Basel Allschwilerwald Running Route

Click here for route map
Length 9.8 km (6.1 miles), terrain rolling hills

Basel running routes:
Basel Rhine River Run
Basel Allschwilerwald Trail Run
For more running routes, see Route List.

Here is a link to a brochure (in German) of the woods, including a map of all its trails

If you want to do a trail run while in Basel, here is the place to go. It also adds an interesting twist by crossing the border into France, visiting the French village of Neuwiller.

Basel sits right in the northwest corner of Switzerland, and the city limits touch upon Germany to the north and France to the west. If you want to do some trail running in the countryside, you'll have to head toward the edge of town.

In Allshwilerwald

So, to try something very different from my usual river-run, I decided to head to the Allschwilerwald, a hilly area of woods and fields southwest of town. A tram-line heads right there, and it points right towards the French border. It is a popular running area, and you will pass many runners along the way in the evenings.

NOTE: If you do this run, make sure you bring your passport! Although, chances are that you'll see no hint of a border patrol, you are legally obligated to carry a passport in case anyone wants to check. I only saw horses and chickens out there, myself.

To get to the start of the run, take the number-8 tram line south to the final station at Neuweilerstrasse. The line runs right through the heart of Basel.

The tram stop: run up that street on the right!

At the tram stop, turn southwest and run down Herrenstrasse for a block to the next corner. You'll see a raised, parklike area across the street to the left. There is a small reservoir pond in there.

Turn left and run to the east end of the pond, then turn right to continue heading southwest, with the pond on your right side, and a stream to your left.

Head up this trail next to the pond

After the pond, keep running along the right side of the stream. Just stay on that side of the stream for the next kilometer, no matter what other trails might branch off.

You will have woods (and a Vita Parcours) on the left, and fields from an old Swiss Army shooting range on the right. Chances are, there will be construction going on on that property: on the day after I did this run, all the old buildings were cleared of squatters, and they were torn down the same day. Apartment buildings are planned for the property.

Follow the trail on the right, past the Parcours on the left

You will start going uphill into the woods, and head through an area of garden plots. The stream will now be further off to the left, down in the little valley. You will then come to a spot with some wood carvings on the right side, and a trail branching off to the right, but just keep running straight.

At the top of the hill, 1-km after the pond, the stream will curve towards you from the left, and the path will cross over it, getting narrow. About 20 meters further, a the first trail on the right, turn there and head west, with young woods to the right (along the stream) and older woods on the left.

The trail crosses over the stream ahead, getting narrow. Turn right at the first opportunity!

In just another 200 meters, you'll come to a paved road, Oberwilerstrasse. Turn right and cross the street in just 20 meters, now turning left after the guardrail ends, onto the dirt road going into a field.

Crossing Oberwilerstrasse: Run to that field and turn left onto the dirt trail

This long series of fields will now head uphill, with woods to either side. Just keep heading uphill for 1.2-km, going southwest.

Heading uphill between the fields: Switzerland to the left, France to the right

For the last half-kilometer, the dirt road forms the border to France. The fields to the left are in Switzerland, and the fields to the right are in France. Keep running until you come to a yellow way-marker at the top of the hill. It will point to the right to go to the French village of Neuwiller.

Way-marker: turn right to run to Neuwiller

Turn right.

Already on the other side of the road, the signs will be in French. You will now run downhill into a pretty valley, with Neuwiller at the bottom. Many houses seem to have one car registered in France and one in Basel. The people speak the same Swiss-German dialect as the people in Basel, too.

In Neuwiller

The street is called Rue d'Oberwil. You will wind by some houses, a small school, and the town hall until you reach the main village street at the bottom.

Turn around there and head back the same way that you came. On your way back down the long series of hills, heading northeast, you will be able to see the hills of the Black Forest in Germany in the distance.

On the way back, with Black Forest on the horizon

Madrid Casa de Campo Running Route

Click here for route map
Length 8.5 km (5.3 miles), terrain rolling hills

Madrid running routes:
Madrid Old Town Sights route
Madrid Parque del Oeste route 
Madrid Parque del Retiro route
Madrid Casa de Campo trail run
For more running routes, see Route List.

This is, in my opinion, Madrid's best running trail. It circles through the Casa de Campo countryside just west of the Madrid old town. If you've ever stood near the royal palace up on the bluff and looked westwards across the rolling countryside, you've been viewing the Casa de Campo.

