My last post ended with us sleeping in a hotel in Eisenach, where we had wifi. The next day we saw Eisenach and the Wartburg Castle. Right now our pictures are divided between their camera and my iPad, but I'll post a completed album later with all of their photos. Eisenach is known as the place where Luther went to school as a child, and where Bach was born and baptized. We started near the Luther statue in Eisenach.
We then made our way into the main plaza with St. George's Church, where Martin Luther preached and Bach was baptized. The church is very colorful, and it was very beautiful inside. The thing that struck us was its multi leveled balconies.
The baptismal font of Bach
I also took a photo of myself in front of the St. George's well.
From there we went on to the Luther House, where Luther had stayed as a child. It was a small museum, but really highlighted two other things: the family who had taken in Luther, and this house as a parsonage to the nearby St. George's. There really wasn't much here, but it was nice to see. I'd recommend it when going through Eisenach, mostly because there's not much else here on Luther, until you get to the Wartburg.
Since we had only seen about half of the Bach Museum the previous day, we then finished it off after seeing the Bach House; both aren't very far away from each other. I didn't get any picture of the inside, but you can probably see some from mom's camera. I did get some of us in front of the Bach monument.
The Wartburg was next, with its English tour at 1:30; we took a bus half-way up and walked the rest. It was a bit strenuous for my parents, who aren't used to walking hills in the plains of Texas, but we made it up without too much of a difficulty. There was a little bit of time before the tour, so we walked around a bit and saw what we could of the castle. Many of these pictures you can see on my previous post about the Wartburg Castle.
The English tour was great for me, since the last time I was here my German wasn't the best, and I couldn't understand the tour guide very well. This time, however, we were joined by an Italian couple, and our tour guide spoke pretty good English. I also took more photos this time, since I was under the impression earlier that I had to pay for taking pictures. The "queen's room" really impressed me, as it was decorated with scenes from St. Elizabeth's life.
I also took better pictures of the main hall that still has concerts. It was wonderful to see an explanation to the flag that was hanging; it was a precursor to the current German flag. It has maroon and black in the background with golden oak leaves (correct me if I'm wrong- I think it's oak).
All in all, we enjoyed visiting the Wartburg Castle. The Luther cell was neat to see, as were the paintings and history of the castle. Even though I'd already been here, nonetheless it was worth it to come through here again.
If you've noticed, the days have been very cloudy; we haven't seen the sun yet. I'll let you know when we see it. Here's another view, with the weather noticeably cloudy and wet. This photo is from the same window of a previous picture I'd taken from the same window, seen below.
From there we took the bus back down to the bus station, which was across from the train station. Then we headed to Erfurt. This night was probably the most confusing; we did a lot of walking with our luggage. The first hotel we went to was supposed to be the cheapest, but they didn't have any rooms for three people, so they gave us the price for two rooms. After walking to two or three different hotels, we discovered that we had to settle for two rooms. It was expensive, but they wouldn't let me sleep in my sleeping bag in my parents' room. We went out to eat at the "Feuerkugel," which was a very delicious restaurant. We had the regional beer, and enjoyed sitting and resting. Returning to our rooms, we had a good night's sleep.
Breakfast the next day was very delicious, as usual, and we checked out of the hotel about 9:30. We stored our baggage in the Bahnhof lockers, then walked around the city. We had the option of going to Weimar this day- it was only 15 mins away- but we decided against it. The only reason was the Weimar altar piece. But I'm sure you can look it up on the internet and see it for yourself.
On our way to the Augustinian cloister, I planned for our route to go over the famous Krämerbrücke. It crosses the river that flows through Erfurt, and it looked plenty high enough for floods. There were shops on the bridge, which I'm sure has lasted quite a long time. It was snowing out, and I was reticent to take out my iPad, so we got some photos with mom's camera. You can see it in the full album, which I'll post later.
The Augustinian cloister was great to see. We had a tour of it in German, but I listened to what I could understand and related the most important facts to my parents. Unfortunately part of the complex had been bombed in WWII, which resulted in 267 deaths; they had been using a nearby house as a bomb shelter. Later though new buildings have been erected, and it serves as a recuperation house for shell-shocked soldiers. Not much of the rest of the cloister is original from the 16th Century. There had been a fire which took most of the cloister, but not the adjoining church. That's really where my pictures from the tour start. It had been built for the monks of the Augustinian Order, and since it was a monastery church, it was very plain. The only adornments were the windows in the very front, drawing your sight there. Unfortunately they were renovating the windows (for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation), so only paper copies hung in their place.
Here is where Luther made his vows to the Augustinian Order; I believe they used this very place for the English "Luther" movie that came out a little while ago. He would've prostrated himself here on the grave of the monk who founded this monastery, facing the altar.
Among the stained glass in this church (below is just an example in the museum) is something that looks eerily like the Luther Rose, and indeed, this is mostly likely where Luther got the inspiration for his own seal. He no doubt added the black cross in the red heart and the golden band, but you can see the blue sky behind the lower rose. It was interesting to see this though.
The library was quite extensive; it grew very large after the Reformation when it was turned into a school. I believe it was spared from the first fire which tore through the cloisters, and the books were then again spared destruction during WWII by being moved to a safe location. The old library was destroyed by the same bombs that killed the afore-mentioned citizens.
The "Luther cell" isn't original, but they doctored it up to how it may have looked.
Next, we visited the beautiful Erfurt Cathedral and St. Seviri Church, both Roman Catholic. The Cathedral is where Luther was ordained, but I don't think the St. Seviri Church has much significance. Both were quite a view from the plaza. The Cathedral is to the left.
It was quite dark inside.
Evidently Pope Benedikt XVI (or should we call him Ratzinger again?) visited this cathedral in 2011.
Finally, the doors were quite a sight. I enjoyed seeing the 12 apostles flanking the entrance.
The St. Seviri Church wasn't much, and not worth putting pictures here. There's a few that will come out in the full album.
We drank some Glühwein (spiced wine) in a shop near these churches, then headed back through Erfurt. We tried seeing the "Preaching Church" (Predigerkirche) and the "Merchants' Church" (Kaufmannskirche), but both were locked. I think we got to the Predigerkirche too late in the afternoon, but that was a normal occurance. Those two churches weren't of great importance- the Predigerkirche had Johannes Bach (uncle to JS Bach) and Pachelbel as their organists, and Luther preached a sermon in the Kaufmannskirche.
Later that evening we took a train to Eisleben, a very small city, and stayed in a quaint hotel, the Altar Simpel. It was a pub in the ground level, and a hotel in the upper 3-4 floors. They had good service, and it was pretty cheap. We ate a good dinner in a nearby restaurant.
That's about it from Eisenach and Erfurt. In the next blog post, I'll cover Eisleben and Wittenberg, which we saw in one day
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