After a great night’s sleep and a tasty breakfast, I was ready to tackle the first stage of the trail. I wouldn’t be going all the way to Palzem, the official end of the first stage as I hadn’t been able to find accommodation there. Instead, I would be veering off around 2 km before… Continue reading The Moselsteig – Day 1 – Perl to Schloss Thorn
Author: myfootsteps12
The Moselsteig
In September 2024, after my initial attempt to walk the trail in 2020 was foiled by Covid restrictions in France and Germany, I finally set off to hike the Moselsteig, a trail of over 350 km that follows the Mosel river along its whole length in Germany from the point where the borders of France,… Continue reading The Moselsteig
Newfoundland – Part One – St Johns
In summer 2022, an old dream came true with a trip to Newfoundland. I had first begun to take an interest in the Canadian province when I bought a CD by the Chieftains called “Fire in the Kitchen” and discovered the music of Great Big Sea, a Newfoundland band that did “rock” versions of traditional… Continue reading Newfoundland – Part One – St Johns
The Ostweg – days ten and eleven
Breakfast at the hotel in Epfenhofen began at 8 and the room was already packed when I arrived just after. It was nothing special as a breakfast but it set me up for the day. I had planned out a route on Komoot to take me back to the Ostweg and, after settling up and… Continue reading The Ostweg – days ten and eleven
The Ostweg – Days seven to nine (with day eight off)
Another long day – 29 km in the guidebook, 32 according to my Garmin – marred by an unfortunate incident. The breakfast at the Villa Junghans was worthy of the rest of the stay and I set off at around 8:45 AM, heading back down to the town through the beautiful park. As it was… Continue reading The Ostweg – Days seven to nine (with day eight off)
The Ostweg – Days Four to Six
What should have been an easy morning hike of just over 13 km into Freudenstadt, estimated at 13 km, turned into a 21-km slog for a number of reasons, notably a huge amount of logging work at the start of the day that obliged me to make a long detour. I set off from the… Continue reading The Ostweg – Days Four to Six
The Ostweg – Days One to Three
On May 19th, 2022, after completing my annual marathon of work for the Cannes Film Festival that had opened a few days earlier, I took a train from Paris to Pforzheim via Karlsruhe to hike the Ostweg, the third north-south Black Forest trail, after the Westweg in September 2019 and the Mittelweg in September 2020.… Continue reading The Ostweg – Days One to Three
A day in Trier and my final thoughts on the Eifelsteig
October 3rd is not the best day for visiting a German city. It’s a national holiday to celebrate German reunification and, apart from a handful of restaurants and cafés, everything in Trier was closed. Even so, there were a lot of visitors in the city, as I discovered on going for breakfast after a rough… Continue reading A day in Trier and my final thoughts on the Eifelsteig
Eifelsteig – Day 15 – Zemmer to Trier
For the first time on this trip, I found myself unable to write up this blog last night. The reason will become apparent as I go along. I knew this would be another long one. The guidebook said it would be around 30 kilometres, but as I have ended up systematically doing a longer distance… Continue reading Eifelsteig – Day 15 – Zemmer to Trier
Eifelsteig – Day 14 – Wittlich to Bruch, then on to Zemmer
After an excellent night’s sleep (not surprising given the previous day’s efforts), I set off from Wittlich at around 8:45 to return to Bruch to pick up the Eifelsteig again. The charming lady running the hotel was delighted that I had enjoyed her restaurant recommendation and told me that I’d be eating well again that… Continue reading Eifelsteig – Day 14 – Wittlich to Bruch, then on to Zemmer
Footsteps 