Hey Everybody-
So we've been without internet for a week now days now... certainly not the end of the world, but it makes it hard to post updates. A lot has changed, so let's recap...We were done with Frankfurt. Friday, Sean and I went for aHUGE walk all over the city, maybe 4-5 hours including the stop for coffee. It was great... the overcast skies made for great color for the camera, and I think that Sean and I grabbed some great shots in Frankfurt's m
ore industrial neighborhood. Got back tothe hostel, dressed, and headed out to see some live music at this little beach-themed bar Sean had seen earlier that day. If you're the kind of person who really digs on your wedding singer's greatest hits, this would have been the night for you. Two Turkish guys with an electronic drum kit, keyboard, and guitar sing such fab hits as“Celebration” and “Dancing Queen.” However, if this is NOT your musical preference, you may look like this -->
PS- I'm in love with the photo apps on my phone. But that's a whole other blog posting...
So whatever, headed back... got some icecream, listened to the 20-somethings vomit in the bathroom down the hall, and we were done with Frankfurt. ;) Next stop? Thale.
Lots. Well, 2 things, but 2 MAJOR things. We really hadn't made plans for the trip in terms of booking rooms or finding the hiking path that we were planning on trekking. But with 14 hostels in town, we were sure that we'd find something fairly easy. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE!!! Apparently, German's have their own holidays and plans that they dont' share with the rest of the world. Thale is a VERY popular destination for families around this time of year, so after EIGHT Different Hostels over a 3-hour walk without a single room, we were really getting desperate.But we were OK... Sean called the 2nd hostel we approached to double check, and they ended up having a room for us. Why the woman at the front desk didn't know is something we may never know, but she has earned a spot on our Black List. >:/ Whatever... we each had a huge beer that only cost us 3
Euro total, got a free shot of Uzo earlier in the day, and thus we were happy.
Next day, goal was to find the hiking route from Thale to Der Broken, the tallest mtn in central Germany at a whopping 1141m (yes, I'm being cheeky). There is a path that runs through the national park here called the Harzer Hexen-Stieg. Hexen means witches, and the theme is everywhere in Thale and along the walk (think Brother's Grimm, Hanzel & Gretel, THAT area of Germany). It's like some crazy crafter's dream... I don't think anyone here has less than 10 little flying witches around their home or in restaurants. Anywho, Sean has taken to calling it the Witchy Walk. What's nice is that there are smaller towns close together along path, so we've just been staying in little hostels/BnB rather than camping. The scenery is breath-taking. The path runs along the Bode River which cuts through the valley (the info station in town said this region is the deepest rocky valley in Germany, or something to that effect). The path is pretty rocky with the first couple miles or so at a pretty steady climb up. Once you reach Tresenburg, it levels off to a nice forest walk. We stayed the first night in Altenbrak at the Bergfried, a nice little hostel-type establishment. It looks like this -->
Hunting and gardening appear to be the main past times here, and the restaurant we dined in was a virtual trophy room. An 15-point (that's 15 total on both sides) set of antlers held a prominent position on the wall next to various stuffed cohorts and I think a set of horns from some kind of game sheep. Sean had a bit of wild boar that the owner had recently shot, and I had some trout in the spirit of all the river fishing that we witnessed. The whole meal was a 2.5 hour experience... I think the waitress kept forgetting about us even though we were at least 20 years younger than every other patron and sitting smack dab in the middle of the room. They're forgiven... it was super tasty.
Nice German breakfast in the morning... bread, various types of meats, cheeses, soft boiled eggs, coffee, and nice conversation with the owners with Sean translating along the way. At one point, I just had something stuck in my throat resulting in a pathetic little cough, and the host jumped at the chance to give us booze first thing in the morning. He laid out a teeny little beer mug and filled it with some kind of herbed liquor. He called it “hiking gas”... all the benefits of cough medicine and none of the crappy aftertaste. He was right... it was tasty. None of that Wild Turkey afterburn ;) The trail between Altenbrak and Hasselfelde was about 10-12km depending on which sign posts you read (there could be a 1-2km difference even reading signs across the trail from one another). All in all though, we hiked for about 4 hours with lots of pauses for photo ops, snacking, and just to enjoy the scenery.
