Rennsteig: fertile ground for personal relationships between Thuringia and Bavaria
Every few kilometres you can find tiny little places to eat where you can enjoy all the local specialties from the local forest and gardens. After a long ascent you are sure to gain some insight. Into valleys − and into your inner self.
And that is supposed to the legendary Rennsteig? We look rather disappointed. After all, we had been hiking on La Gomera and climbed the highest mountains in the Alps. Higher and higher, more and more. Gorges way below our feet, glistening glaciers, clear views for 400km. And this? A view of the car park at Hörschel railway station in Thuringia; fir tree tops and a sign carved out of wood bearing an “R − the Rennsteig”. The mountain trail in the Thuringia Forest.” No breathtaking scenery in sight. Snow? Today, in September, it should be another three months until then. “But” my better half offers in defence “that is why we have reserved seven days for the Rennsteig”. That’s true. No superlatives for once, but just time to regain one’s inner balance after the stress of the office. A tour of villages and towns on foot equipped with a backpack, to track down German history. And the experience of the division of Germany is still fresh in our minds. For the Rennsteig always leads across Germany, from the East to the West and to the East again. Language, clothing and national costume, food, the approachability of the villagers − a tour of Germany in hiking boots could not be more diverse.
Our mood heightens when we are served the tender beef roulades with homemade dumplings at the “Tor zum Rennsteig”. First something to eat and drink. The sun is shining. Landlady Peggy Pohl offers us a kayak to hire which we decide to take her up on at the end of the tour. We just take a few steps to the banks of the River Werra where the moored boats are gently bobbing up and down. Peggy Pohl told us to take a small stone with us from that place, the beginning of the Rennsteig, as a talisman. And let it sink in the Selbitz River in Blankenstein in Bavaria when we have completed the 170 kilometres. She said it was an ancient tradition. Our landlady added with a sinister undertone that nobody on the trail had ever come to any harm who had kept the stone with them. Well, she did not need to repeat this advice. A bit of mysticism does not do any harm. Off we go, always following the “R”. Just outside the village of Hörschel we see a memorial stone dedicated to Julius von Plänckner.
An army captain and road builder from the town of Gotha, he was the first to hike along the full length of the Rennsteig trail in 1829 and thus determined the path that the present trail takes. The inhabitants of Hörschel erected this memorial to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. That was in 1991, shortly after the whole length of the Rennsteig became accessible once again following the collapse of the GDR. Tomorrow we will bump into the inventor of the Rennsteig once again as the highest part of the Rennsteig trail is called the “Plänckners Aussicht” (Plänckner’s Viewing Point). At last we have some time to chat. Our boss – what an ignoramus. And why is my best friend always touchy about “going out alone”? We spend some time going through the first topics from the daily grind. At the “Hohe Sonne” mark we have done the first 15 kilometres and built up quite a rage through talking. One of us curses for half an hour. Then the other one listens. Suddenly we reach Ruhla, the end of the first stage of our hike. We have done 19km. We opt for the “Klosterschänke”, once a Wilhelmite monastery and today a family-run hotel with a restaurant. There is a homely lady in an overall who still cooks leg of venison that the hunter has just brought by. Two beers later, we sink into our beds in complete exhaustion.
Breakfast in the fog. Yet the many “Rs” at the side of the road continue to point the way. We cross the B 15 road. We want to get the first 15km done before having a break for lunch. Fantastic view of the Großer Inselberg mountain. The air is filled with the scent of pinewood and grass. A small stream runs through the mixed woodland to the right of the path. The sun appears. “The office − what’s that?” my better half asks with a big grin. Goodness, that water patted onto the back of my neck is refreshing. 15km uphill with a difference in altitude of 500m. Short break in a beech forest at the “Rhulauer Häuschen”. Apart from a mountain shelter, there are no other houses here but just a life-size obelisk. We buy headbands in a sports shop in the next village. As it was foggy, we got quite cold ears. The first reference to the Rennsteig dates back to 10th August 1330. The Rennsteigverein (Rennsteig Society) www.rennsteigverein.de was founded in 1896. The Rennsteigverein was banned after the GDR was founded. Part of the deadly boundary between the two Germanys runs along this trail. For those from the SED regime who lumped together history, the Rennsteig was only 100 kilometres long as the other 65km were on the hostile territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.
We climb up to the plateau of the most striking mountain in the Thuringia Forest, the Großer Inselberg. Fog swirls up once again. Now we get out our ear protectors. The sun comes out just before we get to the ski lift. And it stays with us for the rest of our hiking tour from Thuringia to Bavaria.
We found each of the daily hiking stages between 14 and 35 kilometres either easy or of medium difficulty. We never had to fill our backpacks up with food to make sure we did not go hungry on the way. Every few kilometres there were snack bars offering famous Thuringia grilled sausages and apple-juice spritzer. And in the evening we always had a warm meal with products that originated from local vegetable beds and forests or from their own livestock. Chanterelles, vegetable bake, bacon and sausages, a fresh egg for breakfast.
The Rennsteig was really fertile ground for personal relationships. It was the first time that we had time for ourselves. One reason was that we kept our mobile phones turned off and only had them in our backpack for an emergency. We had already had super holidays in fantastic hotels in distant countries often enough. The fact that eight days of Rennsteig with accommodation and a good evening meal only cost us 700 euros each was a treat in itself. That was not the only thing that made us a little sad when after eight days we threw out stones back into the Selbitz in Blankenstein. The journey back by train was a special delight as the trains are still highly subsidised; we had the whole compartment to ourselves. After three and three-quarters hours and changing three times we were back at our car. Having a “Bahncard” (an ID card allowing special discounts) we paid a mere 14 euros for the ride. We learnt an awful lot. About tiny and large stones. About scenery that you can hardly find in any geography book. But − and above all − about ourselves as a couple.
www.rennsteigverein.de
www.rennsteig.de
www.fernwege.de
www.kleins-wanderreisen.de
www.rennsteigportal.de
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