Our hike began at the Oberstaufen train depot. For those who, like me, wonder about such things, Oberstaufen is ~25km from Niederstaufen, and both towns are east of the Bodensee; but they of course had me thinking of that prefix-less Staufen 200km to the west in Baden Wuerttemberg, where Faust blew himself up in his hotel room. Today I learned there's another Staufen in Bayern 110km east of Stuttgart, and Hohenstaufen castle ruins between Staufen and Stuttgart, and a Hochstaufen in the Chiemgau Alps. Wikipedia explains the connections: "The Hohenstaufen dynasty, also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254." Unclear origin is something the Staufer and I have in common.
The 10th meridian east runs straight through this barn:
The hills were alive with the sound of moosic:
We could tell we were heading out of Germany's bread basket and into its fruit basket...
...where the hills were alive with the sound of music.
We had hoped to stop for tea at Artemisia, an herb garden and tea house about a third of the way along our route, but we arrived too early and had to satisfy ourselves enjoying just the garden.
A path through the woods...
...and past cows...
...but alas, the village store was closed for lunch, so we ate apples and Nimm Zwei candies on a bench in the shade next to the church.
Our route then took us through the generously well-maintained trails of the Hausbachklamm, a pretty but diminutive gorge by any gorge standards.
We emerged hot and hungry in Weiler-Simmerberg...
...where we bought some Band-Aids and hoped to find lunch.
We found a little outdoor cafe that looked charming, but had such a carnivore-focused menu and puzzlingly slow-motion service that we were happy to learn they only took cash, and with the excuse of having to find an ATM before we could order, we made our way to an Edeka and had Brezen and buttermilk on the grungy steps near the parking lot.
Our destination for the day was Scheidegg. Here's a sign for both Scheidegg and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Scheidegg. We could understand how, with a 12% grade, bicyclists might be upset with Boeserscheidegg. Perhaps folks of unclear origin with similarly befuddling experiences in Weiler-Simmerberg founded it.
We were not expecting castle ruins on our hike, so when this sign beckoned, we took a detour.
Some ruins, of course, are more ruined than others. There is not much left of Altenburg.
Our path reunited us with our old friend, the Jakobsweg:
Scheidegg was another mile past this lovingly, thoroughly painted farmhouse:
We arrived late afternoon in Scheidegg. Somehow I forgot to take any photos of anyplace outside in town, but I did take some photos inside the church near our hotel:
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| Obligatory organ photo |
I was going to write that I cannot explain this pulpit, but if you Google "boar eagle lion church," the interwebs explain that this thing is called a Tetramorph. Oh my.
After dinner, we walked up to the fields above town and caught our first no-doubt-about-it clear glimpse of the Bodensee, our destination for the next day.
Ta da! A 15-mile day...
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