Biking in the Odenwald and Neckar valley

Friday, July 13^th, 2012

It is eleven o’clock at night, and we have just come back to our comfortable “Ferienwohnung Ticks” (“Holiday Apartment Ticks”) after another day of biking and walking in the Odenwald. My hair is wet after a walk home through the forest from the rustic country inn “The Rose” in a nearby village where we had a delicious supper. The easy half hour walk through the mixed forest right behind my brother and sister-in-law’s house was one of the many wonderful experiences of this summer holiday. Much of so densely populated Germany is forest, and well-marked hiking trails and paths abound, often very close to villages and towns yet skirting them in a way that they are hardly noticeable. 

I have always loved the beech and oak forests I grew up with, and they were, for the longest time, among the things I missed most in Alberta. During my visits I am happy about every opportunity to spend time among the stately trees. 

We left my home county of Waldeck in northern Hesse on Wednesday and arrived here in Wald-Michelbach at Johann’s brother’s place in the early evening. Johann’s oldest brother and several of his cousins and their spouses awaited us; they had gathered for a week of biking in this beautiful area south of Frankfurt. 

The Odenwald is one of several German Mittelgebirge, forested hilly if not low mountainous areas whose highest elevations reach up to 1,500 m (the Feldberg in the Black Forest). The highest elevation in the Odenwald is the Katzenbuckel (Cat Hump) at a little over 600 m, obviously not one of the higher ones. 

The group of cousins has met once a year for a one-week bike tour for many years, and every year somebody else is responsible for organizing the tour. They have explored many different parts of Germany this way, and this year it will be the Odenwald and the surrounding lower lying area along the Neckar, one of the tributaries of the Rhine, wide and deep enough itself to be navigable by big freighters carrying coal, fertilizer, and other goods. The Odenwald, of course, is a bit challenging for the not-so well trained bikers like Johann and myself because of the many hills, but only about twenty kilometers away in the Neckar valley many less demanding destinations await.

                                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is how far I got before I succumbed to beckoning sleep. By now it is Sunday afternoon, and once again the small pink roses in front of the window are basked in sunshine, its arrival as sudden as the downpour only minutes earlier. While we have, for the most part, not been blessed with hot, sunny summer days we have been extremely fortunate nevertheless. Every morning the sky was covered by a thick layer of cloud, often threatening rain, the weather map promising no more than a 50% chance of a rain-free bike ride, yet we never really got soaked yet. 

Our first destination, on Thursday, was the little town of Hirschhorn, about 20 km away in the Neckar valley. We started out on a dirt road through the forest, hardly used by cars. Not wanting to exert ourselves too soon most of us pushed our bikes up the hill, enjoying the spicy forest scent and the many wildflowers along the way. 

I am amazed how many blooming flowers I find here; surprised, too, how many names I remember from the time I lived here. As a teenager already I was interested in the flora and learned the names of many native plants, and even now, after so many years, I recognize many of them. It seems to me that we have far less variety in the prairie parklands around our home, though maybe not in Alberta as a whole, and particularly not in the Rockies.  It could be that the flowers are less conspicuous, too, possibly because it is more arid than here. 

The Neckar valley close to Heidelberg

Through tiny, dreamy villages surrounded by forest, meadows and small fields we descended on narrow paved roads to the Neckar valley.  It was an easy stretch where little pedalling was necessary. In Hirschhorn, our destination, we stopped at the local locks for a little while and watched how a big freighter was lifted – amazingly fast – so that it could continue on its way upstream. After looking at a small church nearby, the Ersheimer Kapelle, interesting mainly because it is the oldest in the Neckar valley (built in 1345) we made our way to the medieval town centre where we locked our bikes and hiked up to the Hirschhorn Castle along a historic sheep path on uneven stone steps, well worn by many feet over the centuries. 

We had just ordered coffee, cake and ice cream – some of us beer, too – at the restaurant, and were enjoying the marvellous view from the castle’s terrace when a rain shower forced us inside. Here, tables covered with white table cloths, each table setting with several kinds of glasses and cutlery, seemed to await a fancier crowd than a group of tired and hot pedal pushers, but the waiter quickly made room for us all and didn’t give any indication that we might not be welcome guests. 

Some of us climbed a few more sets of stairs to the top of the tower to have an even better view of the surrounding area, which was well worth the effort.

Add caption

  

Since the way to Hirschhorn had been almost all downhill the way home, of course, meant a steady climb, and we were all happy when we reached Wald-Michelbach in the early evening.