Thomas

The starting point for our hike is the car park at the Laukenmühle. After about 50 meters we come to the "entrance" of the Wispertalsteig. Here you can either enter right or left along the path. We decide on the left path and run counterclockwise ...After about 500 meters we come to our first highlight, the distant view of the Laukenmühle and the ruins of the Lauksburg. A really nice view located on a small hill.
A few meters further we pass through the ruins of the former "Free State bottleneck", here was in 1919 actually the attempt to form their own free state within the German Reich ...
A somehow rustic and also bizarre landscape has been created here, since the nature of the ruin has been adapted and the old walls and stairs covered with moss.
We continue through the forest, which is adorned with beautiful autumnal foliage, the air is cool and pure and already after this short distance you start to enjoy the area.
A few meters further we reach the Mehrholzblick, a lookout point located on a slate rock. Here a bank and the really beautiful view into the Wispertal invites to a short break. We eat and drink a little something and enjoy the beautiful surroundings before we continue towards Mehrholzhöhe.
Here a paddock awaits us, also here we stay for a short time and enjoy the view of the paddock and the great 360 degree panorama.
We continue the way a bit further and can now choose between the direct route to Espenmschied or the further VBerlauf the Wispertalsteig, we decide of course for the trail and continue to our left.
It does not take long and our way leads us back into the forest, where we now walk towards the workers' well.
The iron-bearing water in clay bottles was sold as early as the 18th century in the "Werkerbrunnen" in Sauerbornbachtal.
We look at the plant, everywhere warn small signs in front of the CO2 Austriit in the fountain.
We do not make a rest, we now continue in the direction of dinosaur rocks and come to an old slate tunnel, which you can not enter, however, over. Again, we take a quick look around and you can only guess how many such tunnels there may still be in the area.
A few steps further along the stream, we pass a scree pile, here we rummage something and actually find small rock crystals.
Our path takes us on a gentle climb to our next destination, the Dinosaur Rock. At first we think we know the area, it looks very similar to the area with the view of multicolor, but of course we are here for the first time. It goes into the forest before you stand directly in front of the rock.
Vertically erected shale formations give the rock its name, because in fact they resemble a dinosaur.
Here we make another stop and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
Continue through the enchanted forest until we come to a hill and again have a magnificent view over a meadow landscape.
Along the meadows and past cows, we come to Espenschied, a small climatic health resort in the Wispertal.
If you want you can stop here in the Gasthof zur Linde and enjoy good home cooking.However, we continue through denm place and take the path to Hansenwiesengraben.
We walk a long way until we recognize the lava mill below us and notice at the same time that we have missed our way. We turn around and walk back towards Hansenwiesengraben. At the two phelates, which are each marked with the plaque of the WQispertalsteig, we recognize the small path that leads us to the ditch.
It has been raining a lot in the last few days and this is noticeable on the way, it is muddy and slippery.
Carefully we walk along the Hansenwiesengraben and here again have a beautiful view of the landscape.
Now it will not be long before we arrive at the parking lot where we make a short detour to the Laukenmühle to warm ourselves up with a hot coffee.

Starting point is the Gasthof Peters.Windmühle Breberen, Waldfeuchter Straße Turmwindmühle (Mountain Dutchman), built in 1842. The mill is still fully functional and is operated regularly.To the train station in Schierwaldenrath the Selfkant Kleinbahn.Through the historic Gangelt.
The first mentioned in 828 as a royal estate of Charlemagne Gangelt received in the 14/15. Century a stone fortification with walls and a total of 13 towers. In addition to shooting towers there were also four tower gates, two of which have been preserved as well as the now-inhabited keep of the former castle, large parts of the city walls and the originating from the 1st half of the 15th century parish church of St. Nicholas.Past the Easter Bunny tree to Tüddern to the Bauernmuseum.
A unique collection of old treasures hides behind the gates of the Selfkant Farm Museum in Tüddern. From the old tractor to grandmother's farmhouse kitchen there is a piece of local history to see. Make a picture of the agricultural work to '' grandfather's times '' as well as the '' good old craft '' the housework of the housewives then and the life on the country in earlier times.Then continue to the historic center to Millen.
The past in Millen looks alive every step of the way. The tranquil village with its historic center played a leading role in the region in the Middle Ages. Impressive witnesses of the past are the churches, the provost and the tithe barn. The Church of St. Nicholas is one of the most valuable art buildings in the region. The chancel and apse are even from the period around the turn of the millennium. In the year 2000 the milleners celebrate
the 1000th anniversary of their church. Through the relics of St. Quirinius Millen developed in 1126 to the place of pilgrimage.Opening hours:only after registration / year round
On Easter Monday and every first Sunday of the months of May, June, July, August and September, the historic parish churches in Millen and on the Dutch side in Susteren and Limbricht will be open on every first Sunday of the month from 2 to 5 pm.Continue to the westernmost point of Germany.
Germany "Land's End" is located far to the west on the county road 1 in the district Isenbruch the municipality Selfkant. There, a marker stone bears the inscription: "Westlich point of the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the district government of Cologne, the district Heinsberg, the municipality Selfkant".
More is really not possible in the West.
Actually, the really westernmost point is right in the middle of the river Rodebach. An approximately 200-meter-long jetty leads visitors even with a stroller or a wheelchair to where the actual westernmost point of the Federal Republic is marked. A bike path to the Dutch neighbors was also created. This includes another attraction on the other side of the border: "Het smalste Stukje Nederland", the narrowest point in the Netherlands.Continue via the Barbarakapelle to the farm An Dilia back to Gasthof Peters.

