Some of you might remember Siebenmühlental (Seven Mills Valley) from my former post about Eselsmühle (Donky Mill). But there’s much more to explore! Siebenmühlental is among the best-known, best-loved and most interesting valleys in the Stuttgart region. It is sometimes also known as Reichenbachtal, after the Reichenbach river that flows through it.

Siebenmühlental is the perfect setting for days out – whether you’re local or just visiting. The footpaths through the charming valley are popular with hardened hikers, leisurely walkers, families (with or without pushchairs), cyclists and skaters. They all come here to get their fix of the great outdoors.

Most people take the paved Bundeswanderweg trail from Musberg to the Burkhardtsmühle. But there are other footpaths that are much more secluded, that provide even more opportunity to get back to nature. Whether it’s the Reichenbachtalweg, which also runs through the valley but gets closer to nature than the Bundeswanderweg, or one of the various paths or walking routes that take in the magnificent woodland and countryside surrounding the valley, the choice is yours.

Hiking in the beautiful Siebenmühlental

If you want to walk through the Siebenmühlental valley, there are two options: the Bundeswanderweg (Federal Hiking Trail ) and the Reichenbachtalweg (Reichenbach Valley Trail ). The Bundeswanderweg runs along a stretch of disused railway a little way above the valley, and is fully tarmacked. The Reichenbachtalweg is a loose gravel trail with some short stretches of unmade paths. It regularly takes you alongside its eponymous river, and at some points you can get up close to the water.

If you want to combine the two routes, you are best advised to start on the Reichenbachtalweg and go as far as the Burkhardtsmühle, then go up to the beer garden and take the Bundeswanderweg back to the start. To make the walk shorter, you can start from the Seebruckenmühle car park. On the return leg, look for a path marked with a red cross shortly after the old Steinenbronn train station to find your way back down to the starting point.

Get your free copy of the new guide book!

The city of Leinfelden-Echterdingen has published a new and free guide book freaturing Siebenmühlental. It points out 14 tours for hikers and bikers – from well known trails to hidden paths.

And the best: it is also available in English AND it’s for free! 🙂

You can :

…download the guest guide as a PDF-document here: Guest Guide – Idyllic Recreation in Siebenmühlental (PDF)

… pick up the printed brochure at the town hall in Leinfelden (Marktplatz 1, 70771 Leinfelden-Echterdingen)

… or order it via ipunkt@le-mail.de

More information about:

Leinfelden-Echterdingen (only in German)

My visit to Eselsmühle in 2015

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Even though corn mazes are around during the summer, too, I always feel like they are something you should do in fall. The corn maze in Ditzingen is the biggest one that I know in the area around Stuttgart. I always wanted to go but never made it – until this year! Moritz, his mum and I finally set a date and went!

We paid 4 Euro entrance fee and entered the maze through a gate surrounded by flowers. Then we made our way through the corn field.

The corn has grown really tall and even though a lot of people must have been in the maze, we didn’t see many around. After a while we found a lookout tower:

We where curious to find out where in the maze we were and how the corn maze looked from above so we climbed up 7 meters and peeked down.

The view was pretty stunning. The maze is huge!

At the entrance we could have bought a map but we felt adventurous and wanted to find the way out by ourselves. But after a while I understood why other people have bought the map: With the ticket comes a quiz sheet. There are four checkpoints hidden in the corn maze. At each checkpoint you get a stamp. If you have collected all stamps you have the chance to win a prize. As the maze is huge it is very tricky to find all the checkpoints. We actually gave up after a while and concentrated on finding our way out again. 🙂 But even this was difficult. Too many dead ends… aaargh!

Finally we made it and found the way out! Hurray! Back to civilisation!! 😀

On weekends, there are food trucks at the end of the maze where you can get snacks and drinks – plus a playground made out of hay for kids.

If you want to get lost in the corn maze in Ditzingen as well, you should hurry. It closes for the season after September 11!

More information about:

Corn maze Ditzingen

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This adventurous hike near Stuttgart starts in the west of Murrhardt, a town located approximately half an hour drive away from Stuttgart. When you arrive in Murrhardt follow the signs to “Siebenknie”, then the ones pointing out the “Hörschbachwasserfälle”. You can park your car just before the road enters into the woods or you drive a bit further and park right next to the first waterfall.

