If you're looking for a hotel during the holidays, you'll pay anywhere from 7% to 9% more than you did a year ago. So, which cities are the most expensive — and how can you get a deal? I asked Johannes Thomas, CEO of the German hotel metasearch site trivago for the answer.
Every witch way: a spooky walk in Germany’s Harz mountains
01.11.2023 - 14:37 / theguardian.com
The inscription on the wooden shelter where I stopped to eat my Käsebrötchen made quite the pledge. “Wanderer,” it said (at least, according to Google translate), “I protect you from wind and weather, a saviour from evil hands.” Extreme? Perhaps – but you need that sort of promise when loitering with cheese rolls in these spooky parts.
A hut was first built on this spot as a rest stop for medieval donkey drivers shifting goods from the nearby town of Osterode to the mines of northern Germany’s Harz Mountains. Today this newer building performs the same function, but for hikers – like me – following the Harzer Hexen-Stieg (Harz Witches’ Trail).
Who could resist a path with a name like that? A name born from centuries of local folklore but on trend now, when “witch lit” is hot – top 2023 titles include Emilia Hart’s Weyward and Margaret Meyer’s The Witching Tide, and a movement of older women is reclaiming the word “crone”. It also seemed an ideal choice for autumn: the 60-mile well-laid trail from Osterode to Thale (usually walked over four to six days) would still be fairly dry underfoot, mists would add extra atmosphere, cosy inns and hearty pork suppers would be waiting each night and ghost stories would unfold. What I found was fascinating and haunting – in unexpected ways.
I’d left Osterode at noon, church bells chiming over the market square’s buskers, butchers, florists and fishmongers. And I soon discovered that people here have leaned hard into the witching theme: pointy-hatted effigies leered from every other garden and window ledge.
But out in the countryside, it was all about ancient industry. The Upper Harz is one of the oldest and most important mining areas in Europe, worked for silver, lead and copper since the early 13th century and now a Unesco world heritage site. A total of 107 ponds, 195 miles of ditches and 19 miles of waterways were built to power the mines. The witches’ trail follows some of them, crossing old dams and streams, and following channels lined with berry bushes.
My favourite remnant was in Altenau, where I stayed the first night at the Landhaus am Kunstberg guesthouse. Here, one of the ponds has become Waldschwimmbad Okerteich, a huge, forest-fringed wild swimming pool, open all day, year round, for free – and chilly. A pre-breakfast plunge, when only the wagtails were around to hear me yelp, primed me for the next day’s walk.
I liked the rest of Altenau, too. Tourism began to develop here in the late 19th century, leaving a legacy of handsome villas. The main street has a bakery, brewery, model train store and shops selling witchy paraphernalia. From here the trail falls in step with the Goetheweg, the route that traces the footsteps of German writer Johann
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