Querweg photo dump 6: Engen to Hegauhaus

Sunday May 22

The Querweg was to take us past four Burgruine: Hohenhewen, Hohenstoffeln, Mägdeberg, and Hohenkrähen.

Atop Hohenhewen, voracious mosquitoes found us.

This was as close as we got to the top, because the
clouds of mosquitoes were so overwhelming 

The mosquitoes sucked and sucked and sucked our blood. We didn't think to take a photo of the five that Elias managed to squash on my shoulder in one fell swoop, but we did capture a two-fer before continuing to flee down the hill.

We fled all the way down into Welschingen, where we took refuge in a Konditorei. Over nourishing Johannisbeerkuchen, we decided that despite all of our planning, sticking to the Querweg wasn't worth the blood loss. We slashed almost four wooded miles from our route to avoid the next mosquito-infested hill. We'd stick to open fields, and consider the the relatively short 9.25-mile day a well-earned Ruhe Tag.

Kuchen makes decision-making easier

We weren't sure why this was the only day of the entire trip when we encountered a bazillion hungry mosquitoes. Perhaps it was the humid weather and the total lack of a breeze. Perhaps mosquitoes consider the hikers in the Hegau tastier than those in the Schwarzwald. Buying bug spray was out of the question, because no bug-spray selling stores are open anywhere in all of Germany on Sundays. 

Thus we skipped Hohenstoffeln...

...and cut across a mostly tree-less hill instead...

 

Still up, up, up, just without the skeeters

...where the bugs hitching rides with us weren't the blood-sucking type.

Hohenstoffeln includes a complex of three castle ruins atop one hill; fans though we are of ruins, we had zero regrets about missing all three.

We eventually rejoined the Querweg as it approached the third set of ruins, Mägdeberg. By this time, the sun had come out, and the wind had picked up...

...and we decided we were so very close to the ruins that we should give it a go.

But as it turned out, the main entrance was closed due to poor trail conditions, and the only way up was a longer trail through (we assumed) mosquito infested woods, so we bailed on Mägdeberg too.

But the Hegau is rife with ruins, and our route took us past another complex, Hohenkrähen, that we learned about thanks to trail signs--it had completely escaped my route-planning radar. As it rose in the distance, Elias and I debated how easy or difficult it would be to raid a fortress built atop a volcanic tower.  

When we finally arrived near the base of the hill, we made the detour to climb up, and confirmed that raids must have been very very difficult.

Do goht's uffi / Da geht's hinauf / this way up

Look! The Bodensee! Still a ways away...

Trail signs at Hohenkrähen pointed us to our destination for the evening--Hegauhaus, a restaurant/hotel on the pleateau above Singen, a few miles before the next fortification, Hohentwiel. (When planning our trip, I figured Hohentwiel was grand enough that we should be well rested before ascending.) The trail signs also offered the first mention of Konstanz--the official end of the Querweg.

Hegauhaus offered some great views of the Bodensee.

The storm clouds parted briefly enough that we had a decent view of the Alps in the distance. This turned out to be the only decent view of the Alps on our entire 8-day hike.

Ruhe Tag, but ta-da anyway!