Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Naturist Walk

Today was the last day of the naturist walking week. It started off from Manebach, about a 50km drive from Cursdorf. After packing up and putting our things in the car we drove to Manebach at a leisurely pace - we left earlier than most of the walkers.

We all eventually grouped up at Manebach where we caught a train to the start of our hike at Rennsteig train station. Because there was so many walkers it was all a bit of a mission to get our tickets from the seemingly one and only ticket machine on the train so when the train conductor arrived to check out what was happening, our walk leader found it easier to pay for all the tickets (presumably on his credit card) and everyone repaid him in cash.

The Rennsteig train station has some sort of historical significance but I can't quite remember it - something perhaps to do with the start of the Rennsteig walking trail but I stand to be corrected!

Being our final walk the 16km route was a bit easier than the others that we had done previously. The day was also cooler so some of us didn't strip off until the day had warmed up.

During the walk we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at a mountain restaurant "Kickelhahn" leaving us with a 3km walk back to the cars. We had to get dressed to go in, of course. Lunch was simple but delicious. We also had time to climb the inside of a tall tower and had beautiful 360° view.

Manebach

When we got back to the cars we said our fond farewells. Although there was a huge language barrier, there were at least 3 or 4 people who could speak reasonably good English, some had a smattering of words, others not but we somehow got by with Paul's almost non-existent German. Some folks we will no doubt see again if we go walking with them again next year, or perhaps if we go to another walking week in August.

Admittedly this week I have slept very very well. I've been so knackered that I've been in bed between 7 and 9pm, only waking up when the alarm went off in the morning, waking us up for breakfast.

We found a hotel, overnight, in Oberhof called Pension Traumblick. It is a very newly built place, only 8 months' old. It is spacious, tastefully decorated and quite modern inside. Unfortunately there was still some work that needed doing on the outside - rendering to put on the walls, the car park to finish and a few things in our room hadn't quite been finished.

We rocked up at the hotel but the reception desk was un-manned so after a wander around the building trying to find someone, we bumped into a hotel guest who advised us to go to a nearby house - the owner or the hotel lived at the house and we could find him there. So Paul went to the house and rang the doorbell. Sure enough the hotel owner answered it. We eventually managed to check in. We had booked a room with a bath but instead got a large bathroom with a shower and an infrared sauna! Very different indeed.

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