Erbisberg/Sternwarte circular hiking trail Heidenheim

From Friedrich-Degeler-Platz, our path leads along Helmut-Bornefeld-Straße past the Pauluskirche, a
neo-Gothic building with a 75-metre-high tower.
neo-Gothic building with a 75-metre-high tower, left into the street "Am Wedelgraben" to St. Pöltener Straße. Here we turn left, go straight on and after the subway turn right into Alte Ulmer Straße. Continue left into Mörikestraße and then right into Theodor-Schäfer-Straße. From there we turn right into Steinstraße and then turn left along Giengener Straße. In front of the Netto supermarket, Erzknappenweg turns off to the right. Follow this until you reach steps after 300 m, which take you to Sonnenrainweg. There we turn left and follow the path marked with a rhombus for 2 km. Here we turn sharply left onto a footpath to the Ötterlesbrunnen. The Ötterlesbrunnen is a spring outlet above the karst water table, whose name refers to an "Etter", a marker boundary.
After this detour, we go back again, following the Albvereinsweg path straight ahead for 200 m through the forest. Via a gravel path on the right, we come along the quarry fence to the viewing platform above the quarry. From there we can see a bizarre group of rocks. Here, marl rock consisting of clay and lime was extracted from pits or mine shafts. After 300 m, the observatory is on the right. It was inaugurated in September 2006 and is the first and so far the only one in the district. Information is available at: www.astronomie-heidenheim.de. Continue downhill and turn left before the houses to the Kinderfestplatz. At the TV transfer station, a footpath leads about 300 m to a viewing rock at the Hohlenstein. We walk back to the observatory and continue along the path until we reach the road "Oberer Erbisberg", where we turn left, walk to the Naturfreundehaus and cross the playground. Approx. 400 m up the hill, a footpath leads to the viewing rock on the Rappeshalde. Presumably wine was once grown here, "Rappes" indicates artificial wine made from marc. Back at the Naturfreundehaus, we hike along the Erzknappenweg to the Netto shopping centre and turn left there into the path "Am Baderhölzle". From there we continue to Hölderlinstraße, past the Waldkirche, down steps to the right into Eisenbergstraße until we reach Giengener Straße. We use the pedestrian subway on the left and return to the starting point via St. Pöltener Straße.