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Journal: |
Somehow I seemed to stay up late last night again getting ready
to leave without fuss this morning, so only had about six hours
sleep for the third night in a row (yeah, I know,.......toughen up,
princess!). I caught my trains, starting at 7:00am, and
arrived in Pforzheim, having dozed intermittently, at 9:30am after a
trip through the industrial heart of Germany. When I was a
teenager, I avidly read the true-life exploits of various allied
airmen during WW2, and many of the names in this area recall the
names of bombing missions in those stories. Sad, but true.
Happily we live in better times.
It was very warm in
Pforzheim and I wandered through the busy regional town, with many
big stores and nice shopping precincts, down to the Enz River which
I ended up following for the first part of the walk. I found
the official start of the Westweg and set off through the beautiful
green deciduous forest in dappled sunlight, glad of the shade on a
very warm day. As you might expect, in Germany, everything is
very well-marked and sign-posted and the trail was well-maintained.
The Westweg marker is a red diamond and I learned early on to pay
attention as it followed many minor roads and trails with plenty of
intersections, trying to avoid suburbia which was always visible or
audible a short distance away. It passed behind many
allotments on the outskirts of town, small garden or recreation
plots used by people living in apartments, as a get-away.
There were a number of people gardening their plots and I got a few
"Morgen" 's from them as I passed. I think the Westweg is
quite a popular trail and most residents living nearby would
frequently see people setting out to hike it all the way to Basel.
Before long, I caught my first fellow traveller, with a pack and
boots, and we exchanged a brief greeting as I passed while he took
photographs of the river. Not long after, I caught a second
hiker and we leap-frogged each other for the rest of the day.
At Neuenburg, I found a pub and had a pretty ordinary lunch of bread
and ham for a pretty rich price.....lesson learned.....get lunch
from bakeries, even if early in the morning to be carried until
lunchtime. Shortly after, the trail passed through the grounds
of the old and new Neuenburg Castles. It was quite atmospheric
with vines and trees gradually covering the ruins, although the
walls were easily visible. The grounds were well-kept and it
was all very pleasant in the warm sunshine with a couple of young
families picnicking in the garden.
After passing through the
town of Neuenberg, the trail climbed fairly steadily for most of the
afternoon. Mostly on forest tracks, it was still quite hard
under foot and my feet got very tired, perhaps also because of the
heat. Nevertheless, the shady forest, which was now mainly
conifer, was easy on the eye and the walking was pleasant.
I
reached Dobel, my target for the day, around 5pm and got a room in a
guesthouse at a reasonable price, later to discover it also has
wi-fi. I walked around the small village for a while after
showering, but there wasn't much to see and it was still hot at 6pm.
I had a very reasonably-priced dinner at a nearby restaurant and
have ordered breakfast at 7am with the hope of an earlier finish
tomorrow. I don't have a guidebook, so am just assuming I will
find accommodation in a village each night. There seem to be
quite a few room options around, so I should be OK. I noticed
a few other people in town, of similar vintage to me, who also look
like hikers, so I guess I'll have company on the trail again
tomorrow.
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