Rennsteig

The first day earns the ritual: pick your pebble from the Werra at Hörschel, look up, and start climbing. The trail wastes no time, winding up through the Hörsel valley with the Wartburg appearing between the trees at the Wartburgblick viewpoints. On the Großer Eichelberg the forest opens for the first wide look back towards Eisenach, and at the Vachaer Stein an obelisk marks a pass that was old when Napoleon used it. By late afternoon the ridge softens into the wide meadows of Ascherbrück, a lone bridge, a Gasthaus, and your first day of white R behind you.

The longest climb of the week is saved for early: the trail pushes up to the Großer Inselsberg, 916 metres of free-standing mountain and the Rennsteig's second-highest point, with a panorama that makes you forget the kilometres. Below lies Ruhla, the little watchmaking town, and the path rolls through hunter's country past the Dreiherrenstein am Glasbach, where three princedoms once touched. The final kilometres descend into the mountain meadows of Ebertswiese, a green bowl where the cows still graze between the huts, and the day ends with boots off in the grass.

A gentler day, and a varied one. The trail skirts the Spitterfall, Thuringia's highest waterfall, before climbing quietly through spruce to the Krämerod, where a lookout tower rewards the detour with views over endless treetops. Then the landscape starts to change: ski trails and winter sport infrastructure appear, and Oberhof announces itself, Germany's cross-country capital. The stage ends at the Grenzadler, the iron imperial eagle that watched this boundary for centuries, with the town's restaurants a short walk downhill.

The big one: the day the Rennsteig walks over the roof of the Thüringer Wald. Past the Rennsteiggarten's mountain plants, the trail traces the high crest along the Großer Beerberg, 982 metres the highest peak of the range, with the Schneekopf and its tower just off the path. The moor at the Beerberg's foot feels older than the forest around it. After the quiet Bahnhof Rennsteig the Großer Dreiherrenstein at 838 metres keeps the border-stone theme going until Neustadt am Rennsteig gathers its pensions right on the ridge.

The quiet kilometres. East of Neustadt the crowds thin and the trail runs through long lonely forest towards Masserberg, where the Rennsteigwarte tower looks over the Schwarza valley. At Goldisthal the mountain hides a giant: one of Europe's largest pumped-storage plants, buried so well you would never know. The ridge broadens, the forest turns to the glass-making region, and Neuhaus am Rennweg rewards the day with a real town, a Thüringian bratwurst and the Museum für Glaskunst.

The shortest stage, and one with a mood shift. The trail leaves the glass town through quiet spruce, passes Ernstthal am Rennsteig, and climbs gently to the Kalte Küche, a bare saddle where the wind tells you the Frankenwald is coming. Then the border: the trail crosses from Thuringia into Bavaria, a state line drawn on the ridge, and the character of the forest changes with it. Steinbach am Wald keeps its hotel and guesthouses close to where the white R crosses, with the first true Franconian dinner of the week.

The last day walks through history of a different kind: for decades this was the inner-German border zone, and the trail follows old patrol roads along a corridor where the forest grew wild between the fences. Then it relaxes: the Kulmberg at 726 metres, high moorland light, and the long descent towards the Saale. At Blankenstein the Selbitz bridge ends the trail, the Rennsteig-Brunnen waits for your pebble from the Werra, and the river takes it with the sound of a week of walking finished.