Blogs from Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, Europe

Ich war früher schon mal in Eisenach, aber habe mir da noch nicht die Wartburg von innen angesehen. Heute habe ich das nachgeholt. Ich bin also von Bad Homburg auf die A5 gefahren, aber war dort zwei oder drei mal im Stau gestanden. Trotzdem habe ich Eisenach nach 2 Stunden erreicht. Oben bei der Burg angekommen, musste ich sehen, dass der Parkplatz überfüllt war. Ich bin also wieder vom Berg herunter gefahren und dort zu einem Parkplatz. Glücklicherweise fuhr von dort kurz danach ein Bus nach oben. Ich glaube, als ich oben angekommen bin, war der Parkplatz nicht mehr voll. Aber egal. Ich bin dann noch die letzten Meter zur Wartburg hoch gegangen. Dort habe ich ein Ticket gekauft, was aber erst einen Einlass etwa 20-25 Minuten später bedeutete. Die Wartezeit habe ich im Burgcafé mit ... read more

I actually got going this morning and walked to the train station. If you follow my Facebook page, I had an interesting experience this morning at the Erfurt train station. I began seeing clusters of 5-10 Polizei standing around, the closer I got to the station and once inside, they were everywhere. Of course, I'd been thinking about how less than 25 years ago this was “East” Germany, and under communist rule, I was more than a bit concerned. So not having any problem asking what was going on and if I were safe, the nice officer said I would be safe for another hour or so but after that, “No.” So I asked if it were a demonstration or something and he said, “No, it's football!” Well, that makes perrrrfect sense being that it's Saturday! ... read more

Thursday, May 1st: We travelled from Bad Soden to Neuenhof today. The 200 km ride was somewhat hampered by a 10 km traffic jam caused by a combination of holiday traffic and a construction area on the autobahn. Did we mention we were chauffeured in a brand new BMW? Our hosts, the Beck's, who are old friends of my mom’s, picked us up and took us to their house in the old DDR for a couple of nights. That evening, in true German fashion, a HUGE meal of Thuringer sausage and pork chops was served, enough to feed twice as many people than those actually seated at the table. Let's not forget about the bread and beer too... The evening was somewhat marred by the fact the Bavarian team (FC Bayern-Munchen) lost to the Russians in ... read more