So I went to the Harz Mountains in central Germany last weekend with great friend and travel partner, Kendra. Witches and gnomes were once rumored to inhabit the region and a lot of the classic German fairy tales have their origin in the mysterious Harz.
We stayed at a sweet hostel in Wernigerode. The innkeepers were Alex and six week-old Lishka, a rambunctious energy ball with those puppy eyes that just make every urine stain or bite on the leg harmless, excusable, and even appropriate and laughable. Let's just say she was cute.
I was the first person from California ever to stay at the hostel and proudly put my thumbtac on the southernmost tip of Monterey Bay. (I love being able to pinpoint precisely where I live on a map in two seconds.)
We summitted Mount Brochen on a nice four hour hike. We ate sandwhiches on the top and on the way down stopped near a stream in a little green canyon for a bier break. I love Berlin, but it cannot offer the untouched and unspoiled that I have grown up so close with on the Pacific, the Sierra Nevada, the lakes of New Hampshire, and in the rugged mountains of Idaho.
Thank you to the Harz for a great weekend of cobblestone streets, old-Europe architecture and restaurants, great bier, happy Germans, and most of all for allowing me to reconnect with the natural: interesting how I can feel home sitting by a mountain stream in Germany.
About Me
- Jon Grant
- Seattle, Washington, United States
- I am a writer, athlete, and student of the world who lives to turn possibility into reality utilizing my creativity and drive. I have a degree in History and English, played quarterback collegiately and professionally, and skied 120 days last year. I moved to Seattle in October 2011.
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