The best mountain hikes around Straubenhardt

Resembles an open-air museum. You can read all sorts of things about a legal dispute of the owner of this mill on large banners and collected newspaper clippings. If you want to read everything, you need to bring more time than I had.

Below this spot, an aircraft crashed on November 1, 1945, shortly after the end of the war. In the most severe air disaster ever to occur in our region, 26 American military personnel lost their lives. The aircraft was a Douglas C-47 (DC3) transport aircraft in its military version. It was put into service a year earlier and participated in "D-Day", the Normandy invasion, as a paratrooper transport. It had space for up to 32 people and was also known as a "raisin bomber" during the Berlin Airlift. On the day of the accident, 4 crew members and 26 U.S. Air Force soldiers were on board. They had been on vacation in London and were supposed to return to their units at the Oberschleißheim Air Force Base near Munich. Despite bad weather over the mainland, the 23-year-old pilot and his 22-year-old navigator decided to fly. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot had to climb above the cloud cover due to dense cloudiness and continue the flight using instruments. According to the navigator's calculations, a point near Augsburg should have been reached after 3 hours of flight, where the pilot could descend below the cloud cover and begin the approach using visual orientation. Due to strong headwinds, the calculated position was missed by more than 200 km. Consequently, the cloud cover was descended through north of Karlsruhe, and the navigator lost orientation. They followed the Rhine in a southwesterly direction until near Wintersdorf, a 90-degree correction was made to the original course towards Munich. The DC3 thus steered directly towards the 693-meter-high Bernstein. The pilot and navigator continued to try to determine the correct position from low altitude, which became increasingly difficult due to the approaching fog. Despite the dense fog, the silhouette of the aircraft was recognizable when flying over Michelbach. Around 4:30 PM, the aircraft crashed at an altitude of 620 meters, where it broke into several pieces and went up in flames after explosions. Many victims died because help arrived too late. That help arrived at all four hours after the accident is thanks to three survivors who, despite severe injuries, made their way to Sulzbach and Bernbach. Until now, only rumors had surrounded this event, and it eventually fell into oblivion.

Hut with good weather protection

Small bridge over the Alb as a connection between Schweizer Wiese and the Falkensteinfelsen, as well as a beautiful view of the water.

The spa park in the heart of the city is characterized by its historic trees and spacious green spaces, making it a place to recharge your batteries. Its design offers two atmospheres: a "classic" one with cultivated park meadows, and a "wildly romantic" one with blooming riverside and forest meadows. The two sections are connected by bridges over the renaturalized Alb River.

The monastery tavern, probably founded in 1148, is one of the oldest inns in southern Germany. At the entrance, there's a distinctive sign featuring a dragon figure.

Bad Herrenalb station opened on July 2, 1898, and has served as the terminus of the Albtalbahn (Alb Valley Railway) from Karlsruhe ever since. The station building from that year has been preserved in exemplary condition and now houses the station restaurant, a passenger waiting room, the local driving school, and several apartments. An old goods shed also still exists. Unfortunately, the old two-bay locomotive shed with its turrets was demolished during the gauge conversion. A new depot for light rail vehicles has served as its replacement since 1975, and was expanded to two tracks in 1990. The gauge conversion also changed the entire appearance of the station, as a turning loop had to be built around the station building to allow the light rail vehicles to turn around. In 1979, the platforms were given a hall roof, created from the roof of the former Baden-Baden city station. To mark the official handover of the new hall, a station festival was held, which remains an integral part of the city's events calendar to this day.

This impressive field needle can be found on a hiking trail between the Falkenstein rocks and the road to Bad Herrenalb.