Thüringenwarte

While on our rest-day walk around Ludwigsstadt, Inaja and I spotted the Thüringenwarte (Thuringia Watchtower) looming over the trees. It’s hard to imagine now while surrounded by such peaceful nature, but this tower holds some heavy Cold War history. Originally built in the 1950s and later rebuilt into what you see here, it sat right near the inner German border. Back then, people in the West used it to look over the "Iron Curtain" into Thuringia, which was locked behind the border of East Germany (GDR). It is a wild feeling to be bikepacking freely along a route that used to be a heavily guarded divide.Read more