Through the Bergzabern hinterland

From the train station in Bad Bergzabern, we take Bahnhofstraße into Königstraße, which immediately leads us past the first highlight of our tour: Immediately in the old town rises the imposing Bad Bergzabern Castle (1), which immediately catches the eye with its striking towers. The Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken once resided here. Immediately afterwards, we pass the pewter figurine museum and head out of town on the Weinstraße. Keeping to the left, we reach the spa gardens, where the beautiful herb garden (2) spreads out on our left. On the way to the swan pond, the houses and streets quickly give way to idyllic nature. In the narrow Erlenbach valley, our route begins to rise in waves. To the side, the wooded hills of the Annweiler state forest rise up and accompany us on the way northwest. In a wide left-hand bend, we pass the Augspurgermühle mill and climb ever more steeply up to Birkenhördt. We then leave the clearing and cycle up and down past Hirschberg to Vorderweidenthal. We cycle into the village on Lindelbrunnstraße and past the towering church (3) before we leave the village and continue on a road parallel to the Erlenbach. Now we cycle slightly downhill through the somewhat more open river valley here, which leads us straight to Erlenbach. As we pass through the village, we see Berwartstein Castle (4), the only inhabited castle in the Wasgau region, on a hill on the left. We then continue through the narrowing Erlenbach valley, which runs in a southerly direction through the densely wooded heights of the Judenhalde. At Niederschlettenbach we reach the mouth of the Wieslauter, which we now follow to the left past the Teilberg. Apart from a few slight undulations, the route is relatively flat in this section. At Bobenthal, the Wieslauter swells further due to several tributaries and turns visibly eastwards. We continue with many bends and first cross the old Siebenteilbrücke (5) and a little later the German-French border. After Wissembourg, we soon reach German soil again and turn north. We now cross the fields to Schweigen-Rechtenbach, where we pass a beautiful fountain (6) and two old churches. Here, we again expect some smaller climbs, but they are quite easy compared to the initial ascents. A little below the forest we cycle to Oberotterbach, where we first cross the main road and then pass the Heimatstube (7). In the nice museum we can get out of the saddle for a short while and learn all kinds of interesting facts about the region and the village history. Along the course of the Otterbach, we then leave the built-up area and a little later turn left towards Bad Bergzabern, which we reach after a stretch on the B38 cycle path on the Weinstraße. The Petronellastraße finally leads us to the old town we know from the outward journey, from where it is not far to the starting point of our ride, which we reach at the railway station.