-
Tunisia (2023)
This travel report begins with a confession: Tunisia was rather towards the bottom of my imaginary list of countries to visit. In my mind, I always associated it with a typical destination for people who want to lock themselves up in an all-inclusive hotel for two weeks. Then suddenly came the email that changed everything. I had previously submitted a paper to the AfricaCrypt conference with my boss, and out of nowhere, there it was: the email announcing that our paper had been accepted for the conference. I ran jubilantly through the apartment; after all, this was a crucial milestone on the path to my promotion. The location for AfricaCrypt…
-
Cuba (2022)
What do you normally think of when you hear the word Cuba? Dreamy Caribbean beaches, rhythmic salsa music, cigars, classic cars, and Che Guevara. We all probably know at least one person in our circle who has been to Cuba and raves about it. I myself visited Cuba in 2005 with my parents. We stayed in an all-inclusive hotel in Varadero, like most people who travel there. Although I had a good time during that trip as a child, I was fascinated by the country beyond the hotel walls, and even back then, I wondered why we had to fly for over 10 hours just to spend most of our…
-
Camino de Santiago (2022)
Whether Paulo Coelho’s book on the Camino de Santiago, or Hape Kerkeling’s “I’m off then”. The Camino de Santiago has long ceased to be a mere pilgrimage route for Christians from all over the world. Instead, it is a world-famous phenomenon and as such one of the best-developed and most popular long-distance hiking trails in the world, including being declared a UNESCO World Heritage designation. I, too, first became aware of this pilgrimage route through the media. For me, it was the French film comedy “Saint Jacques… La Mecque”. The concept of spending days, weeks, and even months wandering from one place to another absolutely intrigued me. And so I…
-
Scandinavia (2021): From Thuringia to the North Cape and back
Like so many others, the corona pandemic has thwarted our travel plans for 2020. We were in South Africa shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic and even a short vacation on the Polish Baltic Sea was possible in the summer, but we had accumulated a few vacation days that we now, freshly vaccinated, finally wanted to enjoy by traveling for a whole month. Of course, the world was far from what we were used to before 2020. For sure, this was also reflected in our way of traveling and, above all, in our destination. The Scandinavian countries have also taken some special paths, but all in all they naturally…
-
Hohenfelden Reservoir
On the last weekend in June the weather was particularly good and so I planned a little trip again. Since we have already hiked enough lately, a bike tour was on the agenda. The plan was to cycle to the reservoir Hohenfelden early in the morning and have a nice day there. Unfortunately, the bike path turned out to be not that ideal at all. A significant part of the route led along main roads and unfortunately it was uphill several times. Somewhere between Weimar Legefeld and Bad Berka we finally stood panting in the indentation of a country road that led through the middle of the forest and wound…
-
The “Drei Gleichen” Hike
Already when I first sat in the car from NRW in the direction of Erfurt, I noticed three castles shortly after Gotha, which stand on neighboring hills and are clearly visible from the highway. Nowadays I know that these are the so-called “Drei Gleichen”. At that time I planned to visit these three castles one day. Shortly thereafter, however, the idea unfortunately fell into oblivion again. When we recently walked a section of the 3 Towers Trail with Marie and Christopher, Marie made the suggestion to do the hike at the Drei Gleichen. She had already done this twice and the path was quite beautiful and also not too strenuous.…
-
The Thuringian 3-Towers Hike – A Self Experiment
After Kevin and I have recently hiked a section of the Thuringian 3 towers path together with friends, I wanted to know my limits. On the last Saturday in May, Kevin had a big card tournament and was thus busy all day. But since the weather was quite promising, I decided to unpack my previously unused hiking poles and do the Thuringian 3-Towers hike on my own. Kevin and I both got up early in the morning. Kevin to get ready for his tournament and me to pack my backpack and prepare provisions. We had a chickpea-avocado salad and a strawberry-wheat-arugula salad. In addition, of course, I took a bottle…
-
Okonomiyaki
If you read the post about our trip to Japan, you know that we ate some very delicious okonomiyaki in Japan (And also raised our glasses to our marriage with Japanese businessmen at an okonomiyaki restaurant, but that’s another story…). Okonomiyaki are a type of savory Japanese pancake. There are two styles of it: Hiroshima okonomiyaki and Osaka okonomiyaki. Back in 2017, I didn’t know this dish at all. However, I had set a goal to teach Kevin how to cook, and as motivation, I lend him a Japanese cookbook. Kevin was so motivated that he even marked recipes with sticky notes. In the end, the choice fell on Osaka…
-
From Bad Berka to Weimar – Our 1 1/2 Towers Path
Thanks to Corona, possible ventures are unfortunately limited. However, one thing that is always possible in good weather and that we like to use is to go out into nature and hike. The bridge day between Ascension Day and the weekend it was once again so far. Kevin and I took extra vacation and together with Christopher and Marie, two good friends of ours, we took the train to Bad Berka. The original plan was to walk the Thuringian 3 towers path, but since it is quite long with its 26km, I let my comrades-in-arms talk me down to hike only part of the way. However, this should also be…
-
Hike to Ettersburg Castle
On Sunday the weather was just perfect. With 25°C it felt like a beautiful summer day without being overwhelmed by the heat. We took advantage of this to hike to Ettersburg Castle. Since the way from our front door to the castle is quite long with almost 10km, we split up for the first kilometres. I walked the first part while Kevin went a little later and took the bus. Our meeting point was Weimar Schöndorf. The way to Schöndorf is mostly along a main road. Nevertheless, there is the Buchenwald railroad memorial path. Along this path prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp had to build a railroad line under…
Reisen, Katzen und Essen… nicht zwangsläufig in dieser Reihenfolge.
