Ilmenau's slogan is "Ilmenau, Himmelblau" (Ilmenau, Blue Sky), but to be honest, except for the first day here I have not seen one single blue sky. It rained yesterday - it rained today - I think basically it has rained here every day since I got here. It's okay though, because it's not really a heavy pouring down rain, more the light, misty, slightly annoying type of rain. I've basically decided that if I wait for it to stop raining outside, I will never do anything, so this morning I got up bright and early, got dressed, and went on a hike to Schmücke.
What is Schmücke? Well, according to something I read very briefly the other day, it's a cute little town. Ha. Ha. It is actually a guesthouse/inn located 981 meters above sea level. There's a little grill and a bar and some little Ferienhäuser - and that's it. Sort of a let-down after hiking 15 km to get there, but oh well. At least there was something to eat because I was starving. Schmücke may be the highest "settlement" around so it is exciting. Not really heartening place to start on a 15 km hike back to Ilmenau - especially when the temperature has dropped and now its literally pouring. All in all though - a nice hike.
Today was also Tag des offenen Denkmals - which is supposed to translate to Day of Open Monuments - but in Ilmenau that apparently means churches. St. Jakobuskirche was open so we could look around and you could go up into the church tower and look around. That was nice because it's really the tallest thing in the Stadtzentrum so you can get a better idea of how the town is laid out. There was a trumpet and organ concert also - but I didn't know it cost money and hadn't brought any with me.
It's amazing how tiring 30 km of hiking can be - even if it's relatively flat like this hike was... so I'm off to bed a little early. I don't have to be at school until 9:15 tomorrow morning - staying until 2 - and then off to take care of my residence permit and work permit and other such things.
No comments:
Post a Comment