What comes to mind when you hear the words "Black Forest"? For me, it's a cake I don't like, and a popular 80's destination for Israeli families doing the "classical Europe" tour. But when looking for a trail for my yearly hiking trip with my mom, it ticked all the boxes: easy to get to, interesting but not too challenging, has the option to have our luggage transferred between locations. Oh, and somewhere that is open to us in this Covid world.
With uncertainty brought on by Covid, I arranged the trip only 3 weeks ahead. Great thing, money, as it allows you to pay someone to do all the planning and booking for you. All we had to do is walk.
Day 0 was about getting there: early flight from Tel Aviv to Zurich, the closes airport with a direct flight. It's our first time traveling since Covid hit, and there's an added layer of uncertainty with lots of forms and tests and anxiety over regulations changing daily. But we make it to the Zurich airport, and after a quick stop in the supermarket to buy provisions (and by that I mean fruits, vegetables and chocolate), and shake our heads in disbelief with the prices, we take a bus, a (very expensive) train and then another bus into Stühlingen in Germany. The way there is beautiful, with much of the trip along the Rhine river. While there is no official border crossing, it's easy to tell the difference as we enter Germany. While in Switzerland mask-wearing was lax at best, in Germany everyone, and I do mean everyone, was wearing N95s.
Stühlingen is a small hilly town, and our hotel is at the top. And of course we walk it, because we came here to walk, right? Landgasthof Hotel Rebstock main building is a striking pink, while our room is located in another building, just across the courtyard. It has a wide, creaky staircase and lots of old nicknacks from the area, anything from old chests to wooden ducks. It's nice and homey and no one speaks English. Time to dust off our German. Yet again i'm appalled by my very heavy Israeli accent.
We leave our luggage at the hotel and go stretch our legs. There's some beautiful old buildings and a small but very lovely botanical garden in bloom.
Stage 1: Stühlingen – Blumberg (19 km, 5,5 h).
Our first hiking day starts cloudy. We leave the small town centre behind us and quickly find the Wutach - the river that will be our companion for the next few days. 15 minutes into our hike and we encounter the first signs of the massive floods that devastated western Germany a few weeks ago. Our trail is closed, and we are diverted across the bridge, passed the customers house into Switzerland. While much of the deaths and the devastation was north-west from here, we can see signs of it everywhere - flooded fields, the wheat rotting, trails un-passable with huge trees. Everything is wet, and the morning heat doesn't seem to have any impact at all.
Trees blocking the path. Should have brought a machete.
A short hike along the river and we cross again into Germany, then up into the forested hills. It's clear that forest crews are hard at work, with some of the fallen trees having been sawn and dragged away, leaving behind the lovely smell of fresh pine. But at least twice we find ourselves facing an almost impassable obstacle, with giant trees blocking the path and the hill at an angle that leaves us no choice but to cross through the tree branches. Lucky we are both short and agile.
We criss-cross the river a few times, arriving at our last hill for the day. From here it's open view on all sides with rolling hills and fields. It's sunny and lovely with endless flowers and butterflies around. And just like that, the wind picks up and it starts raining. The trail is muddy, made even muddier by the many people who suddenly share the trail with us. At some places it's a matter of sticking our hiking poles in the mud and pushing ourselves up the trail. Blumberg is visible from the top of the hill, a small town sprawling beneath us. It's a short hike down, and our hotel is at the end of the main street.
Hotel Gasthof Hirschen is housed in a modern building, and ran by an efficient German lady. It's clearly accustomed to hikers, as it has a back entrance with racks for our very muddy shoes. Our luggage is waiting for us, having been left this morning in our previous hotel to be picked up by the invisible transfer service. We fill in the Covid forms, take a shower and go out to get coffee at the one place that seems open - Knöpfle Backerie. It's a typical German bakery selling bread and buns and cakes and serving coffee. It's here that we encounter the Covid tracking forms that you need to fill in in every restaurant - small slips of paper where you enter your name, contact info and the exact date and time you arrived and left. This is to be given to the staff when paying the bill. I'm sure they have a stack of these somewhere at the back, waiting to be shredded. This will become a week-long tradition of coffee and cake in every village we stay in. It seems that it doesn't matter how small a place is, they always have a one of those, staffed with middle-aged women with white aprons efficiently distributing cake. It's berry season, and we indulge in every variation on strawberry, blueberry or raspberry cake.
All in all, this has been a lovely first day.
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