Spending a Day in a Vineyard in the Black Forest

Just over 50 kilometers from the famous city in the Black Forest region of Germany, Baden Baden there is this beautiful hamlet called Durbach. The area around this municipality is all surrounded by grape fields. Above all the Staufenberg Castle looks down over this beautiful settlement from the top of the vineyards. Home to the famous German wines, this place is full of hiking trails that are mainly for what they call as Wine Hiking. Hiking past multiple vineyards and and tasting all the wines they make.

It was a weekend trip from Mannheim. Summer 2022 was blessed with the 9 Euro monthly tickets on regional trains around Germany. We utilized the same to extend my office visit to Hidelberg. The best part of Mannheim and Hidelberg is that the nature of the Black Forest is just an hour or 2 away.

A couple of trains Mannheim to Karlsruhe and Karlsruhe to Offenburg, we were almost there. The trains were late so definitely we missed the bus that would take us from Offenburg to Durbach. There was only one bus in every 2 hours. Since the distance was just 7 km, we took a cab and only in 20 Euros we were there in front of our hotel.

Believe it or not, this hotel room was the last available room for the day in Durbach. It was one of the hottest weekends of the 2022 summer. Going on a hike in such conditions was not our cup of tea. I was on vegetarian diet then so was not sure if black forest would be the right place to be. Surprisingly the restaurent just adjacent to our hotel had amazing veg food, local and delicious. Food and drinks through out the trip was highly delicious, heart feeling, sumptuos and refreshing.

We made a short walk around the city after lunch and checking in. The sun was too bright and hot for a hike to the top to the castle, so we decided to be content with the picturesque stroll on the nicely decorated streets and then have some unexpected sumptuos dinner in the restaurent owned by our hotel. Yeah the hotel Linde had an amazing restaurent and probably the only restaurent that remains open till as late as 10 pm. Some great wine and lovely food glued us to the seat with not much urge to go ahead for an evening hike and enjoying the sunset from a high vantage point.

After it went dark the weather had cooled down and it was really pleasant. We decided for a night hike, and it was out of the world. The freinds who travelled with us did not see the milky way on the night sky before that day, so they were pretty excite for the same. The experience of being in the middle of the grape farms, under the stars, a bottle of wine with friends and family was an fascinating experience. The milkyway was up there over the settlement for quite a long time before it started to vanish due to the moon rising with immense brightness. Just 5 days ago it was the brightest supermoon of 2022 so no wonders the vineyard was illuminated under the starry sky.

The next morning of course we could not wake up before the day started getting hot again. But today we had plans for a short hike taste some local wines from the vineyards around and and leave back for the practical life. Small steps around, short halts and we walked up to the Schloss Staufenberg. The way up in that weather was not that difficult with some stops under the shades of the taller grape trees. The panorama views of the vineyards were spellbound from and around the castle.

We had our lunch at the restaurent adjacent to the castle and again the food was amazing so were the drinks.

While returning we had planned to catch the penultimate bus to Offenburg from where we had the train services back to Hidelberg where we shall be placed for office work for the week