i had a week off in november and visited my parents ( as i often do on my vacations ). on a sunday morning we headed to the thuringian forest to climb onto the peak of the kickelhahn mountain. the kickelhahn mountain is the landmark mountain of the city of ilmenau. johann wolfgang von goethe, the famous writer & philosopher, often visited ilmenau and also climbed the kickelhahn. oftentimes he stopped at a little hut in the woods to relax for a while and on one of these stops he wrote one of his most known poems.
our little adventure didn't last the whole day, though, as we had a little date with the weimar cemetery to look after the grave of my grandparents and then to visit my cousin and his family.
tiny peek onto the kickelhahn tower.
thuringian woods - deep dark green.
at the goethe hut. this plate shows the german version of the poem goethe wrote here.
inside the hut.
and here's the english translation. i love this poem so much, as it's clearly showcasing the effect of calmness that woods and mountains have on him and also that it means peace to him, and he clearly thinks that death will be as peaceful as nature. it's something i can relate to 100 percent.
there was once a hunting lodge on the mountain, but it fell into despair after the duke of weimar, ernst august, died.
ilmenau advertises itself with the little slogan: ilmenau - himmelblau. himmelblau means azure and clearly, the skies we have seen from the kickelhahn on that day were the perfect azure blue. the view from the mountain is wide and broad and so the sky had the best shades of blue.
the kickelhahn tower. of course my father and i climbed up there.
and the view from up there was seriously amazing. here you can see ilmenau.
and the view over the thuringian forest, it was breathtaking.
veil clouds.
it was soon about time to leave. onwards to weimar!
walking towards my grandparent's graves. the weimar cemetery is one of my most favourite places, it's so full of history and all overgrown and my heart's just really attached to it. i never had a very deep bond to my maternal grandparents ( they died early, i was still a small child ), but the visits to their graves is one of the longest traditions in my family. those walks after we took care of the graves were my favourites, as we got to explore the cemetery further and it sparked my big affection for graveyards in general.
little amber butterfly.
the evening sky at my cousin's place.
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