ilm valley near buchfart & hetschburg.
i had another weekend off at my parent's place in late may which we used to do a little trip to the middle ilm valley ( you can find a lot of good places to visit on this site - including informations about buchfart ) in close proximity to the city of weimar. i was really surprised about this small region, i couldn't remember that my parents had ever taken us here when we were kids, even though it was so close to home. the lush landscape and the charming little village of buchfart taught me to not forgo the hinterland of any major city or tourist magnet but instead venture out into the 'outback' and explore the hidden gems you can find there.
the ilm is a river of about 130 km length and in that particular area it meanders in a canyon-like fashion through a transverse valley of limestone cliffs and passes by oscillating undulating landscapes. since may is a month full of fresh colours the area charmed us with a wonderful abundance of green hues. especially in the woods and near the river. add to that an old cave castle, ancient mills and tiny historic villages you have a recipe for escapism par excellence.
in the woods near buchfahrt. the forest is full of beeches here, something you can derive by looking at the name buchfart as well. buche is german for beech. a furt is a ford or passage ( relating to the ilm river ). buchfart thus means: the ford by the beeches. the grounds of the beech forest were littered with green growth, from lime green to verdant. this time of the year always boasts the best colours of green, am i right?
strange specimens grew out of the ground everywhere. alien botany is pretty much my favourite botany.
nodular tree trunks or roots often attract me, though i don't really know why that is. maybe it's just the fascination of trees not growing straight into the sky, but growing like nature intented? lots of german forests are managed by forestry offices and therefore the woods are cultivated for commercial purposes, which means that you often find structured and generated patches of wood, with trees in neat lines and rarely growing in all directions. a really wild forest is rare in germany, you have to visit the east of the state to find some real wilderness, something that is really left alone and not messed with. so whenever i find an area that feels jungle-like or primordial it opens up a door within me. i like discovering chaos in nature, probably because the order of modern living is so streamlined and sterile and without organic development. sometimes i'm just done with everything having to be a certain way, fitting into perfect shapes and adapting to linear surroundings. i guess finding a nodular tree trunk counts as a 'breaking out of my confinements' moment ;)
lovely saturated clearings.
a cloud of whites and greens.
little mustiness workers - mushrooms ( i think the dryad's saddle perhaps? )
a tiny little hut in the midst of fields.
when the forest grounds are full of tiny blooming flowers 😍
we limbo danced under that tree ;P it was real easy.
i love them tiny pathways!
we had a small break at another clearing, not far away from a paddock and discovered this charming table 😂
the clearing and the paddock.
cypress spurge. normally the blossoms of the cypress spurge are lime green, but as soon as they mature and eject their cocci, their blossom petals turn to a pinkish colour. it looks so nice!
found some horses! 
elder blossoms. they're edible and have a sweet taste.
on we went and soon detected the cave castle of buchfart. it was built into the limestone cliff i mentioned earlier and dates back to the 10th century. the caves that were turned into a cave castle had already existed before the erection of the castle and were used by prehistoric men as shelters. from the 5th to 8th century it was also used by merowingan people as a sanctuary. you cannot enter the castle anymore, it is in a real bad state of erosion. the little building on the top left is called 'balsamine' and is a restaurant and overlook.
there are several legends told about this mysterious abode that was left to turn into ruins in the 15th century. since i recently started delving my brain into the world of lore and tales of yore ( visit the lore podcast i am recently obsessing over ) i want to relay them to you, because these tales are full of magic and arcane.
the first tiny tale is about a miller's boy from the nearby hetschburg village who was asked by a ghost to come to the cave castle in the evening to excavate a treasure. but the ghost told him as well, that he shouldn't bring his godfather, who was a sorcerer. the miller's boy thought of that as a bit fishy and not trustworthy and brought his godfather along. the ghost appeared, but instead of a gold treasure he gave the boy resounding slaps in the face and then disappeared never to be seen again.
right, this was more of a funny one, without a lot of detail and it seems a bit random, right? let's look at the next tale which is about a mason and a little man ( and little men are plentiful in old legends, curiously ).