Here in Berggasthof Einödsbach we have lived three days, Einödsbach is the southernmost year-round inhabited village in Germany.
The name is here in a positive sense program.The inn was first mentioned in writing in the 16th century ...A nice place to leave everything behind ....einoedsbach.de

Starting point of this tour is the Berggasthof Einödsbach (1114 m).
Behind the mountain inn we cross the Bacherlochbach and follow the well-developed path through the Rappenalptal. The path is initially flat, but soon becomes steeper. After a climb of about 150 meters you finally reached the Petersalpe, which is located at an altitude of 1296 m. Already we realize how exhausting this day should be, it is raining steadily and the road is getting loamy and slippery.
We follow the signs towards Enzianhütte (1804 m).
At the Enzianhütte a rich menu awaits us. If you want to stay overnight, you can relax in the highest located spa area of the Oberstdorf mountains.
We drink something and fortify each with a small meal, this gives our hiking jackets and pants opportunity to dry a bit ...
After the rest we continue our hike to the Rappenseehütte.We are now above the tree line west of the Linkerskopf (1459 m) and the Rotgundspitze (2485 m) and soon pass under the material cable car of the Rappenseeehütte. So far, the slope below the picture walls is hardly noticeable. Then it gets steeper again. First, you steer towards the head of the river, which rises to a height of 1968 meters, before our route branches off to the east. A little later we come to a fork in the road. We keep left and after another steep climb finally reach our destination, the Rappenseehütte at 2091m altitude.
Now we have earned a break.
As early as 1885, the first hut was built here, which was gradually expanded. Today, the Rappenseehütte is one of the largest huts of the German Alpine Club.
The views of the Hohe Licht (2651 m) and the Bieberkopf (2599 m) are great and a detour to the small and large Rappensee worth it all.If you plan longer tours or hut hikes, it is advisable to spend the night at the Rappenseehütte, as the ascent to the Rappenseehütte is quite long.
The Heilbronner Weg also begins or ends near the Rappenseehütte. It is one of the most famous via ferrata in the entire Alpine region.However, back to our hike, we put our wet things in the drying room of the hut, there you can leave his shoes, jackets and pants to dry and use the house's own slippers for the stay in the lounge.
The guest room is nice and warm, we approve of two coffees and two pieces of cheesecake (absolutely delicious).
The people here are nice and we relax from the hardships of the climb.After half an hour, we decide to continue our tour and make our way. The usual photos of the hut, the small and the big Rappensee we do. We are lucky, because in fact it is now pulling something up and the fog disappears. We have beautiful views of the mountain panorama and the two lakes.
Unfortunately, this does not last long and it starts to rain again ...We now descend and want to take the donkey path to the black hut. After a short while, the trail becomes increasingly loamy and slippery, we must be careful not to slip down the muddy and slippery paths.
In a range of about 300 meters, this is also extremely difficult, because the way looks like a single mud slide ...
We try to keep right or left of the path, where we can also run small tufts of grass.But even this difficult section we master and we pass a small uncultivated Alm past, then it goes into the forest.
The path is no longer muddy, but still slippery as we now have to descend on wet rock.
After we come out of the forest and walk to the black hut, which unfortunately has not opened today, it stops raining and the sun can even be briefly seen through the clouds.We have done the hard part and now walk on the paved alpine road back to Berggasthof Einödsbach.A really nice tour, which has demanded a lot from us in this continuous rainy weather.
If you plan to run this tour, you should do it better in nice weather ....

