St. Peter and St. Margen

Things have changed dramatically being in the black forest.  There is not a large city to go walking around seeing all the sites.  It is about driving through the rolling hills.  I decided to visit two small hill towns that have a hike that Rick Steves recommends.  The towns are St. Peter and St. Margen.  They are about 3.5 miles apart by road, but there is a wonderful hike between them that is about 6 miles each way.  It is a mix of forest and rolling hills with wildflowers in bloom.  As I didn't get to walk a lot with the long drive yesterday, I wanted to get out and do a long hike.

The book recommends staring in St. Margen as the trail is easier to find and it is 500 ft higher than St. Peter, making the one-way hike easier and the return harder.  My goal was to do the roundtrip, but it was nice to know there was bus service between the two in case I didn't feel up to the return.  Fortunately, I felt good and made the return trip.   The overall hike was about 12.5 miles.   That gave me 13.5 miles for the day and over 28,000 steps.  There is a fair amount of elevation gain (beyond the difference in height of the cities), but it was such long rolling hills, it didn't seem that bad.  I had the chance to walk around both towns and they were very nice.  A few shots below.  Sorry for all the panoramic pictures, but this hike had great views the whole way.

View down the valley

Former Augustinian cloister in St. Margan

Farm house in the wildflowers

St. Peter from the hillside

Interesting house along the way, notice

the faces in the bushes

Benedictine abbey in St. Peter

View of St. Margen from the hill