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Published: March 17th 2008
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After heading off early in the morning we cruised up from Cologne to Weimar along the beloved German autobahn. Around 400kms covered in around 2.5 hours. For those who haven't been on one, it's a pretty awesome experience. Also probably one of the only places that you can be going at 180km/h and be overtaken. We arrived mid morning, and I went for a walk through the industrial area of Erfurt whilst Peter took care of some business at his office. My walk gave me a quick look at a side of Germany I had never experienced, East Germany. As Peter had explained to me on the drive, Weimar and Erfurt had changed dramatically since the reunification of Germany in 1989. During the period of Soviet occupation architecture consisted of "Neubaude". These were large square apartment blocks of concrete that were both very effective at storing happy comrades and also incredibly ugly. Although Communism is long gone from the area, there are still many of these ugly reminders of the times before. These days around half have been refurbished and the other half sit as abondoned eyesores.
After Peter was done with his business we headed over to Weimar to
his parents' apartment in Weimar. They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Well it's true. At Peter's parents' place I enjoyed the same great hospitality I was treated to in Cologe - home cooked lunches, dinners out and those famous german breakfasts. Fresh bread, meat, coffee, meat, cheese and more meat. Yes it is as good as it sounds. Weimar itself was a nice little city with alot of history. I won't go into much of it, but at every corner there's a plaque or statue commemorating one of Weimar's famous alumni. Goethe, Schiller, Hans-Christian Andersen, Bach.. to name a few. Peter and Sonja also took me for a walk through the old town of Erfurt. A stroll through the Altstadt (the old city centre) of Erfurt is actually quite surreal. During the Soviet occupation, access to materials or means to improve or maintain city buildings was non-existent. Sonja had previosly told me how they had at least a 1 year wait to get just 1 bag of concrete. The situation in Erfurt was so bad that in the year before reunification the Soviets considered demolishing a large proportion of the old down as it was so
run down. Luckily they didn't and as such, buildings up to 700 years old were spared and still stand today. After the reunification, alot of money was pumped into East Germany to clean up the towns. As such, a walk down the main street of Erfurt is incredibly picturesque. 9 out of 10 shops look as if they have been painted or refurbished in the past year. However, here and there you can see hints of their decrepit past where a shop still awaits refurbishment.
The next day I Peter and Sonya took me out to a place called Buchenwald, a concentration camp on the top of a hill overlooking Weimar and Erfurt. It was an appropriately freezing day for such a place. Walking through the mass graves, the crematoriums, the remaining barracks and the museum was a really sobering experience. It's fair enough to read about all of the atrocities, but when you see the actual buildings, ovens, execution rooms and videos of the camp at the time it's a completely different experience. In 1945 in the first few days after the American army freed prisoners of the camp, they opened it up to the public to see
the crimes that had occured. A German public that pleaded ignorance of the atrocities was forced to walk through and see the conditions the prisoners faced.
In Weimar I also met some friends of Peter's family whilst out to dinner. There I got talking to a guy called Stefan and his American girlfriend, Kat. Stefan had grown up in Weimar and was East German through and through. We got along pretty well and they offered to give me a guided tour of Weimar. It was pretty cool, we went all through the town and he seemed to know pretty much everything I could think to ask. Then he and Kat asked if I was interested to see something a bit different. I was (of course), so we headed for a drive up the mountain beside Weimar to our destination, some abandoned Russian Barracks. We jumped the fence (rebel I know), then walked around and through some of the creepiest buildings I've ever seen. There were about 15 massive barracks altogether, all built by prisoners of Buchenwald. Inside, many rooms looked like they could be used in the set of SAW. Broken glass, peeling wallpaper and holes through walls. In
the attic we climbed through a little hole in the wall where I found an old russian soldier's shirt and book.
After a day of exploring I was pretty stuffed and sunday night I hit the sack early. Monday morning we got up bright and early to once again hit the Autobahn, this time with Berlin as our destination.
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