Trail in the Casa de Campo with spring wildflowers

I first discovered this area many years ago, and I was excited to try it again this week on a business trip back to Madrid. The Casa de Campo is an area of rolling hills covered by scrub oaks, Spanish pines and bushes, the site of an old royal hunting grounds. The name comes from the hunting lodge that once stood on the land. Since the 1930s, it has been a public park.

There are lots of trails criss-crossing the landscape, but this route will take an easy-to-follow loop along the main trails. But once you've gotten to know it a bit, you might want to explore other trails wandering through this extended area.

If you are staying anywhere in central Madrid, you can easily get to the start of this run, just west of the royal palace. Or, if you are staying further away (or you want to avoid running uphill to get back into town) you can take the Metro to the Lago station (Linea 10 towards Puerta del Sur). This will place you at the southwest corner of the Campo lake, right on the route.

I put the official start of this route at the western end of Cuesta San Vicente, the busy street that heads westwards along the north side of the Sabatini Gardens and the Campo del Morro park, below the royal palace.

At the traffic circle, cross Paseo Virgen del Puerto and run diagonally to the left through the new park, heading westwards downhill to the river.

Bridge to Casa de Campo

Cross the stone pedestrian bridge over the Manzanares River and head straight west along the paved, car-free Paseo Embarcadero. You will go uphill and then around the corner of the Lago, a small, nicely landscaped lake used by rowers, and lined by a promenade and parkland.

You will pass several nicely done trail maps of the Campo at this end of the park. Later, though, you won't find any more, so best study them now! You'll notice a lot of mountain bikers, too. The sport has really taken off in Madrid in the last few years, and this is ideal country for it. You'll have to watch out for them speeding down the hills. It's best to take the dirt paths parallel to the paved streets when you are heading up or down a big hill.

Run past the south shore of the lake and the restaurants lining its western shore. To the left, you can see the Lago Metro station.

Running past the Lago

We need to keep going straight ahead, westwards. You will see a paved road, the Ronda Lago, blocked to cars. Keep running westwards along the road, or take the dirt path parallel to the road on the right side. The road follows a stream on the left side.

Ronda Lago street is blocked to car traffic

In less than a kilometer from the lake, you will cross an intersection and come to a spot where a parking area is visible along the left, for the amusement park behind it. Just keep running straight.

In another half-kilometer, you'll come to a spot where the road splits. Follow the paved street to the right side.

Turn right here. The dirt road in the middle is the bike trail

NOTE: in the middle, between the two paved streets, there's a wide dirt path that heads uphill. This is the new mountain-bike path, which is also a good run. It follows a ridge to the west end of Casa de Campo, and is used by a lot of runners and hikers as well as bikers.

Follow the paved road as it turns to the right to head north, up a hill. Go straight up the hill, and then down again on the other side, watching for out-of-control bikers. You will be running along a fenced-in protected area on the right side.

When you get to the bottom of the hill, turn to the right to run eastwards along this side of the protected area.

Turn here to head east along the fence

You are now running on a wide dirt path, through rolling country. You'll go under an old brick aqueduct at one point.

After a kilometer, you'll come to a gap in the fence, a place where a small trail turns right to go into the protected area. Ignore it and stay on the main trail.

The aqueduct

You'll see the Teleférico on the right side, a gondola ride from Parque del Oeste in Madrid, to the top of the hill past the protected area.

Heading eastwards towards town

Run downhill, towards the city-center buildings on the horizon. Keep going eastwards until you run into Madrid's main bike trail, where you turn right and head south. You'll hear the M-30 expressway just to the east.

The last stretch, heading south to the Lago

But, after passing a traffic island, the expressway noise disappears as it curves away and you run by a walled-in garden to the east. In less than a kilometer, you will hit the east end of the Lago, where you continue eastwards until you get back to Paseo Embarcadero again (at another old aqueduct). Here, turn left and run the 800 meters back to the start again (or turn right to run the half-kilometer to Lago station.

Dortmund Westfalenpark Running Route

Click here for route map  
Length 7.5 km (4.7 miles), terrain flat with one easy hill

For more running routes, see Route List.

Dortmund is a traditional steel and coal town, and the biggest beer-brewing city in Germany. But despite its industrial nature, here is a route that takes you through parkland almost the whole way for two kilometers from the town center to one of the nicest parks you'll ever visit.

It heads south from the town center through a series of small parks to the much bigger, beautiful Westfalenpark. The Westfalenpark started as a national garden exhibition grounds in 1959. There is an entrance fee: 3 Euros during the day, half price after 6 p.m.

