About the Palatinate Wine Trail

The Pfälzer Weinsteig has an official total length of 185 kilometres, which can be walked in eleven daily stages. Opened in 2010, the long-distance hiking trail is the longest of the three certified hiking trails in the Palatinate Forest, ahead of the Palatinate Forest Trail and the Palatinate High Trail. The trail is marked with a red and white wave and runs in a north-south direction from Bockenheim near Grünstadt to Schweigen-Rechtenbach on the German-French border. It alternates repeatedly between the Palatinate wine-growing region on the German Wine Route and the heights of the Palatinate Forest. In total, there are about 6,000 metres of altitude difference to be climbed along the entire route. Highlights of the tour include the Kalmit, the Weinbiet, Bad Dürkheim, Annweiler with its Trifels group of castles, the Peace Monument and many small winegrowing villages along the way.

We were on the Palatinate Forest Trail in mid-March 2021 and decided to reduce the number of stages to seven, resulting in a daily stage length of about 25 kilometres. Due to the Covid-19 situation in 2021, all accommodation was closed and the nights were still too cool for bivouacking. So we were on the road with two vehicles and always parked one vehicle at the end point in the morning and drove to the starting point with the second vehicle. We spent the night in the vehicle, some of which had very nice places to stay overnight. Have we aroused your interest? Then come with us on our journey along the Palatinate Forest Trail!

Vineyards, vineyards, vineyards

The first 17 kilometres of today's stage can be summarised in a nutshell: Vineyards, wine hills, wine plains, wine views, vines = wine trail. Quite nice to get you going, but nothing more. A small highlight on this section is the chapel or church of saints called (watch out!) Heiligenkirchen St Peter and Paul and St Maria zu den Stufen. The chapel has St Peter as its patron saint, which, together with the old building finds and the apparently pre-Christian place of worship in the immediate vicinity, suggests that it is very old. St Peter was chosen as the patron saint of churches at former pagan sites (source: information board on site). In the immediate vicinity is the "Katzenstein", an old pagan sacrificial altar from the time of the Alemanni and Franks. It is said to have been the centre of a place of worship and sacrifice for these peoples more than one and a half millennia ago.

Neuleiningen and the Battenberg flash tubes

At kilometre 18, we reached Neuleiningen with its castle ruins. It's worth taking a break here in the castle pub if the weather is nice. Neuleiningen Castle was built in the 1240s as a fortress castle modelled on many French castles. From the castle you have an excellent view of the Rhine plain and the Palatinate Forest. There are several well-preserved half-timbered houses from the 16th and 17th centuries in the centre of Neuleiningen. Many of these houses are listed buildings. The castle itself and the town centre have been designated as heritage zones.

After a short rest at the castle, we continued towards Battenberg with Battenberg Castle and the Blitzröhren. These stone formations are located about 100 metres off the hiking trail directly on the country road (watch out for traffic). These so-called "lightning tubes" emerge from the ochre-coloured sandstone below the castle ruins and are a mineralogical phenomenon. They got their name because their formation was initially attributed to the impact of lightning. However, scientific studies have disproved this assumption. They were formed by the localised impact of minerals with a high iron content. Incidentally, ochre was mined here in the 19th century, which was used to colour the facades of houses.

From here, the remaining kilometres to our destination took us through the beautiful Palatinate pine forest for the first time, which became our faithful companion on the next stages.