Sunday is Mother’s Day, and we hope you have a volksmarch in mind for Mom. There are some good walks to choose from this weekend.
You can walk Saturday in a town with a beautiful castle. Vianden, Luxembourg, is on the German border with Luxembourg, southwest of Bitburg. With trails ranging from six to 50 kilometers — and most likely hilly — this walk is bound to make you work up an appetite. That’s good, because the flier says there will be fresh white asparagus soup at the start hall. You can start the walk at 6 a.m.
Roughly halfway between Kaiserslautern and Wiesbaden is the town of Kriegsfeld, Germany. An event there this weekend starts at the Turn- und Festhalle, and doors open at 7 a.m. both days. The trails are five, 10 and 20 kilometers long, and the prize is a B-medal priced at 3 euros.
Last fall, Tim and Luchi Lynch wrote us about the great walk they did in Monreal, Germany. After reading their description and seeing the beautiful pictures they sent, we have decided to meet them Saturday at this event. The walk starts at the sports field in Monreal between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. both days. The routes are five, 10 and 20 kilometers. This walk is for IVV credit only, but the real prize will be seeing this beautiful village.
Then Sunday, we’ll be at the 27th Annual Aspergeswandeltocht (asparagus walk) in St. Odiliënberg, Netherlands. The W. V. Roerdal ’87 is a club that always puts on a well-organized event, and St. Odiliënberg has become one of our favorite places to walk. The doors open at 7 a.m. and the routes range from six to 42 kilometers. The start is at Den Zwarten Berg, where they always have a small but nice lunch menu. We hope to get some white asparagus soup there.
If not, we’ll look for the roadside stands that sell white asparagus. Here’s hoping for some spectacular weather so we all can get out and enjoy walking on Mother’s Day.
The Heidelberg International Wandering Club has been on a few bus trips recently. Rob Floyd tells us that the bus trip to the walk in Amsterdam was great. Walking along the canals of the city with all the birds and the beautiful weather was very nice. He also says the food at the control point was excellent.
The next weekend the club went to Bergholtz, France, where the weather was less than optimal for walking. Rob summed up the walk with two words: “horizontal rain.” The rain and high winds made it miserable, but they did enough to get their books stamped and get back inside.
Many members of the Heidelberg club have been helping with the creation of the new Wiesbaden International Wandering Club. The first meeting of the Wiesbaden club will be May 20 at 7 p.m. at the restaurant Brauhaus Castel, located at Otto-Suhr-Ring 27, 55252 Wiesbaden. If you are interested in joining or finding out more information, please join them as they kick off this new organization.
A few weeks ago, we were involved in a road rally that took us to Oppenheim, Germany, where we came across a Schlemmer Wanderung. This was a seven-kilometer walk through the vineyards above the city with nine stops along the way for food and drinks. This was not an IVV event, but it looked like fun anyway. We were only able to walk for about an hour due to prior commitments, but we are thinking about returning Oct. 3 for their next event.
If that sounds like fun, then mark your calendars for the Kulinarische Bierwanderung, or culinary beer walk, on Saturday, July 13, in Ilbeshausen. At this IVV walk, you will be able to visit five stations and sample five beers. If you do not have a designated driver, you should plan to stay the night and either walk the regular volksmarch Sunday, or visit one of the several permanent trails in the area.
Email volksmarch information to two.walkers@yahoo.com. Mail brochures to Bob and Lorraine Huffaker, CMR 460, Box 278, APO AE 09752.