When Moritz and I did this adventurous hike near Stuttgart, we parked on the first parking spot, took the trail on the left of the road and entered the woods. After a few minutes we saw a sign that pointed out the two waterfalls. We wanted to see “Vorderer Wasserfall” (lower waterfall) first, and thus turned right.

We descended into the Hörschbach Valley and reached the first waterfall a few minutes later.

So far, it was an easy trip. We crossed the waterfall via the little bridge, turned left and followed the sign with the blue dot and the stream of water. And after some more minutes the adventure began…

The trail got veeeery muddy and slippery.

Sometimes, roots served as stairs…

… other times trees served as bridges:

At some points, the track was missing completely for a meter or so because it had fallen down into the stream. Then you had to hang on to the steep cliff next to the trail and climb over the gap. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of that –  I was too busy trying not to fall into the water 🙂

After 1.5 hours (yep, it took us 1.5 hours to complete 2 kilometers) we reached the upper waterfalls (Hintere Wasserfälle). There is one waterfall located on the left:

And another one straight on. That’s what it looked like when we arrived:

Quite peaceful a pitturesque, right? That’s what I thought, too and used some stones in order to step on the other side of the stream to take this picture. Suddenly, something changed. There was a loud roar and the water running down the waterfall tripled. I didn’t know what happened but was smart enough to jump back to the other side of the stream, using the same stones again. I was SO lucky because the stones disappeared in the swollen water, as did the place where I just stood to take the picture.

Here’s what the waterfall looked like now:

We climbed up the trail on the right of the waterfall and reached a platform. And that’s where I found out what had just happened: Next to the platform is a watergate. When it’s closed, the water in the stream is collected in a small basin. Every hiker can open the watergate in order to make the waterfall look more exciting – or to scare the hell out of other hikers that are still down at the stream! 😀

The platform is the turnaround point of the hike. From here you can follow a big trail back to the lower waterfall and the parking lot (as we did) – or you still feel adventurous, then you can hike back the same way you came!

Here are some tips if you want to do this hike:

• Wear proper hiking shoes!
• Be prepared to get dirty. If I had known about the muddy condition of the trail, I would have worn shorts as the lower parts of my trousers were soaked in mud after ten minutes.
• Reconsider doing this hike if there has been much rain the days before. When we did the hike, a bad thunderstorm has raged in the area – that’s probably why parts of the trail and even bridges were missing.
• Only do this hike during the winter months when you’re experienced in hiking in icy conditions!

If you have kids and wonder if you can bring: We saw a lot of families and the kids seemed to have a blast. Of course they were covered in mud but the proud expressions in their faces might be worth the extra load of laundry 🙂

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Kessler Sekt was founded in  1826 by Georg Christian Kessler. He had worked for the luxury French champagne producer Veuve Clicquot for twenty years and brought the expertise of how to make wine sparkle back home to Germany. Nowadays, Kessler Sekt produces around 1 million bottles a year which are sold mainly in southern Germany.

A few weeks ago, I participated in a tour and tasting at Kessler Sekt sparkling wine and had a great time! Our guide led us through the medieval cellars which are located right under the market place of Esslingen.

We learned a lot about the history of Kessler Sekt and the production of sparkling wine.

Fun Fact: Did you know for example that  sparkling wine undergoes two fermentations? One from grape juice to “normal” wine, the second from wine to sparkling wine (that’s when the bubbles come into play! :-)).

Do you see the grey stuff that is hanging from the ceiling?

It is actually some sort of mold that helps regulate the climate in the cellar. Very special, right?!

After the tour, we were brought into another building where we had the opportunity to taste several sparkling wines. I can’t help it, I’m a rosé-lover! 🙂

If you’re interested in doing a guided tour through the historic cellars of Kessler Sekt sparkling wine yourself but don’t speak German, don’t worry: They offer tours in English as well!

More information about:

Kessler Sekt (only in German)

direct link to the guided tours

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