Station: [22] Bader Gate

M: Bürgel used to be surrounded by a town wall, with three town gates providing access. The Bader Gate on the south-western edge of town is the only historical entry point that has survived. There's a good view of the solid town wall and its defensive hillside location from here.

F: In the old days, trade goods had to be unloaded outside the gate and carried into the city on foot or on horseback at considerable effort. 

M: While any townsfolk caught short would rush off in the opposite direction. Even now, the path leading out of the Bader Gate is nicknamed "Scheißberg" – shit hill. It was simply better to do your business outside the walled town.

F: If you walked all the way down the path, you came to the old St. George's Hospital, which can trace its history back to the abbey infirmary. It was also thought advisable to move the sick outside the walls. People were terrified of plagues.

M: If you leave the town by the Bader Gate, a hill called Georgenberg comes into view on the left after just a few steps. That's probably where Burgelin castle stood, which gave the town its name. Beyond it looms the tower of the once powerful Benedictine abbey of Bürgel, now the district of Thalbürgel. The walk from Bürgel to Thalbürgel only takes about half an hour.

F: For a long time, the half-timbered building on top of the Bader Gate was in use as a residential property. One of the residents was a Count nicknamed "Graf Schnuppel" (Count Pumpkin), which is why the Bader Gate was sometimes jokingly referred to as "Schnuppelsburg" – Pumpkin Castle. These days, two local clubs are based there – the carnival club, and the potters' market association. 

To this day, social life in Bürgel is strongly linked to clubs and associations: from the Volunteer Fire Brigade, to organisations supporting the Ceramics Museum, the Zinsspeicher and the Abbey Church. Then there's the Protestant parish and the Thalbürgel Monastery Church Foundation, not to mention sports clubs and the Allotment Holders' Association.

M: Bürgel also has plenty of tourist attractions. The Potteries Trail, which is 4.5 kilometres or just under three miles long, links all the major sites in Bürgel associated with ceramic art. The Thuringian Mill Cycle Route runs through three mill valleys and leads past many a former water mill.

The Jena-Thalbürgel Church Cycle Path and other trails provide a chance to discover Thalbürgel's magnificent monastery church and several attractive village churches – not to mention the beautiful landscape, with its former vineyards, tranquil beech forests, and meadows where you can find orchids and globe flowers. 

F: In the words of Goethe, the Weimar Prince of Poets: 

"Wilt thou wander ever farther? 

Look, all good things are so near."