Journey to Leipzig - City Countryside Sea - Germany 2022 - 1
Stage 1 - Journey to Leipzig
Last weeks it was hot. Freya wishes meanly continuous rain for home - well, at night. But unfortunately, the weather forecast predicts significantly cooler and rather unsteady weather for our travel route as well.
It's Tuesday morning and we're taking it easy. With more than 500 kilometers, this will be the longest stage of the trip, but Jürgen has planned a stopover in Saalfeld. Here is a "Fairy Grotto" [↗] and it is well-visited even during the week. Every 15 minutes, about 50 people enter the former slate mine.
We use the waiting time until our tour starts, after all 1.5 hours, for a short walk and a picnic with the meatballs we took with us.
By the way, the whole thing got its name from the neighboring "Feenweltchen" (Fairy World) theme park. This one costs separate admission, but even outside there are all sorts of things for the little fairy and the naughty elf. You can find sticky tattoos and climbing courses, pick gold out of the sand sieves and of course, there are also photo spots where the respective child can be posed. But the most crowded places are the bratwurst stalls. There is also a small museum in which the air is so bad that we leave it quickly.
At some point, it is time to arrive at the meeting point for the guided tour. We are given capes and pointed hats (but we quickly take those off again) and after the obligatory group photo, which we could buy later at the exit, we go into the mine.
The tour leads over steel stairs and through damp, narrow tunnels. Jürgen has to keep his head down. At certain points, we have stops for explanations or time for taking pictures. Especially at the last point, we would have liked to have a little more time, but obviously, we had to hurry to get out of the cave in time.
Very occasionally, special photo tours are offered [↗] and for photographers, this is certainly the better alternative, as you can move freely through the mine for 2 hours.
Saalfeld itself would have been worth a look, but the long waiting time put a spoke in our wheel. After all, we still have to go on to Leipzig.
