WALKING A PERMANENTER WEG
(Permanent Trail)
When you're traveling in Germany or just have to take a day off to walk or there are no weekend walking events close enough and you want to add numbers to your distance and event books, check out a few of the expanding list of routes available nearly every day of the year. At the WERBER tables, pick up brochures (Werbungen) at your next weekend walk or visit the German Volkssport website http://www.dvv-wandern.de/default.php for information on Permanent Trails as well as a variety of other Volkssport-related activities. Access the International Federation of Popular Sports (IVV) website, select National Members, for website or contact information of other member nations.
On the German website, select Wanderwege, then select Permanente Wanderwege. Scroll through the list of district and regional organizations within the German Volkssport Association (DVV) for a city or area that interests you.
Betrieber is the sponsoring club
Auskunft is the event coordinator's name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and sometimes a website.
Start und Zeil is the Start/Finish location's address
Startzeiten shows the earliest time you may begin the walk and may show which days/time frame the start point is open/closed
Zielschluss is the time you must complete the walk for that day. Make sure the Start Point will still be open when you return so that you may obtain stamps in your event/distance books.
There may be other bits of information describing the terrain, possible weather conditions, and any other helpful hints the organizer deems important.
If your German is not as strong as you'd like, access Altavista's Babel Fish or any other translator for assistance.
The event info sheet provided at the Start Point should include pictures of the signs you are to follow, as well as hints as to the checkpoint information to enter on your event card. I take a picture of anything I suspect may be a control point in case I never find something that reaches out and grabs me, saying "I'm what you're looking for!" Now that I've got around ten Permanent Trails under my feet, I have been able to better recognize a self-controlled checkpoint. Some actually say something like "SK" for selbstkontrolle (self-control) or spell out the words and will have a short series of numbers/letters or combinination indicated to enter on your start card. There is at least one Control Point, and there may often be more. Most of the time the trail is marked well, but it's helpful to be able to translate some of the instructions.
Some terms which you should know include, but are not limited to:
       vor (before), nach (after), über (over), überqueren (across), links (left), rechts (right),
       geradeaus (straight ahead), strasse (street), weg (way), pfad (path).
Other terms will be added as needed.