Schmidmühlen offers several distinct starting points for planning a trip: the seasonal Star Trail with its glass bauble hut, a historic market center and a stage of the Vils canoe tour. This lets you choose the focus of your stay according to the season and your interests. An arm of the Lauterach also runs through the market town.
Star Trail and Glass Bauble Hut
The glass bauble hut in front of the town hall is the final stop and a highlight of the Star Trail. More than 3,500 Christmas baubles are hung inside it. The Star Trail is set up from the first Sunday of Advent until Epiphany. If you are planning your trip specifically around this attraction, use this period as a guide and check the seasonal details before you travel.
Historic Market Center
Schmidmühlen’s historic town center was renovated from 1989 to 1995 with support from the urban development funding program. The market center features farm burgher houses with broad hop lofts. This brings together two specific perspectives on the town: the history of the town center’s renovation and the architectural styles found in the market. If you take townscapes and architectural history into account when planning your trip, this focus offers a different facet from the seasonal Star Trail.
Vils Canoe Tour and Lauterach Arm
The waterways offer another way to plan your visit. An arm of the Lauterach runs through the market town of Schmidmühlen. The fourth stage of the Vils canoe tour is a separate route: it passes through Vilswörth and the market town before reaching Emhof. To understand the river route, the course of this specific stage is what matters, while the Lauterach arm is another waterway feature of the market town.
More to Explore in the Wider Amberg-Sulzbach Destination
Cultural attractions offer further highlights in the wider Amberg-Sulzbach destination. The East Bavarian Mining and Industry Museum at Kultur-Schloss Theuern researches and documents the mining and industry of eastern Bavaria and keeps their history alive. The Ore Trail connects sites with a mining tradition spanning more than 1,000 years and passes through cultural and natural landscapes. The museum and trail offer different ways to explore the region’s mining history: research and documentation at the museum, and a connection between cultural and natural landscapes along the trail.
Nature lovers can also choose from different ways to explore the wider Amberg-Sulzbach destination. The Theuern nature observation platform was built on the edge of the wastewater treatment plant’s polishing ponds. The adjacent wetland, with the Vils, oxbow lakes and ponds, is a year-round resting and breeding site for local birds and those that migrate from the north. One specific hiking option is the Felsenweg: the 2.7-kilometer route leads from Sackdilling through the rock labyrinth to the Bauernlöcher and an impressive rocky landscape; the walking time is about 45 minutes. This gives you a choice between a natural area of year-round importance and a hike with a stated walking time.
Traditional Schlachtschüssel is part of the regional food culture of the Amberg-Sulzbach region, and many restaurants serve it regularly. It includes Wurschtsuppn, boiled pork and blood, liver and bratwurst made according to house recipes. As dates vary from restaurant to restaurant, check the relevant date if you want to include this meal in your travel plans.
Discover more destinations: Freudenberg, Hirschau, Etzelwang, Rieden, Weigendorf, Kümmersbruck, Birgland, Kastl
See the overview of the wider destination: Amberg-Sulzbach.
