Day 5 - Wunsiedel - Bad Berneck

This is the route we rode today:

Our stay at the youth hostel in Wunsiedel was genuinely lovely. BBQ dinner, super friendly staff, and a breakfast that was at least as good as any of the fancier hotels we’d stayed at. Hard to beat that combo. But all good things must end, so we packed up and snapped our mandatory getting-started picture before rolling out.

First stop: bakery. We were almost there when my brother suddenly felt something land in his helmet. He reached up and… yep. Bird poo. Right in the helmet. We had an absolute field day laughing while he stood there looking betrayed by nature. I handed him some wet wipes like a good sibling. The lady at the bakery hooked us up with some great pistolets with vegetables and cheese, and we grabbed some chocolate sandwiches for later. Priorities.

On our way to the forest we cycled through beautiful rolling hills. What a start to the day. And as is tradition on this trip, I had to push my bike up a hill because the routed track had simply… ceased to exist. Classic. But honestly, the view more than made up for it.

We came across a really cool transparent plaque that showed the names of all the surrounding hilltops. Clever design — way better than squinting at a map and pretending you know which peak is which. After admiring it for a bit, we started our climb.

We gradually gained altitude and stumbled upon some cabins from the national forestry service. The sun was out, so it was a perfect excuse to take a break. My brother whipped out his tiny smartphone stand and we had a little impromptu photoshoot. Content creators in the wild.

We continued on and found a lovely meadow with a bench — the universe basically saying “sit down and have coffee.” So we did. Boiled some water, enjoyed our chocolate sandwiches, and I took the opportunity to dry out my raincoat and swap it for my windcoat. Multi-tasking at its finest.

Then came the big climb to our planned highest point of the day. Another ruin — these combined rock formations that used to be castles are so special. There was a viewpoint at the top and this time our dad actually joined us for the climb up. We got a nice group picture out of it, though it was absolutely freezing up there. Wind chill is no joke at altitude.

From up there we spotted a tower in the distance, and when we looked it up it turned out to be at 1051m. Well, I couldn’t resist. I proposed we change the route and go for it. The first part looked fairly flat on the map, so we agreed to cycle that section first and then decide whether to commit.

That first part was… not the smoothest. Don’t tell anyone, but I may have noticed an S2 difficulty marker on the trail beforehand. Shhh, my dad doesn’t need to know that. While we were pushing our bikes through the rocky mess, some guy on an e-bike came cruising through like he was riding on a freshly paved road. Show-off. But hey, he didn’t have our luggage. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.

When we arrived at our decision point, the next section looked way too steep for the direct route, so we opted for the scenic detour — 3.5km instead of 1km. Still a tiring climb, but we made it to the top! My brother went up the stairs of the small observation tower (the big one is military, so off-limits) and snapped a photo of me and dad from above. Apparently we were more interesting subjects than the panoramic view.

And then — the descent. It’s truly unbelievable how long you have to suffer going up and how ridiculously fast you come back down. Before we knew it, we were in town, ordering coffees and some proper German Torte. Earned it.

Since we were pretty early, we splurged on a second coffee because why not. The last 10km to the car were 300 meters downhill, so we averaged 30km/h without breaking a sweat. Gravity is the best motor. Before we knew it, we were back at the car and it was time to pack everything up.

Yesterday and today were hands down the two coolest days of our trip. Tomorrow during the car ride home I’ll try to put together a best-of recap. Thanks for reading along, and see you tomorrow! 🚴