I'm still in two minds about this Camino. I just finished it yesterday, so it's still all fresh in my memory if anyone has any questions. Walked Goerlitz to Eisenach, although I did cheat a bit on two stages: took a train from Wurzen to Leipzig and then a bus from Leipzig to Merseburg. There's plenty of good to be had on this Camino, and on one hand I feel extremely inspired. However, it is quite tricky for a number of reasons. I thought I'll just sum up it quickly here and in case of questions/interest, elaborate more. Good comes first, tricky points come second.
The main takeaway from this Camino for me was that it all seemed a very grassroots, bottom-up initiative. There was a sense of localness, of solidarity every place you went. It really is just small communities (mainly rural) working together to take care of the pilgrims and the Way. This on its own is so touching and beautiful, hard to replicate really
The places to sleep typically only double up as albergues - by day they're community/youth centers, cinemas (!), churches, parishes, etc. Plenty of private person accommodation as well. This sense of community is incredibly thrilling, it kind of makes you wonder what the trails in Spain must have looked like before the Camino boom. The guide made by the Oekumenischer Pilgerweg e.V. is really a testament to this. I cannot recommend it enough. On a number of outside sites the guide is described as "lovingly put together" and seriously, you can tell. Buy it or otherwise just donate to the organization (I wasn't able to buy it, unfortunately, got mine on the way at one of the family albergues). Anyways, this experience really inspired me to get involved into creating more of the same kind of infrastructure on the Camino trails in my country. So in this regard I'd say this Camino has been extremely uplifting.
Now the tricky/frustrating parts: they are mostly a byproduct of the localness described above (so, as they say, every advantage can be simultaneously a disadvantage). For me, there was three. First and foremost, the loneliness. I did my research so wasn't expecting a crowd, but honestly within the 16 days of walking I passed two pilgrims on the way and I WAS ALONE IN EVERY SINGLE HERBERGE. (Sorry, but it does deserve the caps). This also increased the stress factor because 1) there was no-one I could cross-reference my planning with or brainstorm the tricky stages, 2) if I got lost on the way I was likely the only pilgrim doing this stage, so I was totally on my own, 3) a lot of the herberges were empty buildings so it did get a bit spooky. Second, the way marking.
@SYates very graciously describes the Camino as well-marked, but also her guide is about 5 years old (kept referring to it almost every day, still! Cannot thank you enough!). For me, the marking was haphazard to sparse. There were some well-marked stretches, but it wasn't infrequent to be walking like 4-5 kilometers with NO marks in sight. Finding your way out of bigger cities was extremely frustrating as well. There were a lot stressful situations which left me nearly in tears. (There's particular stretches I can warn of if there's questions/interest). All in all, I wouldn't have managed without resorting to the GPS, so word to the wise. Third and last, lack of services. This actually just about did me in, especially in the second week of walking. I'm quite thin so what little reserves I have on my body I lose quite quickly and then all my energy basically comes from food, and lots of it. And, don't get me wrong, much as I love the German culture, there's a reason you don't see German restaurants conquering the world. Alas, lots of disappointing meals for this pilgrim here, at least. There's German delis/bakeries, of course, but coming from a country with strong bakeries tradition (Poland) I'm left a bit cold by the German offerings. Also, sandwiches barely count as food for me when you basically work out hard every single day; besides, there's days on end when you see no bakery or shop at all. This means you need to carry your food, which adds weight and adds stress on the body and mind. I want to stress the herberge parents many times offer emergency food supplies or suggest places that deliver to the far-off herberge, so you likely will not go completely hungry. It really just depends on what your body needs as fuel. If you have special dietary needs you really need to plan and pack accordingly, which adds to the stress.
I do hope the tricky points do not deter you from giving this beautiful Camino a try. There's stretches that I want to definitely come back to in the past. I loved the initial stages from Goerlitz to Crostwitz/Kamenz, and then the three cities Merseburg-Freiburg-Naumburg. The sights and the cultural heritage you see there are really hard to beat. I wasn't aware, for example, of the strong Sorbian presence in the Lausitz region, which is funny since the language shares a lot of similarities with Polish. And obviously the Saale valley is everything you've heard about it and more. The Naumburg cathedral you have to experience. No words or pictures can really do it justice.
This is such a long post but I feel I barely scratched the surface. If there's questions I'll be glad to answer them, if not I hope future pilgrims might use this post to prepare better. I wonder what your experiences were on this particular Camino. I'd be glad to hear especially from people who are not fluent German speakers--I spoke not a word of English the entire time I was there. From the books I signed in herberges I saw really overwhelmingly German pilgrims. Anyone out there?