Home base: Altenbrak

Following are some pictures of the nice little village where we stayed, Altenbrak. It's up in the Harz Mountains, on the Bode River. There are a lot of places to stay here, a few cafes, a restaurant that's opened sometimes, but no stores, not even a bakery.

It's a stop on Hexenstieg, the witches' path, a hiking trail that runs from the town of Osterode over the Brocken and ending in Thale. We walked around the town, crossed over the Bode, and headed onto the trail towards the intermediate village of Treseburg.

First stop, the Witch's Hut (turn up the sound on the video, it didn't pick up). Then as we were walking along the trail, we stopped to read a sign about the wildlife. Out of nowhere, a guy started talking to us, telling us the walk to Treseburg was only and hour, and we should really do it.

Nice guy, right? But it's kind of getting dark, and we're in the deep German woods. What do I immediately think of, werewolf... Not the best thing to have in mind for a walk in the woods.

Oh, when we got back to the same spot (we didn't walk all the way to Treseburg because the path was blocked by a lot of fallen trees and we didn't want to scramble over them), he was gone...Read more