Thuringia Adventure - Day 2: Our inn

Well - it gets dark SO early these days, (it's definitely dark by 4:15 or so) that we had no idea what our inn looked like until the morning. Steve found the place on the internet - it's apparently a 1000 year old inn that was left vacant for decades, and recently refurbished. The directions the innkeeper gave us were rather vague - go to Kolbia. In center of town is little bridge, take the right and then left uphill....but we managed to find our way. We were way out in the country, and it was pitch black. The only way we figured that it was our accomodations for the week was that the road ended, and there was a little tiny light on in one of the windows. Because we were booked for Monday through Wednesday nights, we had the place to ourselves. Our first impression was that of awe. We had a three story apartment - first floor: great room with kitchen and sitting area, second floor: two bedrooms and full bath, third floor: a huge attic-like bedroom with four beds. The furniture was all light pine, almost shaker in style, and the beds had those European feather beds instead of topsheets and comforters. COZY!

Well, after an AWESOME night's sleep, we looked out the three feet deep recessed windows. The forest was just 1/2 a kilometer behind us, and the rest was gorgeous farmland. We were going to try to travel to Wittenburg to do some more Luther hunting that day, and decided that we needed to just stay put and enjoy. We didn't do much - we explored the farm (complete with sheep, goats, and pony) a bit of the surrounding countryside and a bit of the woods. Although the weather was cloudy, it was still stunningly beautiful. We saw many many tiny treehouse type structures around (see Ev's picture in one) - we thought they might be 'blinds' for hunters or nature watchers, but they were mostly facing the fields...still a mystery.

We did need to go into a nearby town to get some supplies, so we went off in the afternoon hoping to find a horseriding place we'd heard about. We found a dinner spot - not much open - and then, right as the sun was going down, found the horse place. Alas, they weren't able to saddle up the horses until the next day, but they did give us a little tour. The horses were gorgeous! I wish I had the presence of mind to take pictures, but I was just in awe. They were all Palaminos, apparently, and really beautiful. There were also very cute stable dogs that had the kids entranced as well.

All for now - stay tuned for day three!