EV10: Day 4: Eisenach to Erfurt

Went well. I rode from Eisenach via Gotha to Erfurt, where I did a little sightseeing and had dinner. Then I continued north and could shower at a lake close to the shelter I had picked out for the night, and I got there just in time before the rain started. There were some ants, so I put up my hammock instead.
Just 15 meters away is the exact spot where Martin Luther was struck by lightning 503 years ago, resulting in some “visions”, which caused him to start the Christian Protestant religion.

Even though there was a lot of rain that night, I did not get struck by lightning, so I won’t share that same fate, I guess. #cycle2finland #93km #503hm

Something happened that night which I did not mention in my original Instagram post, in order not to worry anyone: I typically pick my spots in remote places where I would not expect any people to come by at night. However, after I had put up my hammock and it started raining, I noticed that there was still quite a bit of traffic with some sketchy-looking old cars, and I wondered: “I hope I did not pick the local drug-dealing spot to rest for the night.” And so I hid my credit card somewhere in my luggage, in case I got robbed, and then went to sleep.
In the middle of the night, maybe around 3 a.m., while it was raining heavily, somebody came close to the shelter and rang their bicycle bell. I woke up from my deep sleep, looked into the bright light of the bicycle in confusion and immediately offered to make some room for them.
They just shrugged it off and said: “No, that’s ok,” and left.
To this day I don’t have a good explanation for who this could have been. It can’t have been police or a hunter — why would they be out with a bicycle in the rain?

I slept here.

Route

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