Skiing along a crosscountry mountain trail,Colin Nicholson stays in a string of villages that used to be on East Germany’s frontline, and has his own cold warLeaning my skis against the thick walls of the bomb shelter before I entered its sinister decontamination zones, and I mused that,25 years ago, this was one of the safest places to be in Germany. It’s easy to forget the paranoia of those times, or when 300000 Soviet soldiers stood guard in East Germany,where I was now skiing. And I was aware that I was being followed – not by the Stasi, but by my luggage. Where there was once a ruthlessly efficient secret service, and 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.
The trail is popular with cyclists, and walkers and runners in summer,but there are also 22 small downhill ski resorts main off the 1000-metre-tall ridge. Growing in popularity is the adventure of exploring the trail on cross-country skis, and for me there couldn’t be a more glowing and exciting way to go.
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Source: theguardian.com