Querweg photo dump 8: Steisslingen to Ueberlingen

Tuesday May 24

Our original plan had been to ditch the Querweg at Wallhausen and take a ferry across to Ueberlingen, where we'd meet up with Stefan.

The most interesting section of this last stage of the Querweg is purportedly the Marienschlucht, but most of the gorge was still closed following a deadly landslide in 2015. On top of that, the weather forecast was sketchy; hiking in the rain would have been fine had our end destination been a hotel with a hot shower, but the thought of being wet on a 3-hour car ride home did not appeal to us. 

Consequently, we decided on Monday evening to scrap our original plan and instead to walk around the northwest finger of the lake all the way to Ueberlingen, in order to enjoy the change of scenery--and the opportunities for shelter--offered by the towns along the shore.

On Tuesday morning, we headed out of Steisslingen...

...over the hills...

...to Wahlwies...

...through flat agricultural fields with abundant fruit trees...

...and veggies...

...to Espasingen, where we tanked up on field-fresh strawberries.

Our map showed that we were quite close to the Bodensee, but despite the flat terrain along this part of the shore, it took a long time for the lake to finally come into view, given all the fruit trees. Finally, on the outer edge of Ludwigshafen, we had our first glimpse.

We paused to enjoy the view.

Looking across the lake above Bodman, we could see the Altbodman ruins.

We headed through Ludwigshafen...

...past the fabulous sculpture Yolanda by Miriam Lenk.

After a quick stop for lunch, we continued through Ludwigshafen...

Perchten are apparently a family affair...

...and then followed the lakeside trails up over Sipplingen...

...and eventually...

...into...

Lakeside sundial wasn't working, due to clouds

...Ueberlingen.

Mission accomplished!

Stefan picked us up in Ueberlingen and didn't mind that Elias and I both fell asleep in the car on the drive back to Steinebach.

Ta da! 16.5 miles on day 8, out of 124 miles total.

Querweg photo dump 7: Hegauhaus to Steisslingen

Monday May 23

The highlight of our penultimate day was the expansive fortress ruin Hohentwiel--like Hochburg on steroids.

Naturally, our day began by climbing up.

From Hohentwiel, we could see all of the ruins we had passed the day before: (a) Hohenhewen,  (b) Hohenstoffeln, (c) Mägdeberg, and (d) Hohenkrähen.

On the way back down, we encountered sheep. On this trip, we learned that sheep generally do whatever sheep want to do. Also, they sleep by hiding their heads behind one another's heads; if they can't see you, clearly you can't see them, and all is well.

Farther down the trail, we turned around to see what this sign said, and discovered the trail we had just come down was closed due to a rock fall. Oh well.

From Hohentwiel, we hiked down into Singen. The Neo-Romanesque church was built 1909-1911.

In the afternoon, a storm blew in. The wind picked up, and as we headed into the woods, branches and pine cones started dropping from the trees. The sky rapidly turned dark, and we decided our best bet would be to head up to Hohenfriedingen, non-ruined ruins, where we knew there was a restaurant. 

The wind blew harder as we headed up the remarkably steep trail. When we finally reached the castle, the doors were chained shut, the restaurant was closed, and there was not an awning or other potential shelter in sight. On the bright side, literally, was the bright side--not a cloud in the sky on the side of the hill opposite the stormy side we had just climbed up. After pausing a bit at a picnic table outside the castle walls, Elias picked a less steep route back down, and by the time we returned to the Querweg, the storm had passed.

Komoot had consistently overestimated the amount of time it would take us to hike most of the trail. Sometimes we figured Komoot knew we'd stop to play at playgrounds in the middle of the woods.

We arrived in tiny town Steisslingen relatively early, despite the storm delay. We found a late lunch at a cafe, and sat outside playing cards until our hotel opened. It was another somewhat dreary, sleepy spot,  several miles too early along the Querweg for hikers aiming for Konstanz--but we were aiming for Ueberlingen on the other side of the lake, and were happy to be done hiking for the day before the rain finally burst down from the clouds.

Lots of Fachwerk in Steisslingen

Ta da! ~12 miles, and perched to veer off the Querweg the next day.