Thuringia Region Travel Guide

An excellent occasion for a day trip if you're in the vicinity is the Alternative Bear Park in Worbis (Thüringen, Germany).  In this park - which used to be a small and ordinary zoo - abandoned, rescued, and mistreated bears and wolves are welcome to live out the remainder of their days in peace and quiet.  The biographies of these poor animals will leave you close to or even in tears, but here they are cared for lovingly.  THey have all the room they need and there is even a "seniors residence" for the eldest.
You will also find other more or less domesticated animals such as tortoises, sheep, peacocks, rabbits chickens etc...
Very much worth a visit and the income is actually cheap at 6€ a person.

In East Germany, Weimar is home to Goette and has beautiful parks and green spaces that he helped establish. There is also a Bauhaus museum, as the art movement originated there. Nearby is the Buchenwald concentration camp museum, which is a very stark thing to see. All of these are great sites, as are the little cafes for afternoon coffee and desserts, stands selling German sausages, and much more.