#11 Three hikes in one day - Kaiserstuhl wine region

October 28-29, 2021: Vogtsburg in Kaiserstuhl

J. I worked with Fritz for three years and attended many seminars with him. He always invited me to his home in Kaiserstuhl and talked a lot about his homeland. Now, after eight years, we finally made it to Kaiserstuhl. We were already amazed by the landscape and the autumn-colored vineyards on the slopes during the journey.

When we arrived in the village of Bischoffingen, Fritz showed us his ancient house, which he inherited from his grandmother and is still heated only with wood stoves, and his garden with two pigs and three chickens. Then he took us to his vineyard. Although he has leased most of his vineyards, he has planted some with fruit trees. A beautiful place where you can overlook the village and the surrounding area. In the evening, we cooked and ate with Fritz and his family, tasted local wine and homemade wine brandy, and played music together. We were allowed to stay overnight on Fritz's fruit meadow, which is located on the outskirts of the village.

The next morning, we woke up early, packed our breakfast, and hiked to the viewpoint Mondhalde. There we had breakfast with a view over the entire Kaiserstuhl. Unfortunately, there were too many clouds in the sky for a beautiful sunrise, but the low-lying fog in the valleys, especially over the Rhine, was also beautiful.

Afterwards, we went for a hike along the mountain ridge, with magnificent views of the vineyards, through forests and vineyards back to Bischoffingen. The view of the vineyards, which were partly grown on the slopes and partly on terraces specially created for this purpose, fascinated me all the time and I could have taken photos continuously. Occasionally, the vineyard terraces clinging to the mountain reminded me of the rice fields in Vietnam. (I know it doesn't speak well for us that we are more familiar with the sight of Vietnamese rice fields than with German wine-growing regions.) Both very beautiful, but you don't have to travel so far for the vineyards. 😉

In Bischoffingen, we met Fritz briefly again and visited the village church with ancient wall paintings. Then we drove to the neighboring village of Alt-Vogtsburg and hiked to the Badberg. Although the Badberg is very steep and quite high, from the top this mountain range looks like idyllic grass hills and reminded me a lot of the land of the hobbits. We strolled over the grass hills, had lunch, and admired the panoramic view. The grass on the hills was mowed, but there were regularly strips of tall grass left standing for insect protection. From a distance, these strips looked like giant velcro strips glued to the hills.

In the afternoon, we drove to Burkheim, another village nearby, and started the third hike of the day. The village of Burkheim has an old town center that has existed since the Thirty Years' War. Large canvases with old photos of the alleyways were hung up at several places, so you could see the resemblance well. From there, we hiked through the forest to a lake created by excavations and to the Rhine, where we caught a first glimpse of France across the river.

Our three hikes through Kaiserstuhl showed us three different but very beautiful areas. Kaiserstuhl is truly beautiful and we have decided to come back in the summer.

We stayed overnight in Breisach am Rhein after stocking up on toiletries at DM with a lot of French people before leaving the country. (I have never seen such a large and crowded DM and all the customers in the store were French, apparently toiletries are expensive in France. But let's see what the country brings:)

Day 13 - Total tour 1291 km

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