Kraichgau-Stromberg ? gently travelling in the "Land of 1,000 Hills"
This part of the German southwest was always a good place to live: This climate is southern, the sunshine duration is high, and there are splendid forests and meadows, wine and lots of water. Surrounded by the Rhine and Neckar river regions, the Odenwald ("Odin's Forest) in the North and the Black Forest in the south, the countryside gently "undulates" between Heidelberg and Karlsruhe.
And every chronological era has left behind impressions: In the town of Mauer south of Heidelberg one found the lower jaw of the heretofore oldest European, the "Homo Heidelbergensis" (600,000 years).
Far over 100 fortresses testify to the knightly dynasty, whilst the Bronze Era has left behind many burial mounds. Bruchsal offers Baroque, whereas the monastery town Maulbronn (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site) features the Romanesque and Gothic period. And Knittlingen, immortalised in literary terms by Goethe, highlights the alchemistic magic of the native town of Dr. Faust.
In terms of tourism, the Kraichgau region - the "Tuscany of Baden" - with the Stromberg-Heuchelberg Nature Park (with 20% oak portion an important supplier for Barrique wine barrels to France) and the Swabian vine country along the Neckar River is a paradise for gently travelling with cultural amenities. The region is also still a genuine farmer's countryside: A dozen farmsteads have joined together in a joint venture, "Urlaub auf Bauern- und Winzerhöfen" ("Holiday on Farmsteads & Vintner Estates").