Trail today was more akin to truck routes than single-track, and aside from the senior hiking group we passed on the way out of town, we didn't see anyone. The Hexen-Stieg at this point has combined itself with another route called the Köhlerweg which, we're guessing, follows some kind of coal route. There were several signs referring to wood:coal ratios (it takes 12-15 square meter of wood to equal 1 ton of coal). There is clearly a lot of lumbering out here with the occasional hillside barren of trees, but only in small amounts. For the past few days, we had also noticed several tunnels burrowing into the rockface along the trail with cast iron doors blocking them; signs more or less indicated that they were old copper mines. Makes for good pictures at any rate.
There seems to be a recurrent theme in German interior decorating... lots and lots and lots of chachkees... collectibles... very small things masking themselves as decorations. And the challenge is to get as many of these small, useless objects on your walls or shelves as possible. Good examples would be collector plates, figurines, coffee mugs, or stuffed animals (the kind taxidermists make). Can you believe the last pension we stayed at stuffed Bambi?!? Two of them?!?! But Schierke is definitely a tourist town... this is where the train to the top of Der Brocken starts. We were going to hike to the Brocken without the packs, and then crash in Shierke again for a night, but have decided to press forward. The plan was to head to Torfhaus, but our hostess recommended Wernigerode (titled, the most colorful town in the Harz region).
The climb to the Brocken with the packs was super silly, and just masochistic. I was in bad form with the blisters on my foot, and sore shoulders. But we made it, and top was just astounding. The landscape was nothing... bare ground with huge towers, a hotel, train station, and visitor's center. The view was the money... you could see to the valley below for miles and miles (or as the locals say, kilometers und kilometers). It also holds some significance for The Wall, but I couldn't read anything so... poop. There is a coal-burning train that can take tourists up and down the mountain, and luckily they had one that could take us directly to Wernigerode if we waited a couple hours. Glühwein kept us nicely occupied (look it up).
Wernigerode certainly kept up with its name. It's probably what you would imagine if you thought “charming German town” (above is the view from our apt window). Sounds like it's been around since at least 1500s, and is built around a gorgeous old courthouse, or as they call it, Rathaus... no joke. It's a bank now, and includes the visitor's center. And just FYI, visitor's centers out here are super amazing and helpful. In every circumstance, they assisted us with getting lodgings in town (including researching rates and calling to make reservations), and helped us get oriented.. and it's FREE!!. We ended up with a small, 2-bedroom apt for 30 Euro/night... Amazing. We gave ourselves a rest day so Sean could focus on getting over his cold, and to let the wounds on my foot heal up some. In general, this last day and a half has been about amazing food, great beer, and picking up a few things we learned were missing from our travel arsenal. Tomorrow we leave for Munich and Oktoberfest.
So despite blisters, muddy trails, aching muscles, and stinky laundry, these last few days have been exceptional. Getting out of the city was the right idea, and despite our lack of planning, everything came together nicely. I think if we were to do it again, we'd camp the route, and not bring all the silly electronics along. This whole trip could have easily been done in 3 days with lighter packs. But it was nice to see the German countryside, and get a taste of a more rural lifestyle. No internet, no computers (not even for businesses), just gardening and hunting, baking at home, and tasteless coffee ;)
So whatever, headed back... got some icecream, listened to the 20-somethings vomit in the bathroom down the hall, and we were done with Frankfurt. ;) Next stop? Thale.
