No beer available on the Thekenberg
Ever heard of Harsleben? No? Me neither before now. Yet, it’s worth keeping this place in mind. Why? Well, that’s where the Thekenberg is. However, to be fair, there’s no beer on the Thekenberg. But if you keep hiking towards Halberstadt, then, yes, there are a few more highlights waiting for you: the Fünffingerfelsen (Five Finger Rock), the Klusfelsen, the Teufelsstuhl (Devil’s Chair), the Teufelskanzel (Devil’s Pulpit), a historic waterworks building, and a monument for aviators. At the Klusfelsen, you can even collect a special stamp: “In the Shadow of the Witches.” Seems like a magical area.
Parking at the Porta-Potty
The first big challenge isn’t the climb to Thekenberg. Nope, it’s actually finding a parking spot. There aren’t any designated hiking parking spots at the start. After some back and forth, we ended up parking next to two porta-potties along the highway. Not illegal, right? 🙂 From there, we started our hike toward Thekenberg, walking along a paved path at first. Thankfully, the holes in the pavement have grown over, so we didn’t keep twisting our ankles. The path leads us through a savanna-like landscape. Yeah, with a little imagination, I could picture lions, antelopes, and even giraffes here. Since it rained earlier in the morning, the path was quite muddy in places, and the grass was still pretty wet. But slowly, the sun began to peek through and painted a lovely landscape. Then suddenly, after about forty-five minutes, we stood before Thekenberg. But first, our attention was drawn to two interesting mushrooms at the base of the hill. One had what looked like a fly under its cap, and the other resembled a club.
No Beer on Thekenberg
Then, we began our climb. The hill is a bit over 200 meters high. It almost feels like Sylt: sandy ground with heather growing on the hill. Unfortunately, the heather had already finished blooming. Nevertheless, both the view of the hill from below and the view from the top are really beautiful. A perfect picnic spot, if you ask me. I noticed carvings in the stones. The names look Russian, and the years carved are 1966 and 1972. Could these carvings date back to the GDR era? It’s possible. We enjoyed the peace and the view for a bit. But, as there’s no beer here, we descended once again. After all, we still had some distance to cover.
Into the Adventure
From Thekenberg, we went through the woods until we reached the ZASt (Central Reception Center for Asylum Seekers in Saxony-Anhalt). A rather unfriendly-looking building in the middle of nowhere. A little further up the road, however, there was a lot of activity. People were selling prayer rugs, food, and hygiene products from their cars. A mobile vendor of sorts. We headed back into the woods. First, we passed a historic waterworks building from 1915. Then the real adventure began. We arrived at a kind of avenue above Halberstadt. Here, the sights come one after another: the aviator monument, Ypsilanti Spring, Fünffingerfelsen, Klusfelsen, Teufelsstuhl, and Teufelskanzel. And that’s not all. Before the Klusfelsen, we found the stamp box “In the Shadow of the Witches.”
Monument Valley near Halberstadt
Just in time, the sun broke through the clouds again. We stood before the majestic Fünffingerfelsen and were amazed. Wow, we didn’t expect this. Like excited kids, we climbed around on the rocks. We took advantage of the warm autumn sunlight to take some great photos. It reminded us of Monument Valley in Utah. I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen pictures. That such beautiful rock formations can be found practically on our doorstep really surprised me. Sure, everyone knows about the Teufelsmauer near Blankenburg. But this view is just as impressive. Sandstone has the unique quality of looking particularly beautiful when bathed in sunlight, and we saw that today. There was just one small downside at the Klusfelsen. It seems people have smashed a lot of beer bottles there. The place was full of shards, and you really had to be careful not to cut yourself or ruin your shoe soles. Such a shame.
View from the Teufelskanzel
We ended our hike with a visit to the Teufelskanzel. This rock formation lies opposite the Klusfelsen. From the pulpit, we enjoyed a fantastic view once again, both of the Klusfelsen and Halberstadt. We also squeezed inside the rock, which wasn’t easy. The passage is very narrow! There’s nothing particularly spectacular to see inside, but we were already spoiled by the fantastic day. After almost five hours, we returned to the porta-potties – I mean, to our car 🙂
