Driving across Central Germany

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This morning I left Leipzig and on my way out of town I stopped briefly at the monument to the Battle of the Nations, aka the Battle of Leipzig. The monument (see picture) was erected to commemorate a large battle in which Napoleon's French army was defeated by the combined armies of several other nations. I don't know as much about it as I might if the building had actually been open, but I was there too early in the day and I didn't want to stick around because I had other things I wanted to see today. My next stop was the city of Erfurt. It is a place my father mentioned in one of his letters, but he only passed through. Still, it was on my way and has some medieval sights that rate a mention in guide books, so I stopped in to have a look. The huge cathedral and nearby St. Severus church are impressive (see picture). Otherwise the town is picturesque with half-timber houses and cobblestone streets. Apparently Erfurt was relatively undamaged by WWII, so the buildings I saw were mostly here when my dad was. I like to think I walked some of the same streets that he did. From there I went on to Eisenach to visit "famous" Wartburg Castle (see picture). I had never heard of it before, but it is famous as a place where St. Elizabeth of Hungary lived (see picture of fresco) and also where, a couple of hundred years later, Martin Luther wrote the first translation of the Bible into the German language. And now I am in the city of Fulda, another place where Dad was, and tomorrow I plan to explore the town a little.

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