Thale is a town in the Harz Mountains in centralish Germa
ny. The train ride was about 5.5 hours long with 2 changes and almost no
wait time at the transitions (Score!) REALLY beautiful, scenic, and oh-so-very German. Open tracks of green with parks, stone churches, and sculpture... they have a small theme park for kids with ropes courses, games, and things to climb all over. A gondola is there to take you to the top of the ridge for a nice view of the valley below, and the ski lift hauled downhill mtn bikers off to do their own brand of insanity. Walking paths follow the river where fly fisherman were working the water on one side, and stone walls covered in vibrant moses and tufts of grass on the other. SOOO looks like the Pac NW. So with all this beauty and brilliance around us, what could go wrong?Lots. Well, 2 things, but 2 MAJOR things. We really hadn't made plans for the trip in terms of booking rooms or finding the hiking path that we were planning on trekking. But with 14 hostels in town, we were sure that we'd find something fairly easy. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE!!! Apparently, German's have their own holidays and plans that they dont' share with the rest of the world. Thale is a VERY popular destination for families around this time of year, so after EIGHT Different Hostels over a 3-hour walk without a single room, we were really getting desperate.But we were OK... Sean called the 2nd hostel we approached to double check, and they ended up having a room for us. Why the woman at the front desk didn't know is something we may never know, but she has earned a spot on our Black List. >:/ Whatever... we each had a huge beer that only cost us 3
Euro total, got a free shot of Uzo earlier in the day, and thus we were happy.Next day, goal was to find the hiking route from Thale to Der Broken, the tallest mtn in central Germany at a whopping 1141m (yes, I'm being cheeky). There is a path that runs through the national park here called the Harzer Hexen-Stieg. Hexen means witches, and the theme is everywhere in Thale and along the walk (think Brother's Grimm, Hanzel & Gretel, THAT area of Germany). It's like some crazy crafter's dream... I don't think anyone here has less than 10 little flying witches around their home or in restaurants. Anywho, Sean has taken to calling it the Witchy Walk. What's nice is that there are smaller towns close together along path, so we've just been staying in little hostels/BnB rather than camping. The scenery is breath-taking. The path runs along the Bode River which cuts through the valley (the info station in town said this region is the deepest rocky valley in Germany, or something to that effect). The path is pretty rocky with the first couple miles or so at a pretty steady climb up. Once you reach Tresenburg, it levels off to a nice forest walk. We stayed the first night in Altenbrak at the Bergfried, a nice little hostel-type establishment. It looks like this -->
Hunting and gardening appear to be the main past times here, and the restaurant we dined in was a virtual trophy room. An 15-point (that's 15 total on both sides) set of antlers held a prominent position on the wall next to various stuffed cohorts and I think a set of horns from some kind of game sheep. Sean had a bit of wild boar that the owner had recently shot, and I had some trout in the spirit of all the river fishing that we witnessed. The whole meal was a 2.5 hour experience... I think the waitress kept forgetting about us even though we were at least 20 years younger than every other patron and sitting smack dab in the middle of the room. They're forgiven... it was super tasty.
Nice German breakfast in the morning... bread, various types of meats, cheeses, soft boiled eggs, coffee, and nice conversation with the owners with Sean translating along the way. At one point, I just had something stuck in my throat resulting in a pathetic little cough, and the host jumped at the chance to give us booze first thing in the morning. He laid out a teeny little beer mug and filled it with some kind of herbed liquor. He called it “hiking gas”... all the benefits of cough medicine and none of the crappy aftertaste. He was right... it was tasty. None of that Wild Turkey afterburn ;) The trail between Altenbrak and Hasselfelde was about 10-12km depending on which sign posts you read (there could be a 1-2km difference even reading signs across the trail from one another). All in all though, we hiked for about 4 hours with lots of pauses for photo ops, snacking, and just to enjoy the scenery.
Trail today was more akin to truck routes than single-track, and aside from the senior hiking group we passed on the way out of town, we didn't see anyone. The Hexen-Stieg at this point has combined itself with another route called the Köhlerweg which, we're guessing, follows some kind of coal route. There were several signs referring to wood:coal ratios (it takes 12-15 square meter of wood to equal 1 ton of coal). There is clearly a lot of lumbering out here with the occasional hillside barren of trees, but only in small amounts. For the past few days, we had also noticed several tunnels burrowing into the rockface along the trail with cast iron doors blocking them; signs more or less indicated that they were old copper mines. Makes for good pictures at any rate.
Oh, and to all the backyard gardeners back in the states, you got Nothin' on these folks. The towns here are WAY too cute with old German homes lining the streets and gorgeous mixed vegetable and flower gardens nestled inbetween. It seems like everyone gardens out here, which might be why their grocery stores are so small. We've noticed this... there don't appear to be any big-chain anythings out here. Most shops look like they're locally owned and operated, and there really aren't any hotel chains. Aside from the hostels in Frankfurt and Thale (which was the only monstrosity like it in town), most of the places we've seen with rooms for rent are associated with someone's home. So lesson learned is, “Zimmer Frei” = big fluffy down pillow, completely mismatched room furnishings, and soft boiled eggs in the morning.
SIDE NOTE: By far the most unique piece of home-remodeling-type material that we saw were styrofoam blocks that took the place of drywall in the home we stayed at in Hasselfelde. No kidding, styrofoam. With decorative carvings that, I think, were supposed to make them like fancy wall tiles. A close second to that was the faux wood-finish on the door into our room that was actually just tape. The only reason we knew was it had started to ruffle and twist around the door handle after years of use.
