Today I went for a long walk in the countryside southwest of Jena, Germany.

Read to the end of the post to find out how long my walk was.

Over the years I have been slowly walking all of the Red trail that goes around Jena. After today I only have one portion of the trail left to finish.

I took this picture from the hotel as I left for the walk. You can see the old stone bridge that carries the E40 over the Saale Valley. See Views of Jena II for more pictures of the bridge.

As I took the red trail south from the hotel and turned west I was able to get a picture of the new bridge along with the old bridge.

A little further along I came to the village of Maua and took this interesting picture of a half timber barn. I really like some of the old architecture in the villages around Jena.

I was soon in the countryside and the trails followed bike and walking paths through the woods and fields. Sometimes there were nice wide paths but mostly they were narrow paths little wider than a single bike or person. I went up and down hill for most of the day.

I took this picture shortly after the furthest point west on the trail. In this view you can barely see where I started. The long row of white buildings on the right side of the picture is Lobeda West where the hotel is.

Here is an example of the trail signs. The trails are well marked with the red and white blaze on trees, posts or other surfaces along the way. When I took this picture I was five kilometers from Ammerbach which was my final destination on the Red trail. The second sign points back the way that I came and you can see that I am 13.5 kilometers from Maua where I took the picture of the half timber barn.

At the top of the sign you also see arrows with a big ‘L’. These are markers for the Lutherweg which is a network of trails that lead to sites that have a connection to Martin Luther. You can find out more at the Lutherweg website.

So for those who are curios as to how far I walked today. I will now consult my new phone. Today I have 37,000 steps and walked 17 miles. Quite a bit more than yesterday where I only had 25,000 steps and 11 miles.

I hope that you enjoyed the pictures of my long walk in the country.

Steven