Via Adrina

Hi, girls and boys, Today is a very special day because the dearest and most important people in my life are coming hiking with me – my daughters 🥰. I don't want to say this is a rare occurrence, but it's not an everyday occurrence either. That's why we've chosen a beautiful tour with one of Wittgenstein's most famous and popular premium hiking trails, the Via Adrina. We start at the entrance to Arfeld near the church. This isn't the typical start of the loop; that would be the exit of the village, but it's so irrelevant for a circular trail 😜. Arfeld turns out to be a picturesque little village, just my style 🫶. However, it's also very manageable, so we quickly enter the forest, if it's still standing 🙄; the drought and beetle damage in the region is truly immense. The first section is still dominated by traditional forest paths, but the Via Adrina quickly shows why it's so well-known and popular. The route is mostly on 2-foot-wide paths, hillside paths, and narrow trails, along streams, the Eder River, across cleared areas, and through dense spruce forests. Mostly uphill or downhill. If you like flat terrain, this is the wrong place 🧐. The strong north-easterly wind is a bit of a problem today, but it will ease as the day progresses. The sun will be with us almost all day, with the occasional cloud gliding in front of it 🤷‍♂️ hardly worth mentioning. The route is very diverse, both in terms of its paths and its natural beauty, and it never gets boring, although there isn't much flora and fauna to discover at this time of year. On the final section, the Via Adrina runs alongside the Via Celtica and the Wittgenstein Slate Trail for a while, and previously also with the 'Bei de Hullerkeppe' hiking trail, which also includes the four hiking trail highlights 😉. We highly recommend the Via Adrina. With a half-marathon distance, 540 meters of elevation gain, and sometimes gradients of more than 20°, you should be able to handle it, and I would only recommend a stroller to those who enjoy carrying one. Conclusion: A wonderful hike in the best possible company along an immaculately maintained, well-signposted, and lovingly and meticulously designed premium hiking trail. Nodda, have a good start to the new week...🙋🏼‍♂️

Hike Via Adrina on September 12th, 2021 Type of hike: circular hike Starting point: hiking car park in Arfeld Destination: Hikers' car park in Arfeld Path marking: Present (white wave in a circle on a black background) Gastronomy: Schwarzenauer Mühle and Gasthof Kassel (both in Schwarzenau), restaurant to the train station in Arfeld, a few tubes of drinks on the way 2009 - Awarded the third best premium hiking trail in Germany by the hiking magazine 2021 - For me, the path would no longer win a flower pot these days. Why? 1. The waymarking: In some places the arrow pointed to the right, although you had to go straight ahead. In addition, some trail markers were barely visible because they were attached to tree stumps quite low down. That's why I got lost a few times. 2. The routing: Sometimes you were led down the path to walk through undergrowth and over fallen trees and then a few meters further back to the previous path, you could have just stayed on the previous path. Some paths also grew over with undergrowth and weeds, so the paths should actually be cleared again first. 3. The length of the route: The information on the signs said all the time that the circular route is 20 km. I set my navigation system to 0 when I started it. When I got back to the starting point, my GPS showed me 23.25 km. I took another shortcut towards the end of the path. If I had walked the whole way, I would have probably come to 25-26 km. Total time: 9:26 hours Walking time: 6:47 hours Average speed: 3.3 km / h My personal overall conclusion: I have walked the path once now and I will not walk the path a second time.

This was a beautiful path with varied views. Unfortunately, the route was not always clear because the path was quite overgrown in some corners, especially in the area of the slate path. Otherwise, really recommended

https://blb-tourismus.de/mobile/de/tour/wanderung/via-adrina-wundervolle-aussichten/1524350/

After last week, I was out and about in the Wittgenstein region for the second time in a row. Today, I opted for a tour from a can rather than the usual free-for-all, randomly planned hike. The "Via Adrina Premium Hiking Trail" was on the agenda. I'm usually a bit skeptical when the word "premium" is mentioned. I've already drunk beers with the word "premium" and, upon "enjoying" them, thought that a cold Paderborner from a can would have been a better choice. So, caution was called for. But today I was proven wrong. The Via Adrina, like the specialty beers from the Wittgenstein region (which don't have "premium" in their name and are named after a well-known German automotive supplier 😉), is truly premium! A fantastic morning awaited me, peppered with many trails, beautiful views, and amazing highlights. It was a joy to hike this trail; it was pure pleasure hiking!😃👍 They truly lived up to their promises. I can't say much more about it; anyone with the time and inclination is welcome to see for themselves. The elevation gain on this trip is certainly not intimidating, but when it went up, it was quite substantial, with gradients of up to 27 degrees in places. For a low mountain trail, that's quite challenging. Towards the end, the route and markings weren't entirely clear to me, and I took a slightly wrong turn, but I was able to get back on the right path by realizing my clumsiness. In the end, I have to say, "those who can read signs correctly have a clear advantage." Otherwise, that's all there is to say about the tour. I parked at the Via Adrina Center in Arfeld, from which it's only a few minutes to the start of the tour. The weather was mixed, with the occasional light shower, and towards the end, the sun even came out. In conclusion, all I can say is: if you can and want to, try it! 🤙🥾🥾😃

Very well signposted path. Still missed a turn towards the end. I also saved myself the last dangling. Was already quite ko.😴 Beautiful path, very sunny, unfortunately many trees felled through which you then had to climb over it🥵. Sometimes quite adventurous. At one point it was also not possible to follow the route 🫤. All in all a path with many WOW moments... just not maybe at temperatures around 30 🫠. The trail was probably more "woody" a few years ago.

Today we took advantage of the beautiful weather again and got our group out of bed. We were going on a long-planned tour, so this time we tackled the "Via Adrina." It's beautiful, but also quite challenging in some places. In some places, it touches on other premium hiking trails in the Berleburg hiking area. - "Wittgensteiner Schieferpfad" - "Via Celtica" and "Bei de Hullerkeppe" send their regards! Now we're all tired and worn out... shower, cold drinks, and a snack. And feet up... or rather, like Fiete and I do: begging our companions for food, emptying their bowls, and stretching our paws... 😴💤😴 See you soon, your Bruno 🐾🐾 https://blb-tourismus.de/de/tour/wanderung/via-adrina-wundervolle-aussichten/1524350/

Via Adrina - We did this very beautiful tour at the beginning of June 2024. It goes through forests, fields and over meadows, along a small stream. But of course also on farm tracks, although you rarely walk on roads. Again and again you can look far over fields and valleys. We particularly liked the fact that the paths were off the "normal" paths. The tour is well marked. The narrow trails are partly overgrown. You sometimes have to look for the way forward. It is therefore advisable to download the official tour from e.g. www.siegen-wittgenstein.info. Do not then let Komoot adapt the tour to well-known paths. Be sure to wear sturdy shoes and long trousers. One place was unpleasant, however: at 16 KM we got off the path. As far as I can remember, the path was overgrown here and the trail led to the right. But we soon walked through thorns and the shortest route back to the tour was difficult to take. It's best to walk straight ahead at 15.7 km and avoid this bend. (According to the official directions, at 14.5 km; I checked again at home.) The tour is definitely recommended and we really enjoyed it.