Once upon a time Andrea found herself looking for a hike around Düsseldorf. Via the Komoot App she found a 17 km loop not too far from the city. As she looked into it more, she found out the walk passed a medieval castle. “Oooo”, Andrea thought. And that’s where the story begins.
My first day in Düsseldorf I spent outside of the city. After some train delays I finally arrive in Solingen Schaberg, 2 S-bahn rides away. Only one other girl leaves the train here. It seems I’m not really in a town anymore. I am in the hills. I had no idea this area was so hilly! First I walk all the way to the bottom, where the Wupper river flows through a forested valley. There is beautiful park at the bottom, all in honor of the Müngstener bridge: the highest railroad bridge in Germany.
It’s a pretty picture, even though it’s in scaffolding and a lot of noise comes my way from underneath the white cloths. I’m early and it’s still pretty quiet people-wise. I turn on my App and start the navigation. The route sends me up and down through the forest. There are many many trails here, sometimes walking pretty much parallel but at different heights.
The easy trail to the castle only takes about an hour, but the Komoot user who designed this walk had more of a training in mind. Where others cross the river, I take a right turn back up the hill. The Wupper makes a funky turn and I weave through the forest until I see it again. It’s very peaceful, the shallow water running beside me, having the forest around me and the sun getting stronger by the minute.
On the other side of the river I finally make my way to the castle. I climb up and up and up until I get a beautiful view of the castle sticking out above the trees. Then my navigation tells me to turn left. Left? What left? I don’t see a left! On the map it looks like I would see a clear road. Upon further inspection it turns out there is a trail. Sort of… I go down the steep trail and have to walk through thorny bushes and slap branches out of my face. Then a spider web is blocking the whole path. This is not meant to be a trail. I think only people following this Komoot walk go down it!
I do end up on the other side, on a proper trail and follow it up and up and up again until I reach the castle. Wow! It’s cooler than I thought. For 6 Euro you can enter and explore all the rooms. It’s cool to see the castle, but they’ve also done a pretty good job with the exhibitions. Along the way you get to know the story of the castle and learn about the competition there used to be between the rich rulers of the area around Cologne.
Schloss Burg from the hiking trail 
The Schloss from its watch tower
Even the town around the castle is cute. The houses are “mountain style”, white with dark wooden planks, green shutters and flowers. There is a lower and an upper town and they’re connected by chairlift, in case you don’t want to walk. And this cute town is surrounded by hills, which you can see from the tower in the castle. Satisfied I soak in some sun before I make my way back to the train station. I take the easy route to the Müngstener bridge this time and hike back up the hillside to the S-bahn. This time the trains are running smoothly.
The lower lying trail 
What a view of the Müngstener bridge 
The courtyard of Schloss Burg 
Inside the castle 
The main hall was set up for a wedding today 
A punishment mask 
The town of Burg 
The lower town of Burg
Andrea safely arrives back in Düsseldorf. She’s tired, but there is a whole city to explore! And the weekend is starting! So Andrea decides to join the locals on a stroll along the Rhein river promenade to take in the sunshine until the sun sets. She’s adds another few kilometers to the day before having dinner and heading back to the hostel. When her head hits the pillow she quickly doses off. And she lives happily ever after.
