Germany by rail. Destination #14 - Jena
JENA
KingKrunch in SSP told me a couple things in this narrative aren't correct. Oh well, I don't feel like changing them. 
Location of photos
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1. About a half-hour after we drove from Weimar we approached Jena.
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2. Going toward the center city we passed through some residential neighborhoods.
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3. And then we arrived downtown! There was an awesome skyscraper rising above the entire city!
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4. We stopped by our hotel and dropped our things off. We then began to wander around downtown. The old part of the city wasn't nearly as nice as some of the other cities we had seen, but it was pleasant nonetheless.
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5. We wandered to the north part of downtown and ate at a cafe for lunch.
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6. We then went back to our car and drove east across the river.
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7. There were some commie-blocks.
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8. And some nice, older flats and houses.
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9. We got to the far eastern edge of the city and decided to take a side road up a hillside. Neat, tidy houses hugged the roads.
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10. Afterwards, we headed even farther east but started to hit the countryside and some Shrebergarten. So we turned around and headed back to the city.
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11. We passed back through downtown and then went to the university, just west of downtown. You almost could hardly tell it was a university, it blended in pretty well with the rest of the city.
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12. To the south we drove through some more older residential neighborhoods.
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13. And came across a large industrial area, featuring the facilities of the Schott Corporation.
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14. Some more Schott facilities.
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15. And to the south was a new office park.
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16. We then continued south in search of a place to eat dinner. Alas, nothing here.
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17. Certainly nothing here! A large power plant.
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18. Some ultra-commie blocks!
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19. Nothing to eat here, either. Just an industrial area.
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20. We were really starting to get hungry. Surely there must be a place in this direction we can eat at!
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21. Well, finally we hit the southern part of town and decided to cross over the river on the freeway and head back north. Unfortunately, we hit some major traffic related to a construction project. I could not figure out what this thing they were building was! It looked like another 2 lanes of freeway, but there was a tunnel . . . which didn't go under anything! It was just an above-ground tube with a road going through it! These crazy Germans!
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22. As we passed some more commieblocks, the traffic got AWFUL!! Compounding our misery was the fact that we were starving!
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23. Finally we hit an intersection and the traffic cleared up. So we headed back north toward the city center. It was a big mistake going down this way!
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24. Finally! We encountered a quaint little village that had some restaurants. We had some weiner snitzel and brats at a nice German restaurant.
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25. Our tummies filled, we headed back north to our hotel, passing another cute village on the way.
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26. And some more Shrebergarten.
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27. And a sports complex.
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28. And a nice neighborhood with fancy houses. We drove for a short while to look at some of the houses, then headed back to our hotel to call it a night.
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29. The next morning we decided to head out east near where we had left the previous day. Apartments hugged the winding roads.
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30. We reached a little town at the far eastern end and had breakfast there.
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31. Then we headed back toward the city center. Next we decided to check out the northern parts of town.
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32. North of downtown there were some unremarkable residential areas.
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33. As well as some industry.
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34. And some nicer residential areas with houses and flats. Something began to take shape on a construction site.
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35. Sandwiched between some nondescript industrial areas was this nice little neighborhood.
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36. And to the north of that, some new apartments were being built.
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37. Finally, we crossed the river to check out yet another cute little village. We had a late lunch here, then decided there was not much more to see.
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38. So we headed south back to the Autobahn only to hit . . . more traffic. 
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