A fiery hot pain...

My, this day was a blast! And not just in the figurative sense... but first things first. ;-)

Together with a good friend, I went onto a great bike tour. We covered roughly 30-40 km, but this trip was about discovering, not about covering as much ground as possible. So we decided to visit a water castle not too far from Jena and chose a route that would also take us across many of the battlefields from the battle in 1806 between Napoleon's french troups and the combined prussian and saxon troups. The battle is known as the battle at Jena and Auerstedt and took place in a vast area, leading to the defeat of the prussian troups and the death/injury/capture of 33.000 prussian and 15.000 french soldiers. It's quite eery to keep that in mind when you cross those fields, which are - at most - roamed by herds of sheep nowadays and the occasional cyclist, hiker or jogger.
But it IS impressive, to say the least.
Well, after crossing the battlefields and criss-crossing through the country, at times looking or asking for the way, we made our way to Kapellendorf and, just before entering the village, discovered a little tower right in the middle of nothing. Curiously, we clambered and pushed our way through waist-high grass and were pleased to find out that we could actually climb that tower and enjoy the panoramic view over the area from there.

The tower was situated in an old estate, which was also home to a large meadow full with cherry trees, some of which were already bearing fruit. We didn't need an invitation and sampled a few of them. ;-) Gorgeous! After a small feast on those sweet cherries, we continued towards the water castle. Sadly though, the castellan had just passed away and that in itself was noticable, even though this beautiful and well-kept medieval castle was open to visitors.

However, we only found out about that afterwards when looking for a place to enjoy a coffee or something in the like. Setting off on that quest, we passed one village after the other - as a matter of fact, ALL of the scarcely existent pubs, restaurants and cafés were CLOSED. So with the help of a coffee candy, we made it through one more forest and THERE IT WAS: our haven, the coffee provider. With the exeption, that we didn't drink coffee. I for my part had an assortment of cake and an isotonic sports beverage - a Hefeweizen. ;-)
After that break, we visited the site of a former village, which has been destroyed during the Thirty Years' War and has been deserted ever since. A solemn place, with large oak trees growing over tumbling stones, which were parts of homes two centuries ago. None of the homes were still standing and it was hard to just picture where they might have been, but with a still-visible paved walkway and a general sense of long-gone inhabitation, it was hard not to feel touched by this place.
With these last images from a history-laden day, we made our way back to Jena and raced down the hills for me to make it in time back home for a cooking evening with my sister. Jule, my flatmate Bine and I made a DELICLIOUS ratatouille, complete with zucchini, bell peppers, fresh herbs from the balcony and even some chili - in order to add just a LITTLE bit of spice. It was delicious and we were enjoying the food and some wine (just me, though) and were contentedly babbling along.

And THEN I established physical contact between my chili-index finger and my left cornea.

THE END.