Römerpfad Quality Trail: Elztal Minerva route

- Lourdes Grotto - Elz River - Stone Circle - Dedication of Minerva - Jupiter Bench - Roman Palisade - Ancient Roman Road - Watchpost "At Strike 8" - Watchpost "Shabby Hedge" - Part of the Western Limes Trail

https://youtu.be/ejvv6J1GRLM Hello everyone, Anne and I were on the last Roman path. The Minervatour turned out to be a very beautiful Roman path. Lots of narrow paths, varied routes and a lot to see: 2 watchtowers (or the remains), Limes, an old Roman road (to be honest, we couldn't see it despite the information sign 😂), a stone circle, a grotto... So overall quite a lot for just over 7km of travel 😎 Since the Minervatour ends only a few hundred meters away from the Roman path Jupiterweg, both tours can also be combined into a single hike. Kind regards and have fun hiking. Tobias

At the moment it is difficult to access in places due to previous forest work.

After a short climb, we "discovered" a small herd of horses.... the poor mares had their hair beautifully decorated 🙈 full of burrs and looked like curlers 😂 After that it was always nice and flat in the shady forest on great paths and narrow paths! In between, from time to time, an information board! A great tour for sunny days! The final sprint along the Trienzbach and at the Dallauer Kneipp facility, barefoot path, stone circle and Lourdes grotto is simply wonderful and invites you to linger!!! A great and really super signposted way!

It used to be a very nice hiking trail after the harvesting machines had wreaked havoc in the forest, as you can see from the pictures

Starting from Neckarburken train station, always follow the "R" marking. Right at the beginning of the dream tour you cross a ravine that leads to the remains of Roman watchtowers . The Minerva Tour runs a good distance along the Old Roman Road past the Limes Pavilion, which invites you to take a break. Further on the tour in the Trienzbachtal, a Lourdes grotto - also known as Mariengrotte - and the impressive stone circle by the artist Eva-Gesine Wegner are passed. The thanksgiving circle is intended to draw attention to the valuable resource of water. The forest has a number of special features to the left and right of the path. The tour ends at the hiking car park on the outskirts of Dallau or at the train station. From here you can get to the moated castle through the center of Dallau.

The Minerva Tour is not a circular route. It ends after 7.1 km in Dallau. That's why I programmed a return route of 2.6 km. Unfortunately the stamp in the stamp house is broken. Then you have black fingers. So take a cloth to clean with you. Otherwise a very nice way. Now I have the 5th stamp and can submit my Roman passport. If you still have time, you should visit the Römerbad and the Numeruscastell on the B27, in the direction of Buchen.https://rom-in-deutschland.de/seiten/roemische-kastelle-und-baeder-in-neckarburken.html

When we checked the weather app in the morning to see if it would be worth waking up the hiking group, all signs were green... a short shower around 11 a.m., no problem. So we had breakfast, drove to Mosbach, and from there took the train to Dallau. Today's plan was actually a slightly longer version of the Minerva Roman Trail, which would take us all the way back to Mosbach. But the reality was a bit different than the theory: Shortly after the last picture, the "cats and dogs" from the title – in the British terminology – fell from the sky, and the forest path, which had just been damp but still easily walkable, turned into a stream within minutes. By the time we reached the junction, which we had planned to follow further to Neckarburken, our shoes, socks, and everything else below the rain jackets were wet, so we decided to take the shorter route (back to Dallau train station). Too bad, actually... another time.