Day 16 Flensburg - Bad Berneck

So the last approximately 900 km are ahead of me.

The plan was originally to stay in Wernigerode in the Harz mountains not far from the Brocken.

When I arrived there around 4:00 pm in the afternoon, I saw this beautiful town with its wonderful old half-timbered houses. But I also saw masses of tourists. In the accommodation I had chosen, the gentleman at the reception was just explaining to the person in front of me that there were more visitors than beds. With a friendly nod, I immediately left. I drove the few kilometers towards the Brocken, where I also saw the old steam locomotive that goes to the Brocken.

But what really shocked me is the condition of our forest. You hear a lot lately about the bark beetles and how the coniferous forests are suffering from climate change. What I see here is unfortunately worse than I could have imagined. Tens of thousands of trees have already been felled there, huge bare areas where only the tree stumps testify to the former green splendor. Everywhere freshly felled trunks that have been stacked and arranged in huge numbers like at a funeral. I drove through dead forest areas where only dry, withered spruces stood. I captured a very small piece of it in the photo above. How sad it is to see this. How foolish to rely on monocultures.

Anyway, I then decided to drive another almost 280 km to the Franconian Fichtelgebirge mountains. The drive was not very interesting, just like the weather.

I arrived at my guesthouse at 8:00 pm and went straight to the village for dinner after changing clothes. We had a delicious roasted pork shoulder with dumplings and draft beer. Mmh........