Corona Tours

Beautiful weekend weather in April! Traveling is not really welcome right now, Saxony-Anhalt is a restricted area and a long weekend lies ahead of us - so what to do?

In this case, we leave the château at home, but the mini camper, the converted Kangoo, is parked outside the door and the temperatures promise comfort even without heating. The internet informs us that Thuringia is not as strict with incoming travelers, so the destination is quickly found: the Eichsfeld!

So put on a mask, quickly do the shopping, and off to the south.

After a two-hour drive, we have passed Heiligenstadt and picturesque hills lie ahead of us, green and yellow, fields of grain and rapeseed, and blooming fruit trees along the roadsides. We turn left onto a field path because it's time for a cup of coffee. We enjoy the sun and the view and greet the dog walkers. But now it's time, we still want to find a parking space and the sun won't be shining for much longer.

I'm already sitting in the passenger seat, but I quickly wonder about Zappa's regretful expression. No, we can't continue driving right now: we have a flat tire! How did that happen? There's a big rusty hook lying on the road, which seems to have caused trouble for the front left tire. But in this case, we don't need the ADAC, we have a spare tire on board and changing the tire is easy for Zappa.

By now, time has advanced quite a bit and we can't make it to the next supermarket to get coffee milk, which I foolishly forgot at home. Well, I don't need it anyway...

A spot for the night is quickly found in the hills of the Thuringian Eichsfeld, the temperatures are slowly dropping, a wonderfully clear sky, hardly veiled by fine dust, offers a view of a million stars and here and there a shooting star surprises us.

I'm also surprised when I have to realize while converting the robber's cave into sleep mode that Zappa's bedding is completely wet! That can't be, how could that have happened? The mystery is quickly solved: I didn't close my hiking water bottle properly. I sometimes make such mistakes, even with glasses of pickles or oil-soaked tomatoes... Apparently, my capacity to learn leaves something to be desired, which I attribute to a lack of oxygen supply due to wearing a protective mask.

In any case, 500ml of pure tap water ended up in Zappa's blanket and on his side of the bed, and everything is nicely moist. By now, it's about 8°C outside and in full awareness of guilt, I offer him my stuff to sleep with, but he remains the hero of the day: coffee without milk, tire change, and wet bedding, it can hardly be topped. In the morning, the car is covered in frost.

The Eichsfeld is simply fantastic - many small half-timbered villages, from whose church towers with lanterns the hour strikes, hilltops, a dreamy starry sky, beech forests, wide views over valley meadows and slopes on which fruit trees are now in bloom, smoke from wood fires curls out of the chimneys, and in every village, chickens cackle, roosters crow, and dogs bark...

We always keep to ourselves, keep our distance, sit in the sun, and have our first sunburn on our noses, explore the landscape, hike a lot, and discover a picturesque spot right in the neighborhood - you don't always have to go to the ends of the earth after all!