The tour starts in Wäschenbeuren. If, before starting your hike, you would like to immerse yourself in the Staufer era, visit Wäscherschloss Castle and the local castle warden Krisztina Mutter, who loves to chat with visitors about the day-to-day culture in former times: which cereals were cultivated, what people ate and how they slept. The wall around the building, made of rusticated cut stones, is ten metres (almost 33 feet) high. The castle, which dates back to 1220, was part of the Hohenstaufen fortifications. From here, you could see the ancestral castle on the mountain, and spot any approaching aggressors.