The Old Man and the Cave

When I was a kid, our parents would occasionally take us on "mystery trips." This was the height of weekend excitement. We rarely knew what the trip was, but we always tried to wrangle information that would help us guess. What should we wear? What should we bring? Have we been there before? Often, our destination was a museum or zoo. Sometimes, it was just a nice place to hike or play outside. One of my personal favorites was visiting Old Man's Cave, in Hocking Hills. I even have a vague memory of visiting in the fall, and convincing myself (I may have had help) that it was haunted, because I love Halloween.

Last weekend we went to Detroit for a friend's wedding. On the way, we stopped in Ohio to visit The Girl's brother, who wanted to go hiking with us. I was secretly thrilled that the destination they chose was a favorite of my childhood. I had forgotten how beautiful the area is.

According to a 12 year old we met, you can tell this is a female by the eye color. Yes, I was disappointed in myself for not already knowing.

Upper Falls

I love this bridge. The portions are not connected to each other.

Old Man's Cave.

Lower Falls

The CCC carved the stone steps throughout the park--and this long tunnel leading up to the top of the gorge.

Cedar Falls

We also took this excellent photograph of her brother and his two clones. Hurray for exploiting technology!

Idstein

As I've already mentioned, The Girl did all of the planning for our trip to Germany and Iceland. My only contribution was asking, "Can we see Ginko?"  He's the only person I knew in Germany, a fellow thru-hiker who I met very early in my trip last year, and who ended up hiking with me and two other thru-hikers for the last month or so of the Trail.  We managed to see him twice in Germany; the first was when he met us in Idstein.

There used to be leather production in Idstein; this statue represents the workers... and the vat of chemicals. 

This is the sort of old-world architecture Americans go to Germany to see... and which Germans, we learned, go to America to escape.

There are lots of unique carvings and ornamentation on the houses. The Girl and I started collecting pictures of architectural features like these that we want to incorporate into a house someday.

Buildings like this one made us wonder whether those old-world builders ever used levels.  The tower in the background is the Hexenturm.

Cobbles, and a nearby school.

After we met Ginko (trailname, not his real name) at the train station, we wandered through town for a little while, working our way to the Hexenturm, or Witch Tower.  At its base is a plaque with the names of witches condemned during the witch trials of 1676.  It's a long list for such a little town.  When they first told me the translation of Hexenturm, I had high hopes that the tower belonged to the witch, but the tower was part of Castle Idstein (see previous link), used primarily as a watch tower.  The name comes from the prison in the base where they put condemned witches, or those awaiting trial.  It was built like an oubliette (a type of medieval prison with only one access point, in a high ceiling, rendering escape impossible unless assisted by someone outside), and it is still visible through a window in the floor of the tower's ground-floor room.

Hexenturm

This view shows how thick the walls are at the base; I was just inside the door, looking into the ground-floor room.

Climbing the Hexenturm.

Inside of the roof.

There were nice views of the town from the top of the tower, but I readily admit to being more interested in the structure and its history than in what I could see from the windows.  At lower levels, the windows felt more like tunnels, because the glass was set at one end of long horizontal shafts in the thick walls.  The top of the tower was wooden, and the walls were much thinner--like someone had put a treehouse on a stone column.  A stone column with accused witches locked in the basement.  I don't know how that place isn't riddled with ghost stories.

Ginko and Treefrog

After we returned the key to the Hexenturm (you guide your own tour up the tower, after getting the biggest skeleton key I've ever seen from whoever's in charge. I don't know who that was, because all the signs were in German, and one of our hosts retrieved the key while the rest of us waited), we spent some more time walking through town, looking at neat buildings, decorated lamp posts, and streets clogged with people, but almost devoid of motor traffic. Then we got some lunch and applewine.

It seemed like every lamp post in Idstein was decorated like this. Fascinating, and pretty cool.

Potato pancakes with lox.

The next day, we moved on to our last set of hosts in Germany.  The Girl's second cousin and his wife, who came to visit us in Virginia last year.  Most of the day we were stuck in cars, but when we arrived, we got a tour of his family's rose farm, then went to dinner in a converted church.

Germans really know how to pack car snacks.

Inside one of the greenhouses.

I really liked the optic effect here. See that donut of light just to the right of the window?  It's coming from behind me...

...Through this window. The blue section in the middle blocked enough light that you only see a ring projected on the opposite wall.

We returned to the rose farm the next morning and toured the proprietor's beekeeping operation, but that was so much fun that I'm saving all of it for a separate post.  After that, we were off to Sparrenburg Castle... but you'll have to come back next week for that.