The day was pretty useless in all other regards. Sean wasn't feeling good, nothing was really open between the hours of 2 and 5 in the afternoon, and most of the cafés closed on Monday. We had just hiked 4 hours with around 40-50# of gear on our backs, so we weren't particularly eager to go for a walk again, and we weren't ready for Döner Kebap dinner yet. All we could do was read in the park before heading to the local Asian restaurant for Vietnamese coffee treat... and another little free shot of something! Germany... you and your little mystery shots. ;)
Tuesday morning was cold... cold and wet. So in summary, Tuesday=Rain, and that's all you have to know. What we thought was going to be a 16-20km hike ended up only being about 10-12km (those funky signs again), but still long enough to wreck havoc on my shoulders and hips where the pack hits. However, we also decided that weaker hikers than ourselves had endured much worse weather with a good attitude, so we spent the hike daydreaming outloud :D
(Dear Gregory Backpacks... I just want you to know that despite some sarcasm and a few little jabs, we have been VERY happy with your products thus far and hope to use them many more times in the future. I'm just boney. Take no offense. Thanks a ton!! - C&S)
We had considered pushing on further in the day, but with Sean's cold, my foot, the wet weather, and my lack of cushiony parts, we decided to get a room at the local Pension instead here in Königshütte. Each town appears to present the same offerings...
1) No internet.
2) No one under the age of 65 (to the mature ladies in my life, this is not a put-down, it's just weird).
3) No one takes CC or American Debit cards
4) No good coffee (today's was the best so far, but still not quite to standards)
5) No place to wash our clothes.
Grrr. Sink washing your dirty laundry isn't as much fun as watching it tumble around and around at the laundomat. Unfortunately, we have to hike another 10-12km for that little treat... maybe.
Schierke... also known as “the big town”, which I suppose in comparison to our previous stops, it certainly has a few things the others did not. We had our first brush with the internet, but it was on a locked network :( It has people of all ages, including children!! It seems like every house on the main drag offers some kind of housing but with very sneaky “cleaning” surcharges. We've decided to stay in the house of the woman who owns “the smallest cafe in the Harz region” (it's called Das Kleine Cafe, or the Little Cafe). Her and her husband own a small villa that they fixed up themselves called Villa Regina, and they did an amazing job. For 20 Euro/night/person, we enjoyed a small bedroom with a teeny kitchen and adjacent living room space.
What Frau Hiller shared with us was because East Germany didn't have as much development between the end of the 2nd World War and the end of the Cold War, there are many more historic homes and buildings compared to West Germany in general. What's been happening is that developers from old West Germany are buying up the large old homes and hotels, and letting them fall apart so that they can be torn down and avoid the taxes associated with owning a historic property. And then they build ugly houses in their place. Zilly Germans ;)
SIDE NOTE: By far the most unique piece of home-remodeling-type material that we saw were styrofoam blocks that took the place of drywall in the home we stayed at in Hasselfelde. No kidding, styrofoam. With decorative carvings that, I think, were supposed to make them like fancy wall tiles. A close second to that was the faux wood-finish on the door into our room that was actually just tape. The only reason we knew was it had started to ruffle and twist around the door handle after years of use.
The day was pretty useless in all other regards. Sean wasn't feeling good, nothing was really open between the hours of 2 and 5 in the afternoon, and most of the cafés closed on Monday. We had just hiked 4 hours with around 40-50# of gear on our backs, so we weren't particularly eager to go for a walk again, and we weren't ready for Döner Kebap dinner yet. All we could do was read in the park before heading to the local Asian restaurant for Vietnamese coffee treat... and another little free shot of something! Germany... you and your little mystery shots. ;)Tuesday morning was cold... cold and wet. So in summary, Tuesday=Rain, and that's all you have to know. What we thought was going to be a 16-20km hike ended up only being about 10-12km (those funky signs again), but still long enough to wreck havoc on my shoulders and hips where the pack hits. However, we also decided that weaker hikers than ourselves had endured much worse weather with a good attitude, so we spent the hike daydreaming outloud :D
(Dear Gregory Backpacks... I just want you to know that despite some sarcasm and a few little jabs, we have been VERY happy with your products thus far and hope to use them many more times in the future. I'm just boney. Take no offense. Thanks a ton!! - C&S)
We had considered pushing on further in the day, but with Sean's cold, my foot, the wet weather, and my lack of cushiony parts, we decided to get a room at the local Pension instead here in Königshütte. Each town appears to present the same offerings...
