Bopfingen

Since we've been in Germany, I've wanted to go on a Volksmarch - a peoples walk.  Since Brad is in the states with the girls, Veronica Soto and Stephanie Jung, both people I work with, joined me.  Fortunately Steph had been on a volksmarch before, so she knew what to do and how the walks were organized.  Here's a picture of us starting out.

Every weekend, different organizations arrange walks in their town.  The Volksmarch presents an opportunity for you to get out and walk in their area.  You go to the starting point, pay a small registration fee and then start walking.  You follow the markings on the ground (see the orange markings behind me in this picture) and head out.  Normally the walks are 6, 12 or 20 km long.  As you walk, there are a couple checkpoints where they stamp  your card.  When you get done you receive a token from the walk - these tokens can be medals, small steins, or other things.  For our walk we received these two German candle holders of the girl and the boy.  Since we walked 20 km (12.4 miles), I don't' know if that affected the gift, but that's what we got.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, in the upper 50's to lower 60's with the sun shining.  Spring was in the air with freshly plowed fields and the remaining snow melting off.  Since it was near 11 a.m., we bought a couple pretzels and then hit the trails.  We walked through woods and along country roads, seeing little towns in the distance as we traveled.  In several places we could see Bopfingen, the small town where we started, made distinctive with castle ruins above.  The walk took us a little less than 4 hours overall.

After we finished up, Steph got some schnitzel and potatoes while Veronica and I snacked on some celery, almonds and other things we'd brought with.  We were heading back to Stuttgart to get Indian food for supper, so we held off on eating a meal.  First though, I wanted to make another stop....

We stopped at Baldern Castle, also located by Bopfingen.  Baldern Castle is a "Baroque castle...built between 1718 and 1737 on the ruins of a castle from the Staufer era.  Initially founded as a residence for the earls of Oettingen-Baldern" (from Schnecks Castles & Gardens guide).  We arrived just before they closed and weren't able to walk around the inside - it required taking the tour, which we were too late for, but got to look at the inside, including the cathedral, these beautiful wrought iron gates and more.  

I like this picture - look at the water spout below the clock - it looks like a dragon.