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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Japanese Curry
Cooking is a great passion of mine. I am constantly on the lookout for new recipes. Of course, every now and then Japanese specialties are on the daily menu, even if they sometimes have to be improvised due to a lack of ingredients. Cooking also plays a central role in Kevin’s and my relationship. We started cooking together even before we became a couple, and I had the original goal of teaching Kevin, who until then had mostly eaten convenience foods and cafeteria food, how to cook. In the process, Kevin turned me on to a dish that has since become one of both of our favorites: Japanese curry. I…
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South Africa (2020)
Why South Africa? It is not possible to answer this question exactly. The country exerts its very own fascination. On the one hand, we wanted to admire wild animals on a safari, on the other hand South Africa has a fascinating history with apartheid and the resulting struggle for freedom with Nelson Mandela. Furthermore, Africa as a continent is a completely different world that we wanted to discover. So on 09 February 2020 the time had come. Unfortunately, hurricane Sabine also hit Germany on this day. With one of the last trains that were still running that day we arrived at Frankfurt Airport, where many flights had already been cancelled.…