The German National Tourism Office is promoting hiking or walking as one of the best ways to explore Germany. Germany has excellent hiking trails for all ability levels. Germany is promoting everything from hiking activities along tidal shores to trips through the low mountain regions all the way to mountain-top tours. Numerous trails lead through natural landscapes. They are well sign-posted and trips can be split in different stages. Along many of these routes are hotels and inns that provide special accommodations for hikers. German Rail (Deutsche Bahn) offers specific programs and weekend getaways and many trip-organizers sell comfortable "hiking without luggage" packages.
The Black Forest, for instance, is not only known for its ham, cake and cuckoo clocks, it is a great national park with deep forest, secluded lakes, waterfalls and beautiful mountains. More than 15,000 miles of sign-posted hiking trails cross the most beautiful areas of the Black Forest's cultural and hiking landscapes. The most famous of the regional 16 long-distance hiking routes is the "Westweg" route, which stretches over 200 miles, from Pforzheim to Switzerland. For more information, visit www.blackforest-tourism.com.
Northwest of the Black Forest, the Swabian Alb offers another great hiking region. Hills rising up to 3,200 feet, gentle mountain ridges and rounded hilltops characterize the landscape of the Swabian Alb. Hikers and nature enthusiasts will discover juniper-covered heaths, paddocks, meadows full of flowers, beech woods, limestone rocks, former volcanic lakes, stalactite caves, waterfalls, thermal springs and quaint old towns. The Swabian Alb has one of the highest concentrations of castles and palaces of any region in Europe. More than 100 of them are currently open to the public. Imperial and royal dynasties (the Hohenstaufens and the Hohenzollerns) have their origins in this region and their palaces such as Sigmaringen and Castle Hohenzollern host treasures, museums and even hotels. For more information, visit ww.en.s-alb.de.
In the states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the Harz Mountains National Park combines a unique mixture of breathtaking nature and wildlife, romantic medieval towns with the historical significance of the former German-German border, the Iron Curtain, which divided the region. Located in the most central highlands of Germany, the national park is set in one of northern Germany's most popular areas for hiking. For those who want to discover the Harz National Park in a day, the Goethe Trail leads for 12 miles through the western part of the mountains and up the Brocken Mountain (2,800 feet), the highest mountain in northern Germany. It is here, where every year Walpurgisnacht (April 30) is supposed to take place, a meeting of witches as famously described in Goethe's "Faust." For more information, visit www.nationalpark-harz.de or www.cometogermany.com.
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