Hiking in the Schwartzwald

Right after breakfast Tuesday we got hiking stuff together for a wander up to the top of Rosskopf. It was about a 5km walk up the hillside, which Steph did a great job reminding me was continually going uphill. At one relatively early point we came across four senior aged ladies hiking down the hillside. All of them were in schnazzy track suits and well perfumed as they wielded their trekking poles down the hillside, meaning they were probably even more heavily perfumed to start since they had to get up that far to be coming down at that point.

We continued up to the top, where there was both a fire/lookout tower, four wind turbines and of course a cell tower. The cell tower made sense as there was a couple with a tween son who was on his mobile phone as we were wandering our way to the top. It was bright and sunny and I took the extra few minutes to go up the tower which provided great views of the entire area. The top of the tower it was 767m, and stable as could be for a steel girder construction from the late 1800s. There were a number of hikers that made it up there after us and there were quite a few mountain bikers headed up and back. On the way down we headed south-east and made our way to the chapels of St. Wendolin and St. Odelein, the first had room for about 10 people inside. The second had a restaurant and beer garden next door so we did the proper Schwartzwald hiking thing and stopped for a beer before heading down the mountainside.

Once down we got a glimpse of the hostel, which is much more hidden since everything has leafed out and the field is uncut grasses. We decided that before heading back to town we should stop for a coffee at Ambrosia, which is in the neighborhood near to the hostel and was a nice stopping point in March.

We made it back to the hotel and the sky opened up and it started pouring about 15 minutes after we got back, so we really could not have timed it better. It continued to rain all evening and finally we decided it was time for dinner and ate at the wonderfully quaint Gasthaus Zumba Kranz. It is a bit more out of the way and only a couple of tables really available in the whole place, but it was well worth the walk up to find. 

All in all a very full day and two days in a row with enough sun and warmth to truly enjoy outdoor activities up in the Schwartzwald.