1) No internet.
2) No one under the age of 65 (to the mature ladies in my life, this is not a put-down, it's just weird).
3) No one takes CC or American Debit cards
4) No good coffee (today's was the best so far, but still not quite to standards)
5) No place to wash our clothes.
Grrr. Sink washing your dirty laundry isn't as much fun as watching it tumble around and around at the laundomat. Unfortunately, we have to hike another 10-12km for that little treat... maybe.
Schierke... also known as “the big town”, which I suppose in comparison to our previous stops, it certainly has a few things the others did not. We had our first brush with the internet, but it was on a locked network :( It has people of all ages, including children!! It seems like every house on the main drag offers some kind of housing but with very sneaky “cleaning” surcharges. We've decided to stay in the house of the woman who owns “the smallest cafe in the Harz region” (it's called Das Kleine Cafe, or the Little Cafe). Her and her husband own a small villa that they fixed up themselves called Villa Regina, and they did an amazing job. For 20 Euro/night/person, we enjoyed a small bedroom with a teeny kitchen and adjacent living room space.
What Frau Hiller shared with us was because East Germany didn't have as much development between the end of the 2nd World War and the end of the Cold War, there are many more historic homes and buildings compared to West Germany in general. What's been happening is that developers from old West Germany are buying up the large old homes and hotels, and letting them fall apart so that they can be torn down and avoid the taxes associated with owning a historic property. And then they build ugly houses in their place. Zilly Germans ;)
There seems to be a recurrent theme in German interior decorating... lots and lots and lots of chachkees... collectibles... very small things masking themselves as decorations. And the challenge is to get as many of these small, useless objects on your walls or shelves as possible. Good examples would be collector plates, figurines, coffee mugs, or stuffed animals (the kind taxidermists make). Can you believe the last pension we stayed at stuffed Bambi?!? Two of them?!?! But Schierke is definitely a tourist town... this is where the train to the top of Der Brocken starts. We were going to hike to the Brocken without the packs, and then crash in Shierke again for a night, but have decided to press forward. The plan was to head to Torfhaus, but our hostess recommended Wernigerode (titled, the most colorful town in the Harz region).
The climb to the Brocken with the packs was super silly, and just masochistic. I was in bad form with the blisters on my foot, and sore shoulders. But we made it, and top was just astounding. The landscape was nothing... bare ground with huge towers, a hotel, train station, and visitor's center. The view was the money... you could see to the valley below for miles and miles (or as the locals say, kilometers und kilometers). It also holds some significance for The Wall, but I couldn't read anything so... poop. There is a coal-burning train that can take tourists up and down the mountain, and luckily they had one that could take us directly to Wernigerode if we waited a couple hours. Glühwein kept us nicely occupied (look it up).
Wernigerode certainly kept up with its name. It's probably what you would imagine if you thought “charming German town” (above is the view from our apt window). Sounds like it's been around since at least 1500s, and is built around a gorgeous old courthouse, or as they call it, Rathaus... no joke. It's a bank now, and includes the visitor's center. And just FYI, visitor's centers out here are super amazing and helpful. In every circumstance, they assisted us with getting lodgings in town (including researching rates and calling to make reservations), and helped us get oriented.. and it's FREE!!. We ended up with a small, 2-bedroom apt for 30 Euro/night... Amazing. We gave ourselves a rest day so Sean could focus on getting over his cold, and to let the wounds on my foot heal up some. In general, this last day and a half has been about amazing food, great beer, and picking up a few things we learned were missing from our travel arsenal. Tomorrow we leave for Munich and Oktoberfest.
So despite blisters, muddy trails, aching muscles, and stinky laundry, these last few days have been exceptional. Getting out of the city was the right idea, and despite our lack of planning, everything came together nicely. I think if we were to do it again, we'd camp the route, and not bring all the silly electronics along. This whole trip could have easily been done in 3 days with lighter packs. But it was nice to see the German countryside, and get a taste of a more rural lifestyle. No internet, no computers (not even for businesses), just gardening and hunting, baking at home, and tasteless coffee ;)
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