Westfalenpark view towards Phönix steel works

This is the only route in this blog where, for the main part of the run, you have to pay an admission fee. But the price is completely worth it. And this is the only way to run through a large green area from central Dortmund, so bring a few euros with you on this run.

Westfalenpark, with its 70 hectares, includes everything that a decent park needs. It tries to satisfy everybody: with statues, playgrounds, ponds with waterbirds, lawns, rose-gardens, a lakeside bandstand, a Japanese garden, a soccer practice field, mini-golf, cafés, a gondola (ski-lift) over the park, a mini-railroad, flower beds everywhere... And they have basically succeeded in creating a place which everyone can enjoy.

NOTE: On my first trip to Dortmund, many years ago, I ran further southeast than the Westfalenpark and experienced a surrealistic run through the old Phönix steel works grounds at night. From a distance, I had seen its ovens spewing out molten red steel into waiting railroad cars, accompanied by ear-splitting screeches. Endless rows of coal cars rolled slowly through the industrial wastelands to fuel the ovens. I was running up and down hills of slag, passing a World War II-era bunker teetering on the edge of a cliff, with exhaust-gas flames and steel-ovens bathing the scene in fiery orange light. The steel works have closed down now, and much of the area is occupied by a lake, but part of the steel plant has been left as an industrial museum that can be wandered by the curious.

The Westfalenpark Route
We'll start the run right in the heart of Dortmund's pleasant downtown, at the square between St. Reinhold's church and St. Mary's. Dortmund was badly bombed out in World War II, but has lots of nice pedestrian streets and plazas today.

Market fountain looking back at St. Reinhold's

Turn your back to St. Reinhold's and run south past Burger King into the market square just a few meters further, surrounded by house-pubs for various Dortmund breweries. (They're all worth visiting for good beer and typical Dortmund schnitzel dinners.)

In the market square, turn right to run diagonally through the square, and exit at the southwest corner into the even larger (but characterless) Hansaplatz square.

Run straight south along Wißstraße, and you'll run right into the first park, Stadtgarten, with an underground station at the entrance. Run straight through the park until you get to the loud street on the other side, Südwall. Turn left on one of the park walkways before Südwall and run eastwards until you come to the busy cross-street, Ruhrallee.

In Stadtgarten park

Turn right to continue southwards along Ruhrallee, and after a block you'll come to a triangular plaza in front of the Stadthaus train station (look for the train overpass). Turn left to cross the street then continue running right through the station.

Stadthaus train station: run straight through it!

You'll come out into the next green square, where you follow the main path along the left side. You'll see the gigantic TV tower off in the distance, which stands right in our destination, Westfalenpark.

After crossing Saarlandstraße, you'll see the entrance to the next park along the left, the Stadewäldchen. This is a narrow, three-block-long green-belt that connects directly into Westfalenpark.

In the Stadewäldchen

Just cross the two cross-streets and soon you'll come to a footbridge that leads across the Rheinlanddamm expressway.

On the other side, you'll find yourself facing the entrance to Westfalenpark. As I said, you'll have to bring a few euros for the entrance fee. If you get there after 6 p.m., that entrance will be closed, but just follow the path along the right side, running towards the TV tower, and just 20 meters further, you'll come to the entrance gate that is open in the evenings until 11 p.m. You can later get out any gate, via exit turnstiles.

You will be standing at the foot of the formidable TV tower.

Did someone say there was a TV tower near here?

You can now basically follow any trail that you please, of course. This route turns right and circles the park counter-clockwise.

It first goes by the soccer practice field and mini-golf course, then goes by the flamingo pond and a café. Now you turn left and head south through the rose-garden area until you get to the south end of the park. Now turn left again, running by the renewable-energy concept building used by the park administration.

Spring flowers in Westfalenpark

The park opens up to the southeast at the gondola cable lift, where you can turn right and loop through this end of the park, running downhill. You'll come to a big pond with a bandstand, where you turn left and run towards the southeast corner of the park, with its Japanese garden.

Beer-kettle fountain with view towards bandstand

Cut up through the Japanese garden, taking the step-stones over the pond and then up the hill to get to the path along the eastern edge of the park. Turn left and run back uphill, going north.

The Japanese garden

You'll come back near to where you first entered the park, at the Kaiserhain Teich (pond).

Now go out the exit turnstile and follow the trail over the pedestrian bridge back into the Stadewäldchen park and run back through the Stadthaus station.

This time, to see a bit more of downtown, just head straight north along Rheinallee (which then becomes Kleppingstraße) back to the square at St. Rheinhold's, passing the city hall, a medieval gate-tower and a strange sculpture just before the church.

The sculpture