Landgrafen Tower — Jena

Landgrafen Tower — Jena

Originally uploaded by elmada.

So earlier this week, I climbed to the top of the hill above my flat.

Knowing myself, I realized that once I return to Weimar, I will loose any enthusiasm for climbing to the top of a hill in Jena.

What had attracted me to the crest of the hill was the presence of a tower which in the olden days of the DDR was a television antenna with a viewing room.

Anyhow, I thought to myself that this was an opportunity to engage do something I’ve noticed that German men like to do—partake of public nudity.

I’ve witnessed this online (a surprising number of German’s gay profiles (NSFW) include a picture of the guy naked in a field or the woods), and in real life (I watched a buff guy play badminton in his underwear in a local park last weekend—I watched him remove his shirt and then take off his shorts).

Expecting a solitary experience, I was on a quest to fulfill one of my fantasies: spanking the monkey in the woods.

To start with, I grabbed a t-shirt and my shorts and decided to go commando as I headed out. I expected a solitary experience at the top of the hill—I mean, who in their right mind would climb to the top of a hill at 8:30pm on a somewhat hot and humid evening.

Halfway up the hill I encountered a couple coming down the hill with their dog.

“Phew,” I thought. “I hope nobody else is up there.”

Wrong I was. It was crawling with people on hikes, and after viewing a map of hiking trails that was at the top of the hill, I realized that just about every trail that passed within 20 kilometers of Jena made a detour up to this vista because the view of Jena is spectacular from the top of the hill. Over on Flickr I’ve put together the Jena-Landgrafen set, where you can see some of what I saw.

Although I wasn’t able to fulfill my fantasy, I didn’t find the hike a waste of time. Instead I wished that I had climbed the hill earlier.

Tomorrow I return to Weimar.