After our overnight stay at Berggasthof Einödsbach we wake up early and start our "second Zipfeltour" to the southern light point of Germany, the landmark 147.
At 8 o'clock it starts, we take the path that leads directly into the forest behind the mountain inn.
It's so early in the morning and everything has something "magical" about it ...After a short stretch of forest and crossing the Bacherlochbach we come to the paved alpine road, which leads into the Rappenalptal.
No one is on the road so early in the morning, the sun has not yet reached the valley with its rays, it is fresh and we walk comfortably down the road into the valley.
We are already excited about the beautiful landscape.
After about an hour we pass the black hut and wonder if the well on the way back for a refreshment has opened (unfortunately not ...).
The black hut is an intermediate destination from which you can start several tours, including the Rappenseehütte and the Mindelheimer hut or the Krombacher Höhenweg.We leave the hut behind us and continue on the alpine road, now it is a bit uphill to the storage hut.
Here we take a quick look around, take pictures and enjoy the light rays of the sun, which now find their way to the valley.
From now on it goes uphill and we are no longer running on asphalt, but finally on a mountain path.
We quickly get used to the ascent and run in good spirits towards the Triftz Hut, the southernmost building in Germany.
Unfortunately, the Trift-Hüttte is not managed, but we still make a short rest here, eat and drink something and watch while watching the bustle of the marmots!Continue towards Haldenwanher Eck and the landmark. A signpost draws our attention to the Koblachhütte hut, which is only about 20 minutes up, we decide to make a detour there on the way back.We walk past the "Grasberg" of the Haldenwang corner and arrive at a small rock formation, nothing is signposted, but we suspect that it can not be far to the landmark anymore.
We climb up the small rocks and then we can already see him, the Grezstein, our destination.
The beautiful weather still does its part to allow us to really admire a beautiful piece of nature here.The landmark 147, which separates Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Bavaria, also marks the southernmost point in Germany! It lies at an altitude of 1931 meters.After taking a lot of pictures, we continue to Haldenwanger Eck. It's just beautiful here and after a few meters, we can look over to Austria both in the east and in the west and see some managed pastures and huts there.
For a visit, the way is too long and we wieter to our next destination, the "summit cross" of the corner.
Unfortunately, there is no path up there, so it's a bit "adventurous" over the alpine meadows to the summit.
Up here, on the occasion of Edmund Stoiber's visit on 15.08.2003, a bench and a stainless steel cross were erected.
Everything has more of a symbolic character than that it really should bring visitors here.Take a short breather, then back and at the same time to the Koblach hut.
The path leads us over smaller rocks and into a small valley, also here it is really wonderful. The signpost has indicated the walking time correctly and after 20 minutes we are standing in front of the hut.
As expected, this hut is not managed, it serves mountaineers and members of the Alpine Club as accommodation.
We look around and then decide to head home.
While we have to focus on the way in the first steeper descent, we can then enjoy the scenic view over the entire Rappenalptal and the imposing Trettach.We pass by the Trift-Hütte, the Speicherhütte and the black hut and stop in the Sennenalpe Breitengehren.
Two Horlunderblütenschorlen, two coffee and two homemade apple pie, we have earned.
The room of the Alpe is beautiful herrgereichtet, here you would have even in bad weather, the possibility to warm up ...We try the mountain cheese, from which we also buy something (with chili! Really delicious) and now we are on our way home to Berggasthof Einödsbach.
After 30 minutes we are at the end of our wonderful tour and we look forward to our dinner in the mountain restaurant !!

A short hike from Mittelberg in the Kleinwalsertal to the Sonna-Alp.
While we are climbing we have a beautiful view of Mittelberg with its chapel.Arriving at the Sonna-Alp, the smell of fresh Kaiserschmarrn is already blowing around our noses. We wanted to take a seat on the terrace, but unfortunately there was no free space. Luckily we found a table inside and enjoyed our Kaiserschmarrn with plum rösti and applesauce.Although we wanted to take the trail back to the village, but unfortunately it was just renovated and we had to walk back the same way.Loose little tour without much pretension.

