So: my latest big adventure!
Friday (October 3) was a free day in Germany – German Reunification
Day. Kinda like the Fourth of July except basically nothing happens. :D
Everyone is off work…which means everything is closed. Everyone is free, but
there’s nothing to do.
I, however, am quite self sufficient. And adventurous. And
maybe just a smidge stupid. So I decided I was going to visit Kronberg, a small
town on the outskirts of Frankfurt with a medieval district. My ticket only
took me from Frankfurt to Eschborn – erm… Here. Have a map.
Ok, so Frankfurt is down in the bottom right, and Eschborn
is just right of the center. I was aiming for Kronberg, which is up in the top
left corner. Now that you know the terrain…
So I got off the train at Eschborn and hiked the rest of the
way to Kronberg. It’s about 7 miles from Eschborn to Kronberg, at a gentle
incline – that dark green on the left edge of the map is some low mountains.
Kronberg sits just in the foothills.
Anyway, it was a nice hike. I was pretty proud of myself for
walking that far – the weather was lovely, the landscape interesting and pretty…
And over the course of the day I saw about twelve of my namesake birds
(magpies) in the fields and trees. Made me quite happy. :D
I got to Kronberg at about noon or
so, and made my way through the suburbs to the Altstadt – a medieval village
with some very stereotypical German architecture.
But it was still early in the day
(ish) so I decided to keep going and see what was on the other side of town. I
had seen what looked like a castle or a church as I was coming into Kronberg,
and thought it surely couldn’t be too much further.
Well, technically the Kronberg “castle”
(more like a medieval manor with a wall, not the stone-walled fairy-tale Lord
of the Rings thing you’re picturing) wasn’t too far. But I walked right past it
thinking I’d come back after I’d seen what was “just over the next hill”. Which
turned into “the next hill”. Which turned into “this freaking big hill that I’m
going to get to the top of if it kills me.”
And then, when I had reached the top
of said freakishly big hill, I saw it: a ruined tower. (this picture is actually from when I was nearly there -- not when I first saw it off in the distance.)
Now
we’re talking Lord of the Rings stuff. I couldn’t leave it unexplored, now
could I? No – but I underestimated the three-mile hike up the mountain that
would get me there. I had to stop frequently – the road was pretty much a 30-45
degree angle the whole way, and my heart was pounding so hard I thought my
jugular might burst right out of my neck. I probably should have slowed down,
or turned around and gone back, but I’m stubborn like a mule sometimes, and I wanted to see the castle.
Well, after what seemed like an
eternity (though it was really just another hour and a half or thereabouts) of
agony, I made it. The road went from a city street to a suburban lane to a
mountain road to a dirt trail, but at long last I arrived:
Falkenstein.
Falkenstein literally means “Falcon
Stone”. I can’t find just a whole lot about it on the Internet other than a
basic Wikipedia article
(and I haven’t yet gotten around to translating the placards I took pictures
of) but I gather that it’s an early medieval fortress. (Such deducing. Much wow.)
Early 14th century, apparently. But it has been abandoned for
long enough (since the 1800s, I think) for the walls to all fall in, and the castle
itself is filled up with earth. The arrow slots that would have at one point
been at eye level are now half-buried in the ground. I ate my lunch inside what
once would have been the castle’s chapel – now open to the air and with very
little to say that it was once “inside” at all.
The hike up the mountain to the
castle was tough, but once I was there – the view made it all worth it. And
yeah – I ate my cheese sandwich in the ruins of a medieval fortress in the German
mountains. No biggie. :D
I also happened to be there on a
very fortuitous day – Friday and Saturday only, the tower was open to the public.
I was a little surprised at first that it wasn’t normally open to the public – after all, I had to pay two Euro to
get in, it’s not like it was just an open park – but once I started climbing up,
I understood why.
There was a little room about
halfway up that I stopped in. To a 21st century viewer, the ~eight-by-four-foot
space looked too small for anything other than a storage closet, but I suppose
at the time of its construction it could have been a guard chamber, an armory –
or even a bedroom!
I explored the ruins a bit more,
climbing around in fallen towers and taking a peek at the outside – trying to
imagine what it must have looked like in its prime. It’s hard, but there’s a
handy artist’s representation that helps a bit.
Around three, I reluctantly decided
I needed to leave. The sun is already setting pretty early here, and I knew
that even if I managed the same pace on the way back as I did the way there, I
wouldn’t make it back before eight. And by this point, I was extremely tired.
My legs – especially after the mountain and the tower stairs – felt like cheap
plastic straws, and I had a headache the size of...well, the size of a medieval
castle ruin. :D
Fortunately, the trip back was all
downhill – sometimes quite steeply
downhill, but it’s still a bit easier than up.
The trip home was every bit as arduous
as I’d anticipated. The title of this blog comes from a line in an Andrew
Peterson song that says “Now and then these feet just take to wandering / now
and then I prop them up at home / Sometimes I think about the consequences /
sometimes I don’t.” This was one of those “sometimes I don’t” times. Though I’m
glad I didn’t – if I had known how sore and tired I’d be by the time I got
home, I think I may have chickened out. :D
I was also really hungry. I’d taken a lunch, sure – but that was four hours
and a bunch of mountain miles ago. I passed a house that had a box of apples
from a tree ‘round back, and a sign bidding me to take what I wanted. I helped
myself to one – and let me tell you, that was the best apple I have ever eaten in my life. Perfectly crisp, sour and
sweet in perfect balance, and so juicy it dripped down my arm. Mmmm.
But two
miles later I was still hungry – I’ve gotten used to eating smaller meals here,
and I rarely eat much anymore. But I hadn’t anticipated all this fresh air and exercise
playing up my appetite! All I had was a little bit of water – and I was sooooo
thirsty. So it was with great joy that I topped a hill to see the Glowing
Golden Arches of Hope in the distance – McDonalds: the haven of the weary
traveler worldwide. :D
I don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled to taste a chicken sandwich.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled to taste a chicken sandwich.
From the McDonalds, it was only
another half hour or so to the train station, where I exhaustedly boarded the
train heading back into Frankfurt. I nearly fell asleep on the way, but it was
totally worth it. I doubt I’ll make it back to Falkenstein again – or at least
not in the near future! – but now that I know I can make it 14+ miles in a day, I’m going to be doing this sort of
thing more often. (Actually, since Friday, I’ve racked up about 23 miles of
walking. Pretty darn good for this erstwhile couch potato!) In fact, I hear the
castle that may have inspired Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
isn’t too far off…something like an eight hour hike…
More adventures to come soon, so
keep checking back!
~Maggie
Great post. Love the pictures. Proud of you! Glad you're having so much fun.
ReplyDeleteDa
Looks like you had a great time. So glad that you're enjoying yourself thoroughly! And don't be hard on yourself about not knowing things -- we live and learn. Probably on your next 14 mile trek you'll take more food because of your past experience. :)
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