Brussels' little sprout

28-10-12

Back in Belgium, I set out to complete one of the lists that appear on Peakbagger, namely the Belgian Province high points. I considered carefully what kit I should take and what provisions I would need. And, then put an apple and camera in my pocket and set off.









The first goal was the highest point in Brussels. This turned out to be in a wood next to the ring road. I set off from Welriekendedreef, down the Willeriekendedreef path, turned left on Hendricksdreef and then a sharp left on Damesrustdreef to the summit - which could have been marked by any one of a number of trees. I continued down Damesrustdreef until it met Willeriekendedreef, which inexorably took me back to the start. And, yes, all the paths in this wood really do have their own names.

Brussels HP

UNESCO World Heritage site - Grand Place, Brussels

VF kit on ready

Having never been to Brussels before^, I decided to have a quick wander around the centre and have a look at the Grand Place - yet another UNESCO World Heritage site.
Brussels Grand Place was, deservedly, voted the most beautiful square in Europe in 2010. See:

^{http://www.stedentripper.com/blog/2792/mooiste-pleinen-europa/} 

Note, San Marcos Piazza is not even in the top ten.

Micturating minor

It's all a facade

You don't need to go to Nepal to get your souvenirs

Kemmelberg summit

Signal de Botrange is the highest point in Walloon, so all I needed to do was to bag the Flemish high point to complete the list and become the first person registered on Peakbagger to do so.
This meant driving out into the West Flanders fields and back into WW1 history again to a village called Kemmel.
 Nearby is the Kemmelberg (165m), also known as Mont Kemmel. Kemmelberg was captured by the Germans in April 1918 and recaptured in late September 1918. The trees have grown back since.



From there it was a matter of driving into the French Flanders and heading for Calais and the DFDS ferry to Dover.

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