a fellowcraft mason made his way home towards his village through the ilm valley. when the tower clock of the village church rang midnight a little man appeared next to him and asked the mason to follow him to the cave castle. the mason had to help him expand a recess in the rocks that turned out to be the entry to a subterranean corridor. after he finished the work the little man told the mason that he could go home and to come back the next evening, but with a warning: to not tell anyone about their meeting. the little man also gave the mason a few yellow leaves for the mason's wife. on his way home the mason, who was a bit aggravated over the poor payment, threw the leaves away, but one leaf stuck to his clothes, unnoticed. when on the next morning his wife discovered a gold coin in his coat the mason couldn't remain silent anymore and told his wife all about the encounter with the little man. in the evening he returned to the cave castle but he couldn't find the entry into the cave anymore and the little man couldn't be found as well. and even the leaves he had thrown away so carelessly were gone with the wind.
another tale is much more enchanting: a tale about a damsel of wonders, a maiden of the mountain. when spring arrived, trutina, the mystical mountain creature, came riding down into the valley on a white stag with golden antlers, surrounded by frail air shapes. only when the leaves fall again, she returns to her home in the mountains. whoever has the misfortune of seeing her will be inevitably drawn to the caves of the mountain - without returning. apparently there's a guard near the castle that warns everyone about entering the caves, but to no avail, the magic of the mountain maiden is too big, too undeniable. never did anybody return who entered the castle after the gates were closed behind them.
i really would like to venture into this old structure myself and see for myself how much of it is still intact, but unfortunately it is too dangerous for common people. so all i could do was just gawking at it from afar and wondering about how people managed to build something as awesome as a cave castle.
the view of the felsenburg from afar.
and a little closer again.
buchfart was full of cute houses like this.
there's something very enticing about the old walls of tinder-framed houses. especially when they loose the clay plastering and it gives you a view underneath it, laying bare the stonework. tinder-frame houses are such good constructions. i do love the birdhouses they attached to the facade.
lovely little setup of plants ❤
another very cool sight in buchfart is this canopied bridge over the ilm river. i only know these bridges from stories out of america and i was absolutely clueless that you could find these in germany as well (apparently the south of germany still has a few in store, but when you move north you don't find any )! i mean, there are covered bridges you can find in germany, but they are often only for pedestrians, never for road traffic. this bridge can be crossed with vehicles and with your own two legs. it was built from 1816 to 1818 according to a design by carl friedrich christian steiner, a well-known weimar architect. it's 43 meters long and very narrow, so basically a single lane street.
the bridge tunnel.
the very shallow, but rocky ilm river.
the ilm river is usually a rather happy and bouncing little stream, very rarely it happens to flood its surroundings. about 5 or 6 years ago it flooded weimar really badly ( and i guess other villages along the way ), i remember it well, because i was on visit back then. it swelled up so much that even the ducks had trouble keeping afloat and rafted down the river with loud excited quacks. it was actually a really funny sight 😂 ( i actually thought i had a post about that day somewhere on this blog, but after searching for it, i couldn't find one - a shame! )
and now meet another must-see building in buchfart: the ancient pfeiffer's mill. i don't know how old this historical mill actually is, you can't find infos anywhere, but what is most important is the fact that it's just super idyllic!
it still operates and produces flour and you can buy the bread they produce in the mill's own shop!
after we had lunch in a cute little restaurant next to the mill (it was called ilmtalstübchen! home-cooked thuringian delicacies! ) we made our way back to hetschburg, where we started our little hike. we passed by the felsenburg again, walked right underneath it, along the banks of the ilm river. i caught a tiny glimpse of the castle from down there.
it greens so green when spain's blossoms blossom! ( i'm not crazy, it just came to my mind that old song from the german version of 'my fair lady' - which is WAY different than the original, lol! )
but really, the abundance of green was mind-blowing!
quaint little river taking a slight turn. by now the sky was slowly overclouding and announced a little thunderstorm.
storm sky approaching. i loved the movement of the grain fields ( which i even captured a little, when you look closer ).
the last picture i shot was when we arrived in hetschburg again and i discovered this huge ant claiming a house for itself. it was created by the local blacksmith 'ilmschmiede schwarz'.
and once again i got to know a tiny part of my homeland thuringia that i didn't know before and made me fall in love with it again!
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