Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Skiing along a crosscountry mountain trail Colin Nicholson stays in a string of villages that used to be on East Germany’s frontline Leaning my skis against the thick walls of the bomb shelter before I entered its sinister decontamination zones this was one of the safest places to be in Germany It’s easy to forget the paranoia of those times when 300,000 Soviet soldiers stood guard in East Germany And I was aware that I was being followed – not by the Stasi Where there was once a ruthlessly efficient secret service there was now a super-efficient baggage transfer service the length of the Rennsteig a historic 169km trail along the top of the Thuringian mountains which bears many testaments to the Cold War era and earlier but there are also 22 small downhill ski resorts leading off the 1,000-metre-high ridge Growing in popularity is the adventure of exploring the trail on cross-country skis and for me there couldn’t be a more beautiful and exciting way to go On a bright, crisp morning, I set off to follow milestones erected from 1643 onwards from Hotel Schieferhof in the little town of Neuhaus am Rennweg My guide was a €3 trail map, and I’d booked my hotels and luggage transfers through (German-only) website rennsteig-und-mehr.net which recommends doing sections of between 18 and 25km a day though it will organise any distance or duration And there’s no need for much cross-country skiing experience; the trip can simply be treated as walking or running on skis until the times the freshly groomed trail turned into a narrow riverbed that I could scarcely snowplough down I had to plunge into the fresh powder at the side to slow myself and eventually resorted to unclipping my skis and walking down and it was only by asking directions in broken German – for over-40s around here is the second language – that I found my way “Let’s take this route – it’s sunnier,” one fellow skier suggested And soon I found myself at the observation tower in the little resort of Masserberg A cross-country skier on the trail Photograph: Martin Schutt/DPA/CorbisClimbing to the top I could see how the mountain range had formed a natural second line of defence for the Soviets and GDR a few kilometres east of the barbed wire East-West Germany border And I could also see a hubbub of activity below me An international mushing championship was in full swing At the bottom the glühwein was flowing freely and the postilion of a horse-drawn sled blew his curly bugle to part the crowds I had expected to spend the nights in rather spartan hostels, but at Spa Hotel Auerhahn not only was my bag waiting but the food and wine were excellent and inexpensive using the relatively modern technique of skate skiing At other times I used the less tiring classic technique down narrower trails exchanging a friendly “Schi heil” with passing skiers The Bunker Museum. Photograph: AlamyAt the village of Neustadt am Rennsteig, wood smoke was swirling between typically Thuringian houses, with tiled, curved walls. I carried my skis to the Rennsteig Museum which tells the history of the trail and how it had been used by messengers since the 14th century which is to follow the white Rs painted on tree trunks even when beautifully prepared trails entice you left or right on to the other 1,000km of paths I made such good progress I was on time for a tour of the Bunker Museum near Schmiedefeld where the guide led us past mannequins in gas masks and plastic suits slumped against the wall He made the place come alive by telling it as a haunting “what if world war three had broken out” story Other communist-era relics had proven less robust. Next door to the Endspurt hotel lay an abandoned block before serving me a cosy dinner by the fire in the Endspurt’s restaurant I later nodded off to dreams of following an ever-lengthening trail of Rs Young children cross-country skiing on the Rennsteig trail Photograph: DPA/AFP/Getty ImagesI left the hotel in a blizzard the next morning but the firs of the dense Thuringian forest soon sheltered me from the wind’s angry blast and having stopped at many cosy cafes on the way I picnicked in one of a string of south-facing mountain huts when the sun did finally appear By the time I arrived at the Vergissmeinnicht hotel in Oberhof I wished I could go on to complete the trail and yearned to go on to historic Eisenach in the north I could also retrace my tracks to Blankenstein in the south once on the other side of the Iron Curtain completing a journey that was never possible during the Cold War But it was time for this spy to come in from the cold Ein Freizeitvergnügen für Touristen und eine Dankesgeste an engagierte Oberhof-Unterstützer: Sie wurden zur Katastrophe Wie konnte das tragische Unglück mit dem Gästebob an der Rennrodel-WM-Bahn passieren Die Stimmung wird gelöst gewesen sein an diesem Donnerstag kurz nach 18 Uhr. Ein Ausflug mit Freunden nach Oberhof mit denen man den letzten Abschnitt des Eiskanals hinuntersausen kann Oder weiter oben einen Viererbob besteigen schnittig und schnell wie das Original der Profis So wie es eine rodelsportverrückte Truppe aus Erfurt tat weil ihnen diese Fahrt als Dank der Kufensport-Verantwortlichen spendiert worden war Für das private Engagement der Oberhof-Anhänger in der Landesregierung von denen sich einige um das Links-geführte Infrastrukturministerium gruppieren und die als Förderer und ehrenamtliche Helfer auch persönlich etwas dafür taten dass Oberhof zwei Weltmeisterschaften lang wirklich die Hauptstadt des Wintersports war als die man sich hier so gerne auf Dauer sähe