Being a kid from Vermont I seek the water. I grew up swimming in lakes, ponds, swimming holes, brooks, rivers, streams, gorges, and quarries.
Here in Hohenfels I’m looking for those same water opportunities for my children.
That’s why on a sunny day with temperatures in the 80s, Hunter (11), Eva (9), and Acadia (7) and I jumped in the car for the 80 minute drive to Rothsee. Had we taken the Autobahn the drive would have been 60 minutes but what’s the point of racing to a place where you are trying to relax? Why not take the backroads? Indeed. And the drive was beautiful.
Just before arriving at Rothsee we went through the town of Hiltpoltstein where a castle sits on a hill nestled in the center of town. After Googling the castle I learned you can spend the night in this thousand year old structure.
When we entered the closest parking lot, the first words out of Eva’s mouth were, ‘can we come here again?’ I was a bit stunned and asked if the parking lot was that great that she was already committed to a second visit. But what did it for her was the quick glimpse of the pirate ship playground with the blue waters behind it.
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Please note there are several parking lots around the lake that provide water access. For our visit on this day we visited the lake access near the pirate playground. You can follow GPS direction to parking here.
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We visited on a Wednesday at 1400 and I was expecting the crowd to be thin with most Deutsche working and the kids back in school. Based on the overflow parking lots that were empty I guess the crowds get even crazier however the crowd on this day was crazy enough. I had people bumping up against me in both the water and on the sandy beach.
The water temperature wasn’t Gulf of Mexico warm but wasn’t as cold as the waters off the coast of Maine. For Germany it wasn’t bad. I hear many complain about the rocky beaches and lakes in Germany but that hasn’t been my experience however it’s worth noting there is a thin strip of sand along the shore. It’s worth noting for those with small children that the water gets deep quickly. It was over my head within probably fifteen feet.
Two of my highlights were the dock and the raft. It’s just a short swim out to a raft where you can choose to lounge or jump and dive into the lake.
The dock was something Eva spotted from the raft. On our way back to the car we stopped at the dock for the kids to jump off a few times. This was perfect as there is no ladder so the kids had to struggle to pull themselves back up on the dock after each jump. Just the perfect thing to tire your children out.
