Day 548: Primeval Beech Forests

Thankfully not too much driving today, only an hour or so. The world heritage site wasn't too far away, and a good one to get ticked off. Back in the day, the most common tree in Europe was the beech tree, and they covered most of the continent before being cleared for farmland. There's a few patches of ancient forest left, and this WHS covers about 15 of them in 11 different countries.

We decided to visit this one in Germany since it's fairly easy to find, and there's some walks set up for you to experience the forest. So we drove over and set off. The hike we'd chosen was about 9km so a decent length, and it took us a few hours. I've gotta say, after about 30 minutes I was slightly over it since beech trees are just beech trees and one area looks much like another. But it was hot weather so slightly more pleasant in the shade.

The walk took quite a while, probably around 4 hours, and we got back to the car around 3pm - definitely time for lunch at the convenient cafe! Had a small meal then drove to our hotel, a seriously budget Ibis on the outskirts of town. Drove 10 minutes to a nearby supermarket for some dinner supplies, but otherwise we just stayed in the room.Read more