Wolfstein Kulinarische Wanderung

Today my friend and I took the train to Wolfstein, which is north of Kaiserslautern, for the Kulinarische Wanderung. It was a culinary hike through the town, up the hills with lined with farm pastures, and back down again with stops along the way to sample regional wine and cuisine. Shops in town were also open for Sunday shopping (not that the town had a lot of shops, but a few were open as part of the festivities).

It was a wonderful way to enjoy the countryside, get some exercise on the 6K walk, and work up an appetite for the delicious offerings along the way. At the beginning of the hike in downtown Wolfstein, I bought a small wine glass on a lanyard for 5 euros. With that, I could sample wines at the stations for 1 euro per serving and get a little booklet stamped at each place. I won't lie; I felt rather dorky wearing a lanyard, but I feel that way wearing any lanyard. I guess it was slightly cooler because it at least held a wine glass!

There were six stops along the way. As we were walking along, I realized that the town was familiar. We had biked to it during the Autofreies Lauteral Bike Ride last August (read more here). On the route, we stopped at the second stand at the bridge and each enjoyed a bratwurst filled with chestnuts from Metzgerei Frölich. Yes, I normally don't eat meat, but once in a while I'll eat wurst. Don't judge. Anyway, it was amazing and very rich!
 
Our next stop was for flammkuchen at Flammkuchen Serr, next to the horse pastures. It was tasty and I washed it down with a very sweet German white wine from Weingut Wolf. I love sweet whites and it hit the spot!

The line for Flammkuchen.

Seating adjacent to the horse pasture.

From there, we powered up the hill to the Panoramaweg, or the panorama path. It was a beautiful view of the town with several more stops. I had another small glass of white wine at one booth and then pickled mirabelles in Armagnac, a type of liqueur.

Isn't this a lovely view?

Cooking Lachs (salmon) on the wood-fired stove.

 On the way back down to town, we saw these double trampolines (the red one is tiny and hard to see, but it's under the blue one). I had to stifle the urge to yell, "double trampolines! What does it mean? Sooo intense!!" Don't worry; I didn't actually do it.

We finished our culinary hike with a Kalkbergwerk tour of the mines and then rode the train back to Kaiserslautern. It was a lovely day spent drinking wine, eating delicious food, and taking a hike to enjoy the scenery. I heartily recommend it!

--

I read that there will be another culinary hike in Rodenbach coming up on 20-21 September. It would be worth a visit, if only to reuse the dorky wine cup on a lanyard thing ;) (at least I think it's possible to do so, as it looks to be put on by the same organization)  More information is here.

Oh, and don't make the mistake that I did and lose the card that gets stamped at each stop. Apparently one can turn it in at the end with all the stations marked and get a small gift. I missed out on a free bottle of water.