* The UK has counties, Japan has prefectures, and Germany has Bundesländer

9th April 2026年4月9日

✍🏼 In reponse to the seemingly unstoppable diarrhoea of whatsapp hiking messages invading my phone of late, I decided on radical action. I would do the unthinkable. I would put on my walking boots and take a day out just for me. A solo hike .

I choose my favourite railway line – the VIAS, a private company that offers a service from Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof……

….directly into the hills and valleys of the Odenwald.

✍🏼 We slide out of Frankfurt to the sound of Easter bells from the Dom, and under the gaze of banks and insurance companies..

✍🏼 I feel good. At peace. I settle down in my seat and watch as the urban landscape of the Rhein-Main-Gebiet gradually gives way to fresher, rural colours……

✍🏼 A short stop at Darmstadt Nord, with its ugly graffitti and morose buildings. I am reminded that we still have a way to go…..but soon afterwards we are sailing through the green fields which border the Odenwald…..

✍🏼 I love train travel. You can talk or text to friends at ease whilst letting someone else do the driving. At some point I received an (evening) message from a friend in Tokyo …“…It looks like a very European landscape….somehow different from the scenery I always see from the train windows in Japan….”.

✍🏼 I alight at Hoechst in Odenwald, consulted my map, and walk through the town and over the Mümling river to reach a gorge famous for its fairy-tale path. The Obrunnschlucht. What a marvellous word that: Schlucht. (Gorge/Ravine).

✍🏼 The gorge has always been a favourite beauty spot for the locals, but it was only in the early part of the 20thc. that the idea came about to revive fairy tales by building little miniatures of castles, houses and churches in the woods. Here is the Maüseturm from the river Rhein – in a scale of 1:20

…here a bear..or is it a wild boar?

Even nature seems to add some magical charm……

✍🏼 A storm, and subsequent vandalism in the 1960s threatened to consign this innocent project to oblivion. But in 2011, in a heartening show of local solidarity and initiative, local construction companies……like this one…

…..banded together to help rebuild…not only the little models….

…but also the footpaths and bridges……

As I walked up the gorge I noticed groups of excited little children chattering and enjoying the scene. Makes you happy to be alive.

The Schwanenburg castle…

…a more contemporary addition…..

✍🏼 Time for a rest on one of the many picnic benches provided for precisely that purpose. Out came my hard-boiled egg (an idea from a fellow hiker) and a phial of salt (a very practical present from yet another hiker!)

I never thought I would be publishing a photograph of an egg, but believe me, in the circumstances, it was absolutely delicious.

You could get poetic about it. Well, let’s move on before I get too carried away.

Reaching the top of the gorge…..

I plunge into a tall, windswept woodland…..

… pines sway in the breeze..

…and at ground level inumerable wild anemones push up through last years’ leaves…..

✍🏼 Will I reach my next etappe before devouring my sandwiches? The way beckons invitingly…..

….and eventually, I reach the outskirts of the village of Breuberg. Here I catch my first sight of the eponymous castle…..

✍🏼 It looks so high, up there on the hill……Maybe the memory of these little Easter eggs will keep me going…..

After a breather at the bridge…..

I start the steep climb to the castle. Frohes Ostern, yes, …..

but I am thinking of my sandwiches…..

However, blessed with excellent walking boots, the climb is not that bad…….

But I must admit it is a relief to finally reach the main gateway…

✍🏼 Berg Breuberg. Continuously inhabited since the 12th century, it has served at various times as a bailiff’s castle, a residence for noble families, a district administration office, a camp for forced labourers during World War II, and the site of a toy factory. Each era has left its mark. 

A token cannon is all that is left of its firepower….

Whilst the interior has been converted into a youth hostel….for locking up unruly youth maybe?

✍🏼 It’s now only 5 km walk back to the railway station.. a pleasant route through the typically Hessen countryside…..

wth its half-timbered Fachwerkhäuser……

Only 1km to go…

✍🏼 As there is only one train an hour back to Frankfurt I can fit in a Spaghetti-Eis in the one remaining open café….and Komoot says that I have walked 16km.

Not bad, Nigel 💪🏼.

(私は16km歩きました)

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As always, thank you for your interest, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do forward it on.

Wie immer vielen Dank für euer Interesse. Wenn ihr jemanden kennt, der an diesem Blog interessiert sein könnte, schickt ihn gerne weiter.

読んでくれてありがとう

See you……. matane!

Nigel 🥾

nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

THE END

終わり🍨