Walking routes in the Palatine Forest fall into two categories. The first are longer walking routes, most of which are maintained by the Palatine Forest Club (German : Pfälzerwald-Verein), or PWV, and which are linked to the national and international network of long distance paths. [1] The second category are those local circular walks and themed walking routes, some of which are of wider regional importance, and which are maintained by municipal authorities. The Palatine Forest, as part of the Palatine Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve, is an important conservation area. As a result, the Palatine Forest, the bunter sandstone landscape of the Palatine Forest Nature Park, the castles in the Dahner Felsenland and the cross-border paths into Alsace and the Vosges make the region particularly popular with ramblers and walkers. [2]
The Palatine Forest Club is a hiking club in the former Bavarian Palatinate, i.e. the southern part of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland county of Saarpfalz-Kreis. In 2011 it had 221 local branches with around 27,000 members.
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.
The Dahner Felsenland, also referred to as the Dahn Rockland, is a landscape in the county of Südwestpfalz in the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is located in the middle section of the Wasgau, which in turn forms the southern part of the Palatine Forest and the northern part of the Vosges in France. The Dahner Felsenland has numerous rock formations within the South Palatinate Climbing Area.
This section lists those long distance paths that run through the Palatine Forest.
The Palatine Ways of St. James are those sections of the Way of St. James in the Palatinate region of Germany and part of the historic pilgrimage route to the northwest Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela. It was there that, according to Christian tradition, the Apostle Saint James the Greater was buried.
Speyer is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities. Speyer is dominated by the Speyer Cathedral, a number of churches and the Altpörtel. In the cathedral, beneath the high altar, are the tombs of eight Holy Roman Emperors and German kings.
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain.
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth.
Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. East Thrace, located in Europe, is separated from Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorous strait and the Dardanelles. Turkey is bordered by Greece and Bulgaria to its northwest; Georgia to its northeast; Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south. Istanbul is the largest city, but more central Ankara is the capital. Approximately 70 to 80 per cent of the country's citizens identify as Turkish. Kurds are the largest minority; the size of the Kurdish population is a subject of dispute with estimates placing the figure at anywhere from 12 to 25 per cent of the population.
Hochspeyer is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Palatinate forest, approx. 10 km east of Kaiserslautern.
Johanniskreuz is a tiny hamlet in the middle of the Palatine Forest in Germany and belongs to the municipality of Trippstadt in the district of Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The Eschkopf near Hofstätten in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate is a major hill, 608.3 m above sea level (NHN) high in the Palatine Forest.
Waldleiningen is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany.
Münchweiler an der Rodalb is a municipality in Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany and belongs to the municipal association of Rodalben. The primary industry of the village was that of a shoe manufacturer. It lies on Strasse B-10 between Karlsruhe and Pirmasens.
Pirmasens is an independent town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It was famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called Landkreis Pirmasens from 1818 until 1997, when it was renamed to Südwestpfalz.
These two trails run from Saarbrücken through the Palatine Forest to the River Rhine near Wörth.
This section lists the walking routes of the Palatine Forest region.
In addition to the long distance paths waymarked by a white cross, red cross and yellow cross, all other paths in the Palatine Forest that are marked with a cross pass through the hamlet of Johanniskreuz (the name means "St John's Cross"):
On the West Palatinate Way, waymarked with a coloured letter W, the Association for the Promotion of Tourism in the West Palatinate (Verein zur Förderung des Tourismus in der Westpfalz) used to offer guided tours with luggage transfer. Both this service and its waymarking have not been maintained since 2009. [4]
The Palatinate Tourist Office worked in cooperation with the Association of German Mountain and Hiking Clubs (Deutscher Wanderverband) on the routes for three certified paths which were opened in April 2011, two of which run through the Palatine Forest:
Many villages and municipalities in the Palatine Forest have marked out local footpaths. These circular routes are usually waymarked with numbers and are of short to medium length, mainly used by local people. The care of these circular walks (waymarking, clearing) has been very neglected in recent years due to lower demand and tighter budgets. As a result, some can only be located with the aid of topographic maps.
Since the foundation of the Palatine Forest Club and the Vosges Club (French: Club Vosgien) about 100 years ago, both rambling clubs have used almost identical waymarking systems. As a result, not only are cross-border walks made very easy but it also supports the fact that the Palatinate Forest and the Vosges form a single unit from both a geomorphological and a topographical perspective, and should therefore really only be viewed as two halves of an overarching mountain range on the left bank of the Rhine. [9] [10]
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Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 54,000 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.
