Trips
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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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Farmer’s market in Mellingen
In December, just before Christmas, a farmers’ market took place in Mellingen. We only came across this information by chance and wanted to visit it on a Saturday. The weather was cloudy and a bit cold, but it didn’t rain. Unfortunately, half of the cycle path from Weimar to Mellingen was closed to Taubach, but we reached the farmers’ market around noon via a small detour. Corona-related due to some requirements, the huts were relatively far apart and every guest had to wear a mask. Nevertheless, the market was quite busy and you could make out 3-5 people in front of each hut. Nathalie really wanted to go to the…
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The Zoo Hirschfeld
Due to the corona we had the taste to visit different animal parks in 2020, of course because they were mostly open and therefore less restricted, but also because we like animals and were already in South Africa at the beginning of the year. So far we had already visited the animal enclosure Waldhaus near Greiz, the zoo in Gera, the Leipzig Zoo, the zoo in Erfurt and the wild cat village Hütscheroda – all of them only one hour train ride away at most. Now we had to look a little more outside and that’s when my mother recommended the Hirschfeld Zoo, which is not far from Greiz in…
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Our Alpaca Hike
After our trip to Peru we were always a little bit fascinated by alpacas and therefore we also looked where there are alpacas in Germany. Some we could find in nearby zoos or animal parks… but we also learned that here and there alpaca walks are offered – but unfortunately mostly further away, so it was difficult to plan a date for it. One day Nathalie noticed during her jogging trip that a farm called “Erlebnishof Weimar”, which she passes by, advertises alpaca walks with them. So we took one of the last weekends in September, when the weather was still good, and invited Christopher and Marie, so that the…
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To the Wildcat Village in Hütscheroda
The weather in August and September was not the very best. It was often cloudy and rainy… but for my birthday we wanted to make a little trip. In August we went with Nathalie’s parents to the treetop path in Thuringia and got an advertising flyer for further sights in Thuringia… and one sight caught our attention: the wildcat village in Hütscheroda! On Saturday we decided to drive to the forest cat village. But we had to realize that it was not so easy to get there without a car. First you have to take the train to Eisenach and from there there is a bus to Hütscheroda and back…
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Hike on the Horseshoe in Jena
From the meeting point in Jena Zwätzen we first had to go to Kunitz. Here we crossed the Kunitz house bridge and got to know the village a little bit. Soon we were on the signposted hiking trail and we headed south up the mountain towards Jenzig. Here we got lost 1 or 2 times. So we came partly on quite steep paths, which sometimes even ended in dead ends. But with the time the paths became more and more passable and we even met a paraglider pilot at his jump. Arrived at the summit there were several forest taverns where we had our lunch. Nathalie and I made onigiri…
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Gera Zoo
Actually we wanted to go to the wildcat village in Hütscheroda on our one year wedding day… but we soon found out that the train connections to Eisenach and the enclosure are quite complicated and we would not have been able to spend enough time there on the planned day. So we quickly thought about alternatives. Zoos are always a good idea, but we have been to Leipzig and Erfurt the last few years… so we decided for a completely different zoo, which reminds more of an animal enclosure: The zoo Gera! We took the train to Gera-Süd and from there it was not far to the zoo. Nevertheless we…
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Our little Whitsun-Hike to Belvedere
On June 1st we wanted to take a little hike thanks to the nice weather. Therefore, we have again prepared Bentos with onigiris (rice balls filled with chicken, wasabi and cheese), red bell peppers, cucumbers, and octopus sausages. The hardest part of the way was to climb up to Belvedere Palace at the beginning. We left shortly before 11 o’clock and arrived exactly at 12. Here, we looked for a nice bench in the park behind the castle and ate our Bentos. After lunch, we went back along a dirt road leading towards “Taubacher Mühle”. Shortly before arriving at the village we turned left towards the bike path that we…
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Bicycle tour: Feininger-Radweg
On May 21st (also Father’s Day), we decided to go on a bike tour. This day was particularly worth going outside because both the days before and the weather forecast afterward showed that it would otherwise only be raining or cloudy. We chose the Feininger cycle path, which is described below. We knew the beginning of the route to Mellingen, as Nathalie uses to go running there quite often and sometimes accompanied her on my bike. The way behind Oettern was a little more confusing. Here, we slightly lost our way. When we finally found our way back to the Feininger bike path behind Buchfart, the most difficult part of…
