This was an easy walk; there was no one about and although we had to travel a bit on the road into Altenau there was little traffic. We also walked through some lovely woods with more wildflowers such as foxgloves and the ubiquitous rosebay willowherb though this was not so abundant as on the more open, arable land. We stopped for a while and watched fritillaries on clumps of a fairly tall yellow flower. This may have been yellow gentian or, perhaps, arnica (same thing?) and was all over the place. In Sankt Andreasberg later there was an Arnikastrasse so I think it is, or has been, important to the area.We treated ourselves to a proper lunch in the garden at Sperberhaier Dammhaus which is right on the road to Altenau and useful for people walking the Hexensteig. We were considering this but later decided against as we didn't think Angelo would go for it.
Arriving in Altenau we stopped at the first likely-looking place and sat outside for a beer, tieing up Angelo nearby and giving him some carrots. He was fairly good but did bray at one point which we tried to ignore. As we set off again a young boy (Fabian?) turned up and said his mother worked at the place we were booked into, Landhaus am Kunstberg, and he would guide us there. Two of his friends on bikes arrived too so we were quite a little group. Angelo refused point blank to go up the step and through the alleyway to the back where there was plenty of grass so instead he stayed in the garden next door. One of the children thought it was 'cool' having a donkey for the night and during dinner we could hear Angelo's new fan club talking to him. The family here was incredibly kind and helpful and didn't seem to mind the bare patch left in their lawn after being nibbled all night.
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