Taking advantage of the sunny weather and with less of a bite to the winter wind, we followed a trail from Fladungen up the gentle slope of the Wurmberg, a southern spur of the Abstberg hill between the villages of Sands and Brรผchs, the latter named for the historical quarrying activity of the settlement.
Along the way, and to this day I think about that psychedelic animated short from Sesame Street about the lost boy remembering his way home, “Try to remember everything you passed, but when you go back, make the first thing the last”—that’s some genuine
memory palace advice, we were afforded some really nice vistas of the town in the valley below, a pair of friendly donkeys in an enclosure, the foundations of a demolished coke oven that was testament to the area’s mining history and an the open pit hewn out of the hillside as we made our way to the edge of the forested summit.
In the middle, there was a clearing with the
Stations of the Cross arranged in a circle, like the Kreuzweg of the chapel visible on the horizon looking back over Fladungen with a large wooden Crucifix, Hohe Kreuz.
We descended from the peak via a shorter route through a neighbourhood and around a spa resort perched on the mountainside, so so much for my landmarks but nonetheless an enjoyable walk with opportunities to explore further.
