JLGriffis

Stage 6 of the Lahnwanderweg ended in Marburg, and Stage 7 starts right there. On May 15 it was just Ellie and me. This one is 15 miles (24.1 km) with about 1,646 feet of climbing, and AllTrails rates it hard. The Lahntal tourism site calls it the "queen stage" of the whole trail. If you missed the last one, it's Stage 6. Leaving Marburg Ellie heading down a quiet street in Marburg, with the spires of the Elisabethkirche behind her. The route climbs right out of the old tow

Stage 6 of the Lahnwanderweg takes us from Caldern into Marburg, and it was our first stage with a real legend attached. We started early on Sunday, February 27, 2022, which is exactly what the trail guide recommends: start early in Caldern so you can enjoy the afternoon in Marburg. The first stretch is quiet and gentle: a paved farm road across open fields, with the hills slowly getting closer. The Lahnwanderweg was built with a lot of work and pride by the people who live

On October 24, 2021 we hiked Stage 5 of the Lahnwanderweg, from Buchenau to Caldern. It is 13.5 km (about 8.4 miles) with roughly 435 meters (1,430 feet) of climbing. Here is the AllTrails link for Stage 5. It was cold and it was foggy. Nebel is the German word for fog, and we had plenty of it. Everybody complained at the start, even Ellie, who never complains. But once we got going, everyone loved it. The fog gave the whole hike a sense of mystery and adventure. Buchenau B

On October 17, 2021 we hiked Stage 3 of the Lahnwanderweg, from Bad Laasphe to Biedenkopf. The Lahnwanderweg follows the river from its source to the Rhine, and we had decided to walk all of it. This stage is 17.6 km (about 11 miles) with roughly 530 meters (1,740 feet) of climbing, and the official site rates it a "top recommended route." Here is the AllTrails link for Stage 3. The official Lahnwanderweg site also has the Stage 3 page. I will be honest: the early stages of

Stage 4 of the Lahnwanderweg runs from Biedenkopf to Buchenau, and we hiked it on September 25, 2021. Biedenkopf is a town with a long history. Its Schloss (castle) goes back to the late 12th century, and around 1231 it passed to Landgrave Konrad of Thuringia, who used it to secure the western border and had the town built at the foot of the castle hill. The town is also known for the Grenzgang, a festival of boundary walking held every seven years that began in 1839, with ro

In the last posts I mentioned how we discovered the Lahnwanderweg (Wanderweg means hiking trail), a trail of about 246 kilometers (roughly 153 miles) that follows the Lahn river from its source down to the Rhine. We decided to hike the whole thing, one Etappe (stage) at a time. When we first tried, heavy storms had put Stage 1 out of reach, so we started with Stage 2 and came back for the beginning on September 12, 2021. The Lahnquelle We started at the Lahnquelle (Lahn spri

I mentioned in the last post how we discovered the Lahnwanderweg and now we decided to begin tackling it. The first stage was not...

Wetzlar became known to us randomly. I was looking for places for Ellie and I to go together somewhere for the day, just the two of us....