The Palatinate Forest, sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The forest is a designated nature park covering 1,771 km2 and its highest elevation is the Kalmit.
The Kalmit is the highest peak in the Palatinate Forest and the second highest in the Palatinate region of Germany. It is 672.6 m above sea level (NHN) and located 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) south of the town of Neustadt an der Weinstraße.
The Neustadt–Wissembourg railway, also called the Pfälzische Maximiliansbahn, Maximiliansbahn or just the Maxbahn - is a railway line in southwestern Germany that runs from Neustadt an der Weinstrasse to Wissembourg in Alsace, France. The Palatine Maximilian Railway also included a branch from Winden via Wörth and the Maxaubahn to Karlsruhe.
Neustadt (Weinstr) Hauptbahnhof – called Neustadt a/d. Haardt until 1935 and from 1945 until 1950 – is the central station of in the city of Neustadt in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to the Hauptbahnhof, Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn services stop at Neustadt (Weinstr) Böbig halt (Haltepunkt). Mußbach station and Neustadt (Weinstr) halt, opened on 19 November 2013, are also located in Neustadt.
The Landau–Rohrbach railway is a major line running from Landau in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Rohrbach in the Saarland. The main section between Landau and Zweibrücken was opened on 25 November 1875 after the first sections had already been opened between 1857 and 1867.
The Alsenz Valley Railway is a line that runs from Hochspeyer via Winnweiler and Alsenz to Bad Munster am Stein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The line follows the Alsenz river from the Enkenbach district and crossed it several times. It was originally built primarily as a long-distance route, but it has lost this function since 1990 and is now exclusively used for local transport.
The Leininger Sporn is a highly prominent ridge in the northeast of the Palatinate Forest in western Germany, mainly composed of the rock formations of the Middle and Upper Bunter. It forms the western edge of Upper Rhine Plain between Grünstadt in the north and Leistadt, a village in the county of Bad Durkheim, in the southeast. In the natural region system of the German Central Uplands it is considered one of the four sub-units of the Middle Palatinate Forest.
The Frankenweide is a hill region in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It forms the central part of the Palatine Forest in the Palatinate region.
The Hohe Loog, is a mountain, 619 m above sea level (NN), in the Haardt, the eastern rim of the Palatine Forest in Germany. The mountain lies within the borough of Neustadt an der Weinstraße in the southern part of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The Taubenkopf is a hill, about 604 metres (1,982 ft) high, in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is part of the mountain chain of the Haardt in the Palatine Forest and lies in the municipal territory of Diedesfeld in the borough of Neustadt an der Weinstraße.
The West Palatinate Way was a marked footpath that crossed the West Palatinate region in Germany, but is no longer maintained. The concept for this route emerged in 1980 from its sponsor the Association for the Promotion of Tourism in the West Palatinate and was a cooperative venture between the counties in the West Palatinate, the Palatine Forest Club and local pubs and restaurants. In 2006 and 2007, overnight bookings fell and, since 2009, the sponsors have no longer taken bookings and maintenance of the footpath and its waymarks has only been carried out in places by the Palatinate Club. The disbandment of the tourist association has also been discussed.
The Weinstraße, also referred to as the Middle Haardt (Mittelhardt), is a region within the Palatinate in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate that was named after the German Wine Road or Deutsche Weinstraße.
The Kalmithaus, also called the Ludwigshafener Hut, near Maikammer in the Rhineland-Palatinate county of Südliche Weinstraße is a refuge hut in the Palatinate Forest run by the Ludwigshafen-Mannheim branch of the Palatinate Forest Club. It is located in the southern part of the Haardt mountains at the summit of its highest peak, the Kalmit, and is thus the highest hut in the Palatinate Forest. From its terrace there is often a stunning view of the Upper Rhine Plain as far as the foothills of the southern Odenwald and northern Black Forest. Immediately next to the hut is the observation tower on the Kalmit, which is out of bounds to the public, and houses a radio relay station, a weather station and a visibility survey station.
The Hüttenberg near Maikammer in the Rhineland-Palatinate county of Südliche Weinstraße is a subpeak, 620.1 m above sea level (NN), of the Kalmit the highest mountain in the Haardt in the eastern Palatinate Forest of Germany. There is a blockfield, the Hüttenberg Felsenmeer, along the crest.
Enkenbach station is the only station in Enkenbach-Alsenborn in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It has two platforms tracks and is located in the network of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar and belongs to fare zone 828. Its address is Bahnhofstraße 2.