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 for everyone again – one half filled with chicken meat and the other with cucumber.

Then we went down again on the other side of the mountain, where we passed horses and walked through a village again. At the lowest point we crossed a main road and realized that we had only made half of the whole trail here. The next mountain lay ahead of us, the “Great Railroad Hill”, and the heat did quite a bit of work for some of us, but we saw the Kunitzburg as our destination all the time.

At some point we arrived at the Kunitz Castle, which is so named because it was once a castle, but is now just a small ruin with a viewpoint. From there we could even see the gardens, because practically the whole of Jena Zwätzen was in view. Up there we could also see some other hiking groups.

In the end we only had to walk down the mountain again, passing some wine fields. At the end of the trail we were back in Kunitz, where the actual hike began. After we said goodbye to our friends from Jena, we took the train back to Weimar, where we had a pizza in our favorite pizzeria.