Rennsteig

The Rennsteig (ˈʁɛnʃtaɪk) is a ridge walk as well as an historical boundary path in the Thuringian Forest, Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest in Central Germany. The long-distance trail runs for about from Eisenach and the Werra valley in the northwest to Blankenstein and the Selbitz river in the southeast. The Rennsteig is also the watershed between the river systems of the Weser, Elbe and Rhine. The catchment areas of all three river systems meet at the Dreistromstein ("Three Rivers Rock") near Siegmundsburg. The Rennsteig runs along the ridge of the Thuringian Central Uplands (Mittelgebirge) from northwest to southeast mostly at heights of around 500 to 970 metres. It starts in the Eisenach town quarter of Hörschel by the River Werra (196 m above NHN) and ends in Blankenstein by the River Saale (414 m above NHN). In 2003 the Rennsteig was re-surveyed by the Thuringian State Office for Survey and Geoinformation; they reported that it had a total length of . The marking along the trail is very good, usually indicated by a white 'R' (called Mareile). Along the Rennsteig there are small, open shelters about every 5 to 10 kilometres. The course of the Spitter stream, the only river in the central section of the Rennsteig, crosses the trail in the Ebertswiese nature reserve, at a height of 700 metres, before feeding the nearby Spitter Waterfall. Another stream that crosses the trail is the Dober in the southeastern part of the route, which forms part of the Franconian Forest immediately by the Thuringian–Bavarian border west of Brennersgrün, part of the borough of Lehesten. Four tunnels run under the Rennsteig ridge: One is the eponymous Rennsteig Tunnel, which comprises two tubes that are and long, making it the longest road tunnel in Germany. The tunnel was opened in 2003 as a motorway tunnel for the A 71 autobahn. The second is the long Brandleite Tunnel, which was opened in 1884 and leads the Erfurt–Schweinfurt railway under the Thuringian Forest. The vertical height difference between the two tunnels is less than seven metres.