I know, sometimes I can’t even keep track. For nearly 8 months of 2021 I was on sabbatical. And nearly all (just kidding, all) of 2021 was pandemic. But there were still many bright moments among the dark days of the never-ending Covid. I hope you’ve looked back on your 2021 and could find lots of great memories to be grateful for too.
So, where in the world was Christine in 2021? Here’s my year in review!
January 2021
C and I rang in the New Year like everyone else – at home. But we started off running with our first two hikes of the year on the 1st and 2nd, visiting Berlin’s oldest and tallest trees. I spent a lot of January doing day hikes around Berlin and Brandenburg because Germany still had a lockdown on tourism – no overnight stays unless business purposes could be proven. I got a magical break from the travel blues when a kind friend offered me to stay at his second home in northern Hesse. I had never heard of Frau Holle Land, but it turned out to be an enchanting landscape filled with Premium Hiking. It was a godsend during dark January at a time when travel was unthinkable.
Gänsekerleweg, P19 
Lotzenkopf, P3
Waldkappeler Berg and the Gänsekerleweg were the highlights on my first Frau Holle Land trip.
February 2021
By the end of February I was done wafting from day hike to day hike. I had in mind to hike a long distance trail in Brandenburg, but would still follow the rules of no overnights. I took the train and the bus each day to pick up the trail where I left off. In the end, it got too cumbersome for public transit, so I gave up after 5 of 8 sections of the Brandenburg Burgenweg, but not after I had visited all the castles on the route.
The sun came out before the month was over and I was motivated to get Princess out of the cellar. We began cycling Loop 4 of the 1000 km Historic City Centers of Brandenburg bike trail. I also started a yearlong online course to become a German as an Additional Language teacher.
March 2021
Long distance biking by day trip proved to be easier than long distance hiking, so I completed the Historic City Centers of Brandenburg Loop 4. I also got my bird book out again and tried to learn more about ornithology. If you’re in Germany, here’s some of the most common birds you’ll find. Working with other outdoor bloggers, we put together a post about our favorite outdoor gear.
April 2021
The travel ban was still not over and I was still worried about leaving Germany. A visit to a friend in Frankfurt broke up the endless weeks in Berlin and I convinced C to come with me to Frau Holle Land for a week. We hiked a new trail every day with the highlights being the Hoher Meißner, Hessische Schweiz, and Frankershäuser Karst.
The end of April saw a slight ray of sunshine. Some areas in northern Germany were lifting travel precautions and promoting projects to model tourism in this new covid world. One of which was the Baltic Sea Fjord Schlei. Never heard of it? I had no idea where it was either, but I immediately booked two weeks, convinced I would find out what it was all about. I had a really active time in the Schlei, and went on several great hikes despite the flat terrain. During my stay, I was based in Schleswig, the capital of Germany’s northern most state, Schleswig-Holstein (which also has an awesome castle).
May 2021
Travel elsewhere in Germany began to open up. I still hiked a lot in Brandenburg on day hikes. We were so excited when tourism was finally allowed in Brandenburg that we paid way too much to stay in a cabin at a campground (because shared sanitary buildings were not yet open). But who cares, we love the Märkische Schweiz! At the very end of May, I could finally plan my first real official trip again. I would hike the Goldsteig in the Pfälzer Forest in Bavaria.
June 2021
All in all, I hiked over a week and nearly 200 of the 660 kilometers of the Goldsteig. There were a lot of castles and nearly no other hikers. The biggest challenge was securing my daily corona test in order to stay at a new accommodation each night.
When I returned from Bavaria, C and I spent the weekend hiking and camping to one of Brandenburg’s most famous castles: Rheinsberg. By the end of the month, I completed the fifth loop of the bike trail through Brandenburg’s Historic City Centers.
The final escapade in June was one of the top highlights of my sabbatical: the Malerweg. I cannot speak highly enough of this famous trail. There are fantastic gorges, impressive rock formations, beautiful forests, and charming creeks. The trail enchanted me from beginning to middle to end, even in the pouring rain!
>> Hiking the Malerweg? – don’t miss these tips! <<
>> The Malerweg was my best hike of 2021 – here are more fantastic hikes! <<
July 2021
Surprise, mom and dad! I’m coming home! Sort of. I booked a last minute trip to visit my family in Colorado while they were there visiting my brother. It was a week-long stay in the Springs helping to move too many tons of rock for my brother’s landscaping project while taking in some of the area’s most notable sights.
The rest of July was spent biking. I finished up the southern routes of the Historical City Centers of Brandenburg with loop 6. Then C and I set out for our annual summer bike ride. This summer, we rode the EuroVelo 9 which connects the Baltic and Adriatic seas. Since much of the route is yet to be established, we chose the signed section starting in the Czech Republic
August 2021
By the time August rolled around, we had cycled from Brno, Czech Republic through Vienna, Austria. The signage along the EuroVelo was great until we reached the Slovenian border. We entered near Maribor and traveled diagonally across until we reached the Adriatic in Trieste, Italy.
>> all about our Slovenian adventure <<
And then I went back to work (*crying emoji*).
September 2022
Despite being back to full time, September was filled with a lot of fun trips. C and I cycled along the Spree from Berlin to Fürstenwalde and back, saw the Festival of Lights in Berlin, climbed in the Harz Mountains with some friends, and went to his nephew’s first day of school ceremony near Stuttgart. And I visited the Harz for a second time to check out Goslar, a true gem in the region!
October 2021
I hiked Berlin and Brandenburg with C and colleauges. C’s parents came for a weekend in the capital in which we enjoyed the new Humbolt Forum and a cruise around the Wannsee. The end of October meant time for the first school holiday. We traveled to Mittenwald in southern Germany. It’s close to Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain, and home to a ton of great hikes! We began dreaming of all the things we’d do on our next vacation there before we even left.
November 2021
We visited a friend of mine in Frankfurt, getting to see the Shirn art museum for an exhibition of Paula Modersohn-Becker and to the Palmengarten botanical garden. The rest of November was spent intensively apartment hunting, a horribly unenjoyable sport in Berlin. Plus, the first of Advent in Pirna.
December 2021
The Christmas holidays came early and C and I flew to New Jersey for three weeks. There was a lot of time to see family and a week-long speed tour of New England. New Year’s Eve was spent traveling back to Germany, with no idea of when we actually met the New Year.
house at the beach in Cape Cod 
hiking “the Basin” in New Hampshire
2021 was miles and miles of hiking and biking. I didn’t see any new countries, but I saw a ton of new places. If it weren’t for the pandemic, I most likely wouldn’t have visited Frau Holle Land, nor would I have completed so many hikes in Germany. It doesn’t look like 2022 will be pandemic-free but some kind of pandemic-normal. Whatever it brings, I’m looking forward to it!
I can’t believe that this is the 5th year in review on the blog! Here’s 2020, 2019, 2018, and all the way back to 2017! Thanks to everyone who’s been here for some or all of them 🙂