Located just a few kilometers below the well-known Rudelsburg, the historically valuable Saale bridge connects the older part of Bad Kösen on the right of the Saale with the newer part on the left bank of the river and has long been an important Saale crossing in the course of the medieval Via Regia, the course of which in big parts is the modern federal highway 87.

Visit from our friend Philipp and his girlfriend Jule, with whom we had undertaken countless hikes and discovery excursions during the project work on the Balkans and here especially in Greece.

The view out of the window on Sunday morning was good enough to collect our backpack and go on another hike to explore the region around Billroda.

In our blog article "Ghost beech in Bad Kösen" we had already described a section of the hiking trail network that ultimately leads to the Rudelsburg, partly through wonderful shady deciduous forest and partly within sight of the Saale river.

On the way to our authors' meeting in Halle, we wanted to visit the Harz town of Stolberg again, which we could only pass by during our last excursion in the spring due to lack of time, but which we had still had in mind due to the wonderful half-timbered buildings.

The research for an ATM machine led us into the city centre of Naumburg in southern Saxony-Anhalt for the first time, whose landmark, the early Gothic cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, is one of the most valuable European monuments today.

Brilliant sunshine in April had motivated us to take another walk, far away from large numbers of people despite Corona, so in choosing our destination we were sure not to meet anyone, which should also prove to be correct since all of the so-called local attractions were closed anyway.

If you are traveling in different regions of Germany, you will occasionally come across interesting buildings of bygone eras, which, sometimes surprisingly, will be given high priority again due to changing use and changed tourist interests.

The Eckartsburg with its 36-metre-high tower can be seen from afar, because it is located on the Finne, a high ridge on the state border of Saxony-Anhalt to Thuringia.

Another walk has taken us along the Lossa creek, where we came across an almost heavenly piece of land, beginning at the end of village Billroda.

The next day was to be followed by another tour of downtown Halle, so Detlef did not just have the Old Market with its donkey well in mind, but also the only existing Museum of music history of the Beatles.

Stendal is located in the north of Saxony-Anhalt, is the largest city of the Altmark and is one of the oldest cities in the old Mark Brandenburg. Thus one finds the first documentary mentioning of the place already from the year 1022.

Who of us has not heard the name Nebra at least once? Since the discovery of the ancient Nebra Sky Disc, which has long been legendary already, the name has surely been known to many.

Already from afar we had spotted the striking main eye view of the city at the castle church during the journey to Wittenberg, nevertheless little unusual to be called church tower.

On the way to the south, we were meeting with our Co-author Detlef in Halle, who surprised again with an interesting city hike in the sense of our common activities regarding tourist destinations which can be interesting for our readers.