Maastricht treat

27-10-12

The Eifel mountains extend into Belgium and so, in sunshine, I drove into that country.
As it happens, my Satnav took me past the Signal de Botrange (694m), the highest point in Belgium, located in the Hautes Fagnes. I have been there before, but I could not resist bagging it again.  
 

Via ferrata descent route from tower

In 1923, the Belgians built a six-metre-high tower on the summit to round off the altitude to 700m.

Not true

 Just down the road is another 'summit' listed on the Peakbagger website, the Baraque Michel (674m). Apparently, before the annexation of the Eastern Cantons by Belgium in 1919, it was the highest point of Belgium.
I think this cow was at the highest point.

Chapel at Baraque Michel

Another hill listed on Peakbagger is Sint Pietersberg, near Maastricht, Nederland. It forms a ridge between Nederland and Belgium.
You'd think that, because they have so few hills, the Dutch would leave this hill alone. Far from it, it has been mined and quarried since Paleolithic times. Even now, there is a huge limestone quarry in the middle.

Even so, there is still a pleasant walk through woodland on the outer edges. I managed to get in a ten kilometre walk as dusk descended. And to make sure I bagged it, I visited all the tops.

I had planned to stop the night in the carpark, but I was moved on by the police and therefore headed back into Belgium.

Quarrying on Sint-Pietersberg

Is this the summit?

Or is this it? More likely, the other one

Eifel eyeful

27-10-12

View from top of the tower

After following the Rhine for a while I headed off north west and up into the High Eifel mountains and stopped for the night on a patch of land off the road. In the morning I discovered that it had been snowing and it was so cold that the door was frozen shut. To warm up I drove a few kilometres to the car park at the foot of Hohe Acht (747m P536) before attempting to open the door and have some breakfast.







Hohe Acht is the highest point in the Eifel mountains and is an old volcano with a basalt summit. I made my way through the snow to that summit on which there is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm, a tower built in 1908 to celebrate the Kaiser's silver wedding. If you have been following this blog carefully enough you will realise that this Kaiser has been mentioned at least a couple of times before. Because of the breeze, it was quite cold at the top of his Eifel tower.

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm

Hohe Acht summit

Rainy Rhein

26-10-12

River Rhine from Loreley rock

From Gr. Feldberg I headed for the Rhein/Rhine and met it at its narrowest point at the Loreley rock (194m) on the eastern bank near St. Goarshausen. And would you believe it, is part of yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

To make it a proper walk (between showers) I walked down to the Rhine and found one of the Loreley statues then came back up to the summit to find the other one.

Loreley siren 1

Loreley siren 2

Misty mountain

26-10-12

I arrived at the top carpark of Großer Feldberg in the dark and in a thick pea-souper mist, parked up and stayed the night. In the morning there was slightly less mist but more rain.

Großer Feldberg is the highest mountain (879.5m P666, a Major) in the Taunus mountains and there is a great big transmitter mast. However, there is room for a cross and a bus-stop. Bet not many Majors have their own bus-stop on the top.

Royal chair - Königstuhl

25-10-12

Rubbish looking king

According to Wikipedia:

"The Königstuhl (German pronunciation: [ˈkøːnɪçˌʃtuːl]), translated "Kings seat", is a 567 metre high [P296] hill in the Odenwald Mountains and in the city of Heidelberg, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The Königstuhl summit allows visitors a spectacular view of the city of Heidelberg and the River Neckar as well as the Rhine Valley. On days with good conditions the view extends to the Pfaelzerwald (Palatinate Forest), which is roughly 40–50 km away." 

Obviously, I have chosen a day when conditions are not good.

I parked up and headed off down this path:

And came to this sign.

Obviously, the wrong way, then.

But I am sure the highest ground is past this sign.

I wandered around the woods and made an arbritrary choice for what could be the top.

My arbritrary choice

Actually, the highest ground was probably inside the fence and is probably not natural either. If you look closely you will see there are two fences - the outer fence could be climbed relatively easily, however the inner one has some vicious looking razor wire coiled round the top. It wasn't until after I took the picture that I realised the sign said 'no photography'. I had visions of a repeat experience as to what happened to me at Karlskrona naval docks.

Handy seat

Alien space ship

Mooching in München

24-10-12

Rathaus glockenspiel

Well, what I did was to head north and found that the sea of mist was actually low cloud once I left the Alps.
Bavaria/Bayern, north of the Alps, does not have an altitude problem (Munich is around 500 metres above sea level and hence, chilly) it just lacks kurtosis.
Munich was alright - I wandered around the centre a bit, saw the Glockenspiel in action in the Rathaus in Marienplatz, mooched around the Residenz  and visited the Neue Pinakothek art gallery.
I even found a good vegetarian restaurant, the Prinz Myshkin - no idea what the idiot connection was. But, I was missing those hills.

Looks like the copper thieves don't steal Henry Moore sculptures in Munich

One of those hills - Koch's Der Schmadribachfall

Not the right way home

22-10-12

Gr Traithen fromUrsprungtal

So, with my commitment to head north and eventually home, what did I do? I drove east to Ursprungtal near Bayrischzell. Most people tackle Grosser Traithen (1852m P1007 – a Major) from the eastern side from Gasthaus Rosengasse. However I did not want to drive all that way. 

 

Gr Traithen from Fellalm

So I set off from the Stockerhutte car park (820m) on track 658 which winds its way through the autumnal coloured forest to an alp at Fellalm. At that point it meets track 652 which climbs through the dwarf pines to the summit. With another great view of the Wilder Kaiser – and I could see that the rest of Bavaria to the north was covered by an extensive blanket of low cloud. And that later that day I knew I would be driving under that cloud – oh bother! My internal dialogue, as I watched the leaves fall off the trees and headed back down to the van, was along the lines of the old Clash song. What  should I do?

Bavarian coastline!

View of Fellalm

Rock dog with lipstick?

Wilder Kaiser, again

Willow leaved Gentian, again