queue) that waited for the next funicular up the mountain.  We were promised that a funicular would arrive every 10 minutes, and we waited through at least 5 cycles before it was our turn for the three minute ride up.


Once there, we enjoyed the ideal temperature and afternoon sun as we admired the ruined remains of a castle originally built in the 1200s. There was no signage, so I can’t tell you much. It was a castle, built and rebuilt over several centuries, then left to decay. We got to walk all around the ruin, but not inside. 

 

There was also an Old Town with stately buildings and lots of strolling tourists.  A lovely afternoon. 


Beautiful wild flowers right near our hotel.

Bus 33 brought us right back home, and we went to the grocery next door to see if we could scare up some dinner. Sure enough, pizza! We bought two each and brought them back to eat in our room while we watched the Olympics on tv (in German, of course) and drank a good German bier. No wifi at this hotel – I am writing this offline with hopes to post in the future!