Wilkommen!

We spent two solid days in Iceland, and I've only posted about one, but we've already been in Germany for over a week. With a once-weekly post schedule, I'll get way  behind pretty fast if I give you all the details instead of the highlights.

Here's my solution: highlights now, details later, when my life is a little less interesting, and I have a real keyboard.

Welcome to Germany! We stayed with The Girl's cousin for the first two days. He showed us Erbach, Michelstadt, and he happens to be a hobby pilot, so we GOT TO GO UP IN HIS PLANE AND I TOTALLY FLEW IT!!

Erbach Castle was home to a local duke. When it was built, they incorporated this tower of the old fortress. 

I didn't crash or anything! He said I was a natural! ...he may have been being polite.

don't worry: he had the controls when I took pictures.

The old town hall of Michelstadt (back side)

Decorative tile on Elefanthaus.

Sunday night we moved to her aunt's place for a few days. They live in a little village in the countryside, surrounded by fields. The house is right at the edge of one of those fields, and I spent a lot of time during our visit watching a hawk who patrolled that field.

The fields are owned and worked by farmers, but they allow people to walk along the paths between them. The Girl and I spent a lazy afternoon wandering along those paths, passing through small wooded sections, and walking through another nearby village. From one of the numerous hunting platforms, I spotted a fox, but my zoom lens was insufficient to the task.

Germany needs more predators. This mouse has zero fight-or-flight response.

A quaint German country village, with towering crane and a Thunderdome.

That afternoon, we visited an old Roman watchtower.  It has been rebuilt near its original site along the ancient Roman limes (an earthen battlement stretching across Europe).

A cluster of chainsaw carvings stands guard outside the tower.

Many more German adventures await, but that's all I have time to report tonight!

Hot springs and cool falls

We'd been planning a trip that was half Honeymoon, Part Two, and half Visiting German Family Who Couldn't Attend the Wedding. Well. I say "we" planned it, but I really wasn't much help. I'll give credit where it's due. My contribution was arranging a meeting with a friend from the Appalachian Trail.

She opted to fly Iceland Air. Price was a big consideration, but it helped a great deal that they offer a free stopover in Iceland for up to five days. We landed early on a Tuesday morning, and left early on Thursday. Given how jet-lagged we were, we accomplished an awful lot, even if it was all on a short portion of the southern coast.

We started at Hveragerdi, home to Reykjadalur (Steam Valley). Reykjadalur is an area of geothermal activity; it is probablyou best known for an area where a very hot river meets a cold river. People travel from all over to soak in the warm pools.

Getting to the soaking area requires a 3.5 km walk, and a bit of climbing.

Bubbling mud pots are scattered along the valley.

One of the colorful hot springs. They're beautiful, but the steam pouring out of them reeks of sulfur.

Note the steam rising from the river. Granted, the air was a little cool that morning, but this river would steam on a warm day, too.

Right beside the river, boiling water bubbles out of the ground.

Too hot... too cold... just right! (not my feet)

The Girl was really excited about this spot. I was, too, but my interest was geological, whereas she tried to convince me to let her cook in the river for another six hours, leaving us just enough time to check in to our hostel. Outside the water, the air was getting colder, and the wind got stronger.

We returned to the parking lot in time for a simple lunch, and drove to Seljalandsfoss. If you want The Girl to leave a hot spring, offer her a waterfall.

The drop is about 200 feet. This cliff had been the shoreline of Iceland until a later lava flow (ages ago) pushed back the ocean.

If you are very lucky, the sun breaks through, and you get to see a rainbow in the mist!

A trail goes all the way behind the waterfall. It's not as wet as I'd expected, but it's still worth wearing a rain shell.

Another nearby waterfall comes down between the cliff and a massive boulder, so if you want to see it, you have two options: go through a passage in the rock (with the stream), or go over the boulder. We did both.

Looking up the falls.

View from the top of the boulder.

Between Seljalandsfoss and our hostel lies Skogafoss, another very large waterfall over the cliff that used to be the coast. Skogafoss is fed by glacier melt, and marks the start of a well-known trail leading between the two glaciers that feed it.

Skogafoss has eroded a notch in the cliff.

The river, though 30 feet wide at the top, is only a couple inches deep. Stairs lead visitors to the top for an overhead view of the falls.

Tiny alpine blooms cling to a rock overlooking Skogafoss.

We stayed at a hostel in Vik that night, in a room with a view of the ocean, and slept like exhausted Viking babies.