Barfusspfad

... or Barefoot path.

I have heard of this through patients - though many of them call it "barefoot park" - meh, same difference. I have thought the idea of this park sounded like fun, but we have never gotten around to going. We have some new friends who just arrived in May. Josh knew this family in Japan many years ago when their children were young. Now their kids are 14 and 11 - and they are bored to tears (which I get - they don't know anyone here yet, they have no friends, and have been cooped up while the family house hunts then unpacks). Needless to say, the kids are driving their parents crazy. I had been making some suggestions of easy day trips the family could do to get out and about to see things, but also to just burn off energy. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful summer weather and check out the barefoot park (or path).

This park is about an hour and a half from us. After winding through the back roads and getting lost twice, we found ourselves at the park. It has a cheap entry fee - 3 Euros for an adult. There was an area where you can store your shoes, then then it is time to take off on the path. The path is one giant circle, and you can spend as much or as little time as you want to walk along the path. It is a distance of 3.5 kilometers, or about 2 miles. It took us about an hour and a half to walk around the path once at a leisurely pace.

The path is suppose to offer different stimuli and senses for your feet - different textures. We started off walking through a trench of mud. Yes, thick, knee-deep mud.

After we left the mud trench, we walked along a path of bark which had different wood areas you could walk on - such as balance beams.

We followed a grass path for awhile before coming to a deep watch pool. That water was COLD!

After the cold water there was another grass pathway - which was beautiful. Germany is just gorgeous.

We then walked over a series of different stones - some large and flat, others small, then gravel, and sand.

We then came to the river. There were two chains set up that you held onto as you crossed. On me the water came up to my upper thighs, so on some people the water came up much higher. Some kids were soaking wet.

After the river, we walked along another grass path bordering the river which had different areas with balance toys, boxes of gravel, or other textured rocks.

The end of the path had my two favorite parts - a "swing" walking bridge, then a large rope bridge while crosses the river. Once you cross the rope bridge you have completed the path.

We enjoyed our afternoon, and it was a perfect time to get out of the house. There are other barefoot paths in Germany, and we want to check out more of them. We will be going back to this path to enjoy the outdoors and some "textures" on our feet.