What rocks and streams around Nuremberg tell us

There are 835 bicycle parking spaces in the immediate vicinity of the station.

From Nuremberg main station it is a short walk of about ten minutes to rent a bike.

To do so, walk from the south exit along Hummelsteiner Weg, turn left at Humboldtplatz and then immediately into Dovestraße. There you will find the bicycle rental Rent a bike.

At the private bike rental in Nuremberg, you can choose from a wide range of bikes: from Holland bikes to tracking bikes, from city bikes to pedelecs. The bike rental also offers a storage service for excess luggage and tours with professional and certified city guides. Rent a bike is available from 9:00 to 18:30.

Now it's off and out of the city. At first you keep mainly to the east and ride through Gleißhammer and Zarbelshof to Schmausenbuck.

The Schmausenbuck is an elevation of almost 400 metres above zero in the middle of the Lorenzer Reichswald forest on the eastern edge of Nuremberg. Its extensive network of paths and trails invites you to go hiking and cycling. The Nuremberg Zoo has been located on its southern slope since May 1939, which you now circle around to the left.

The Beech Blade is a stratified spring, symmetrically enclosed and accessible via a curved sandstone staircase. This facility was renovated in 1908, 1932 and most recently in 2000. However, the Buchenklinge was first mentioned in a document 650 years ago. The reason for this was also a renovation at that time. The spring has therefore been known for much longer and was used, among others, by the workers of the nearby quarry and by excursionists as a resting place.

The beech blade is reluctant to give up its cool water. Have you tasted it?

Through the Zerzabelshofer Forst, part of the Lorenzer Reichswald, you cycle to your next destination, the Schlüsselstein.

The strikingly shaped sandstone monolith stands out lonely from an otherwise stone-free environment. It is about ten metres long and wide, five metres high and full of notches and small caves. The name of the rock is derived from its bowl-shaped depressions, which partially fill with water when it rains. In prehistoric times, the keystone may have been of cultic importance. In the 16th and 17th centuries it served as a boundary marker.

Continue east through the forest. Keep your eyes open, you are about to come across another strangely shaped rock - the Froschstein.

Viewed from the north, the approximately five-metre-long and two-metre-high castle sandstone rock resembles a frog. It is worth taking a closer look: Have you spotted the elephant in the stone?

Continuing on, you first cross the A9. Then the path leads through the municipality-free area of Brunn and to the beautiful course of the Röthenbach river and into the gorge.

As befits a gorge, it is sometimes very narrow here, so everyone should be considerate of each other.

The Rumpelbach Gorge is a small rocky notch made of sandstone at the headwaters of the Röthenbach stream and is also called Röthenbachklamm. Over thousands of years, the stream has burrowed here into the transitional layers of the Rhaetian-Lias sandstone and the Upper Feuerletten, which are difficult to distinguish. The rock, which is highly weathered in places, was formed about 200 million years ago when the northwest of central Franconia lay in a shallow inland sea. Fine-grained and sandy sediments were deposited and later became claystone and sandstone. Today, this gorge, pleasantly shaded in summer, is filled with rich vegetation and dense moss.

Take your time as you follow the course of the Röthenbach stream northwards until you come across the first of the two Birken lakes.

In summer, the quarry pond is ideal for swimming. Otherwise, the lakes, which are not developed for tourism, are a rather quiet natural paradise for water birds.

Continue to the last destination on today's tour: the Hammer factory estate.

The Hammer factory estate is a fortified medieval industrial settlement, one of the most important sites of its kind in Europe. As early as 1372 there was a mill, which formed the centre of the small village and industrial estate on the banks of the Pegnitz. From 1492 at the latest, there was also a brass hammer next to it. Brass products were produced here almost without interruption until its destruction in the Second World War and final closure at the end of the 1950s.

The factory village was not only technically outstanding, but also created an exemplary social system early on. An exhibition in the ensemble, which has been protected as an industrial monument since 1977, tells the story of a unique industrial asset. Some of the historic buildings, which have been preserved and maintained to this day, date back to the 16th and 17th centuries and can be visited.

You can get back to the centre of Nuremberg by following the banks of the Pegnitz and the Wöhrnder See.

If you would like to enjoy some hearty Franconian food before you leave, why not stop off at one of the oldest inns in the centre of Nuremberg? The Trödelstuben on a Pegnitz island offer traditional culinary specialities, beers and wine - all from the region. (Trödelmarkt 30 44, 90403 Nuremberg, Tel. 0911 36772767)