Tag Archives: Lossburg

Lossburg to Schenkenzell – the Jakobusweg

Germany, Hiking, Travel, , , ,

8/8 – After a sumptuous breakfast of fresh hard rolls, cold cuts, many cheeses, large slabs of butter, soft boiled eggs and a variety of marmalades and honey, we were ready to start our hike.  Frau Kilgus encouraged us to make extra sandwiches to take on the trail, and even gave us bags to store them in.  What a sweet lady!  I usually lose weight while hiking, but I’m pretty sure this hike will be the exception.  

Germans love to hike and bike, and there are many routes we could have chosen through the Schwarzwald. We elected to follow the Jakobusweg (Way of St. James), as we had previously hiked the Camino de Santiago Frances (Way of St. James) across northern Spain in 2011, and the Caminho de Santiago Portugues, north through Portugal and into Spain in 2014.  There are Camino pilgrimage routes throughout Europe, all ending at the Cathedral of Santiago de Campostela in Spain. 


This time, we are not competing a Camino to the Cathedral, but just walking along its path for one week.  It will be good to follow the yellow and blue Sign of the Shell again.

Our trek today was advertised at about 10 miles, but was closer to 12 once we factored in the extra mileage to our Gastehaus. The terrain was pretty and fairly flat, for which I was grateful.  The weather was gorgeous.  Here is my favorite hiking sight:  the back of Jim.

Cows in the meadow.


A field of yellow flowers with the Black Forest beyond.

St. Jakob with a broken hat


We reached our next destination, the little town of Schenkenzell by mid-afternoon, and were able to do some laundry and hang it on the balcony in the sun.  No wifi here either  – definitely a trend…


The Gastehaus Muller had no attentive Frau – a teenager let us in, then took off, so there was no one to answer our questions.  Luckily, Google Maps on my phone showed us a place to eat, even though we weren’t crazy about walking another half hour after walking all day.  It turned out to be a nice Italian restaurant, so pasta carbonara was our evening fare.  Carbo loading for tomorrow’s hike!

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!