We take the bus from Oberstdorf in the direction of Baad (Kleinwalsertal) and get off at the stop Söllereck.
We take the gondola up to the summit station Söllereck, take a quick look around and then start our hike in the direction of Fellhorn.
Past a moorland landscape, we take the initially paved hiking trail and try to hurry the many people who are traveling in this wonderful weather today ...After leaving the "Rentner Band" behind us, we enjoy the beautiful view and the peace.
After half an hour we take a short break at the Söllereckalm, drink there two more elderflower sprigs, until we then make the ascent to the tightrope walk.The path is steadily up in serpentines and stretches quite nicely ...
After we have taken the first ascent, we can already look over the Kleinwalsertal, a really beautiful landscape.It goes on in the direction of Fellhorn and we have to climb again, it is now about 11 clock and we are getting more and more people from the Fellhorn, who want to Söllereck.
Partly the ridge looks like hundreds of big ants are running there ....We make a drinking break at the Söllereck, the constant ascents hoses quite nicely in the sunshine.
After a little less than three hours we arrive at Fellhorngipfel. There is a lot of activity going on here and we are also waiting for the moment when we can take our photo with the summit cross.
After that is done, it goes on to the Fellhornbahn, with which it goes down in two stops again.Very nice hike in beautiful weather, blue sky and sunshine.
However, you should walk the route best during the week, as it was already extremely crowded this Sunday ....The bus back to Oberstdorf.

We drive from Oberstdorf with Bersteigerbus No. 8 to Spielmannsau. The trip costs just € 3.90 per person, the first bus leaves from 7:45 clock, you should be early, as the bus only about 20 people.Arriving at the Spielmannsau, a tarmac path leads us a little way to the material cable car, where it then turns right and becomes unpaved.
Since it has rained a lot and often in the last few days our way is very muddy and slippery, so caution was needed.
We walk about 45 minutes before the road then improves and we can continue on rocky ground. The deeper we go into the Trettachtal, the more beautiful the landscape becomes. After crossing the first bridge, we take a short break at the pilgrimage site "Maria am Knie", then we enter the Sperrbachtobel and with every step we take, a new picture of the rustic and wild landscape opens up. In Sperrbachtobel we are careful, because of the rock walls repeatedly melted water splashes on our way and thus are always slippery rock passages to cross.
After crossing the ravine we get a glimpse of the scratch and the muttler head behind us, the crotch head, which lies behind the muttler head, we can not see yet.
We are quite exhausted from the strenuous climb and are happy to see the Kemptner Hut for the first time. Now it does not take long anymore and we are standing in front of her.Quickly we realize that we are probably early, it's 11:30
 Clock and the hut is still closed ....
At 12 o'clock the time has finally come and we can strengthen with a Flädele soup and a cheese and bacon bread with a cyclist and an elderflower spritzer.Somewhat rested, we now decide to ascend the Mädelejoch. Here is another pilgrimage site and at the same time the state border between Germany and Austria.
There you have a wonderful view of the Kemptner Hütte, the Kratzer, the Muttlerkopf and also on the Krottenkopf.
We enjoy the tranquility, look around a bit, before it goes back to Kemptner hut and we begin the descent to Spielmannsau.
Back it goes on the same way, at the Alpe Oberau we make a rest and enjoy coffee and cheesecake, then it goes at 17:10 clock with the mountain bus back to Oberstdorf.Beautiful but also very exhausting tour that you should not run in the rain.

We take the public bus no. 44 from Oberstdorf to the Breitachklamm gorge, the entrance costs 4.50 €, with the Oberstdorf guest card there is a cent reduction.After the ticket booth, a well-maintained path leads to Breitachj and into the gorge.
The gorge is increasing in its wildness more and more and gives us more and more profound insights.
Shortly before the rock fall of 1995, in which after a water breakthrough, the entire gorge has been devastated, the Klammweg rises to the rear ticket booth. Afterwards, continue left on the Breitach on a good path until you reach the end of the Klammende and turn left a few meters to the metal bridge on which Breitach is crossed. On a longer metal bridge, it is now along the steep slope and back on solid ground.Shortly before a bridge over a side brook you will find a collection of stone men on the banks of the Breitach. The mass of stone figures is simply impressive!We now stay on the main path and branch off to the right at the signposted point, until after a short steep climb a clearly signposted branch is reached.We keep to the right and go in the direction of Müllers Alpe, the path leads us in a slight curve to the really nice Alpe.
We take a break here and hang up our wet clothes to dry.
There are totally delicious apple and cherry cake, plus a cup of coffee and the whole for € 7.80, you can not complain.We walk a short distance on the meadow path and then take the asphalt road and walk on a scenic slope to Dornachalpe.Here we return briefly to a cyclist, before it then goes on a wide gravel path a bit steep again towards Breitachklamm entrance.
After a short path through the forest, we pass the Breitachklammkapelle before our beautiful hike is over.