Days 25 and 26 - Backnang and Surrounding areas, Germany - Europe 2022

Miles, Vanessa, and I walked to the city hall today to turn in a piece of paper. They had a free postcard there of the city hall, so I snagged one to send to my nieces. The town bakery was actually open, which is rare, so we got pretzels and a few baked goods for Miles and Kyle. The late morning was rainy, so I worked on the blog.

After lunch Vanessa and I headed to downtown Backnang. I was curious what a downtown looked like that wasn’t a preserved medieval area, a large city like Stuttgart, or a smaller town.
It was interestingly a mix of medieval/older-looking buildings with some newer buildings. It was larger than I was expecting. There were banks, lots of cafes and bakeries, a fair trade store, shops of all kinds, and even a low-waste refill store!

The low-waste store opened in May 2020. Unfortunately, it will be closing soon because it couldn’t weather both Covid and then the war in Ukraine. The wholesale prices for products were so high due to the war that the store owner decided it would be best to close.
At the fair-trade store, there was a surprising amount of food items for sale. The prices were very reasonable. It was right across from a cafe that had apparently won best cafe and coffee roaster in Germany in 2022, although we didn’t see coffee roasting happening in the cafe. On the way home, we stopped by the grocery store (Edeka).
Back at the house Kyle and I got out of helping with dinner and set out to find the mysterious section and connecting path of the Strümpfelbachtal. Turns out there is a wide, paved path off a nearby road that leads to this section! Several of the paths on Google, including the connecting paths I was hoping to find, were inaccurate. Perhaps they used to be paths? It was confusing and no wonder I hadn’t been able to find them earlier. One lead down a very steep side of the hill! This is the one we did end up taking, or rather slipping down semi-controlled.
The exploration ended up taking longer than expected, but so did dinner prep. So, we arrived just in time!
Friday morning I did laundry and started to get together my things and think about packing to leave. Then, Miles, Vanessa, and I set off around lunchtime to do some more local trails. I was excited to show them the trails along the Weislauf River that I had found a couple of weeks ago. The place where we parked had two waterfalls. One of which may have been the correctly labeled location of the one that I had tried to find on my previous visit. The walk along the river was less muddy than last time, slightly busier, and just as scenic. After a few miles, we turned around because we had another local waterfall we wanted to visit.
After driving to a parking area closer to the falls than our current location, we set out to find Forellensprung Waterfall. The walk there wasn’t long, but did require taking several different paths. The waterfall didn’t have much water passing over it, but it was pretty. As we hiked back to the car, it was obvious Miles was hiked out.
At the house, Vanessa and I ate leftovers of the delicious soup that was made yesterday. Edon and Kyle headed to the gym and I showered. When they got back, the three of us went out for a sunset walk around town. Then, I spent more time packing. I am not really looking forward to my long trip back that begins Saturday and won’t end until early Wednesday morning.

Day 24 - Bad Urach, Germany - Europe 2022

 Today Vanessa, Miles, and I packed up food and snacks and drove to the Urach Waterfall. They had been here before, but that was on a Sunday and the place had been packed. Today there were hardly any people around. The walk to the falls was on a fairly short and level path. It followed along the clear stream that came downstream of the waterfall. The water was very clear and quite cold.

The waterfall was beautiful and had strange mossy overhangs on it.

There was a short and steeper hike to the very top of the falls that we did next. Common in Germany, there was a food hut at the top with drinks, including coffee and beer, food, ice cream, and a couple of souvenir mugs and magnets.

After stopping to eat the food we brought, we walked a tiny further along the stream upriver of the waterfall to find its source. The water appeared to come out of a jumble of rocks not far from where the waterfall began.

On the drive in and again from the top of the falls, we saw something like a castle sitting atop an adjacent hilltop. A Google search informed us that this was the ruins of an 11th-century castle.

Down in the parking lot, Vanessa and I looked at a few maps and figured out the path to it began basically from where we were. Miles, Vanessa, and I started the hike up toward it. The path was gently sloping up for a while and then got very steep.

Toward the top the ruins of a castle suddenly appeared. We wandered around. It was amazing. There were signs with the history of the castle, so that was really neat. Parts were closed off because a company specializing in castle building was working on certain sections. My favorite part was the window seats that were still intact. Also, I loved the views and the diverse and colorful wildflowers growing everywhere.

There were a few different paths available back to the parking lot. We selected a different one than the one we ascended. It was a gravel road and steep enough that walking on the gravel was slippery and a bit treacherous. At a crossroads, we moved onto a walking and biking path that was easier for walking. Several mountain bikers were riding down an even smaller path near us.

Back at the house I made dinner and tried a sparkling pink/red German wine and also a Prosecco from Italy.

After a shower and working on the blog, I headed to bed.