Devil's Castle Route

Visible from afar is the Neufelsberg Castle, built around 1400, popularly known as the Devil's Castle. Today it is a tourist attraction, from whose castle plateau—once you have reached it—you have the most beautiful view of Saarland. Before you stretches not only the Saar Valley; on clear days, you can even see as far as the Schaumberg, 30 km away.

On little-traveled roads heading west, where Lorraine is not far away, we cycle over gentle rolling hills. Here on the "Gau" runs the border between Germany and France. There, the towns are called Kerlingen or Düren, where the Moselle Franconian dialect, typical for our border region as a mixture of German and Lorraine language, is still spoken today. Close to our route lies Leidingen. Here you walk with one foot in France, the other in Germany, as the border runs right through the village street.

The route experiences another highlight in Gisingen. There, Haus Saargau awaits visitors with rustic charm and elegant furnishings. Haus Saargau is a prime example of a unique building type found only in our border region. These so-called Lorraine farmhouses are large single houses combining living and working areas, humans and animals under one roof. The farmhouse garden, which belongs to the nationally known project "Gardens Without Borders," delights with a variety of medicinal plants and culinary herbs and is a well-known resting place for hikers and cyclists (Opening hours Haus Saargau: Sunday - Wednesday 2 - 5 pm, Thu - Fri 10 am - 12 pm). No less historic is the area around Oberlimberg. Here, distinctive embankments near our route bear witness to Celtic fortification walls. These so-called "Swedish ramparts" in local parlance are trench and rampart systems that sealed off the ridge of the Limberg, which experienced cyclists can climb by bike.