Our alarm went off at 6:20, which was a mistake. Of course, the sun had woken us earlier than that, but we had coped. The desk gave us a wake-up call at 6:45 that wasn't supposed to come until 7. Okay, we're up. Then, as I was doing my morning stretches on the bed, I looked at the window and saw the blinds we'd failed to notice last night. Well, they would have been helpful this morning!
Since we were not checking out today, no luggage had to be put out this morning. The breakfast buffet on the first floor, which is not the ground floor in Germany, was very good. I was particularly happy to see they had the Bircher Muesli that I've been eating every morning.
We were on the bus at 8:30 with our whispers and it was chilly outside. When we left 5 minutes later, we drove through hilly countryside with more turbines and farms, but there were castles on some of the hills. How pretty!
At 9:50, we parked in Eisenach and walked up to the statue of Johann Sebastian Bach to be split into two groups and meet our tour guide. She pointed out the nearby Bachhaus, a museum dedicated to him. This turned out to be a cruel trick on my musician husband, as we never got to go in.
Our tour guide was a former Berliner who had fallen in love with an Eisenacher and his town and moved here after their marriage. Her English was a bit rocky. I don't know how many American tourists they get in this town.
We walked through the town to the Lutherhaus. Along the way, we saw this house without stucco, which revealed what was below the surface of these half-timbered houses. She said, it would probably be torn down soon.
Near the Lutherhaus, we saw this stone with his famous quote about the apple tree and the Luther rose, both of which I know about thanks to this trip.
Once again, we have a structure that they aren't positive Luther was in, but they've decided he was taken in as a student by a family living here. We would come back later to tour the exhibition here.
When we got to the Georgkirche, she was forced to pause, because people were asking for restrooms. Luckily, there were some right across the street and they were only 0,50, which you paid to a woman sitting inside between the doors to the men's side and the ladies' side. When she wasn't collecting money, she was knitting.
More comfortable now, we turned our attention to the church at 10:30, where both Luther and Bach had sung in the choir. A series of Bachs were organists for the church, too. Particularly interesting on the outside was this circle on the gate. Look carefully at it. Do you see what is cool about it? A hint: it belongs to Bach.
Give up? You can make out the tilted J S B of his name. It works from the other side, too, evidently. Once you see it, you can always pick them out.
In the foyer, we were confronted by this incredibly unfriendly looking Bach. It turns out it was the Nazis who put it up. Figures.
We heard about the church through our whispers and wandered around taking photos. I really liked the organ/choir loft, and it is not the first time that has happened on this trip.
On the other side of the church is the town square, which really looks nice.
On the diagonal corner of the square, I turned around and got this nice shot of the church. If I were arty enough, I could point out all the verticals and how the eye gets drawn upward. But, I'm not arty.
Turning around, we are in front of the really pretty Rathaus, which is pink, an unusual color for a Rathaus. To our left is the Thüringen Museum in a rather regal yellow. The guide tells us of Bill Clinton's visit to this spot and I notice that plaques on the Rathaus tell us of this visit, as well as one by Willy Brandt. Remember, this used to be communist East Germany, so these visits were after reunification and much appreciated.
She led us through the pedestrian zone and to a small park near an old town gate. Here was a statue of Luther with scenes from his life around the base. To take photos of those scenes, one had to watch one's step walking through the grass. Maybe that's because there was no sign here like the one we saw yesterday about dogs.
She led us back to the Lutherhaus via another route. Along the way, we saw the smallest half-timbered house.
When we got there at 11:30, Brane and the other group were already there. I must admit that we were not as impressed with her as we had been with other local guides, so she was not tipped.
We were sent into the museum after being told that it included a section on how the Nazis used Luther's writings, as well as what time to be at the bus. The special exhibit here was on Luther and the Bible. Once again, there were a lot of signs to be photographed for future reading.
A miniature for me of something I hoped we'd see at our next stop, the Wartburg!
As I mentioned, no one knew Luther would be famous, when he was a kid. So none of his stuff is here. But, they did put in pieces that were typical of the time period.
Soon, I was in a room with listening alcoves, where you leaned back on the carpeted seat and listened to music or literature inspired by Lutheran thought. When I ran into my husband later-we go at our own pace through museums and rarely together- I sent him back to these, because he'd missed them.
The next room had large stacked cubes with quotes from famous German authors about Luther and his Bible. Here are some of my favorites:
A few more signs for future reading, including one about the Nazis and Luther:
My husband caught up with me and we headed for the gift shop. While we were looking around, he noticed a glass door and another exhibit beyond it. We paid for our items and went in, because this was the one most of interest to me. Now, why didn't they tell us about this?
It was all reading here. However, there were some drawings that were in red and blue and difficult to decipher. My husband discovered glasses near the door like the ones you get at 3-D movies. Putting them on made these drawings clear. Through the red, you saw the Catholic viewpoint and through the blue, the Lutheran.
The exhibit progressed through time to the present and noted the rapprochement between the two religions, as we put it, and confessions, as the Lutherans put it. It wrapped around to this quote from Pope Francis in 2016:
Now, if you are going to make sure we see how the Nazis used Luther, why not make sure you see how the Catholics and Lutherans now get along to show a positive later development?
When we left at 12:20, I was beginning to feel stressed, because we had less than an hour to eat and do a little shopping. We went down the pedestrian area, but found nothing that would work. My husband had really wanted to try a local sausage from a street vendor, as Rick Steves had recommended. I sent him back to the square to buy them, while I ran in a shop to get postcards. When I got back to him at a bench at 12:36, he had two Thüringer Rostbratwurst for 2,50 Euros each. They were quite tasty.
Still in need of a little something, we headed back down the pedestrian zone and found gelato at the take-out window of Dolce Vita Eiscafé. You can't go wrong with gelato. He got one scoop of Amarina (cherry) for 1,20 and I got a scoop of Erdbeeren (strawberries) and one of Dunkle Schokolade (dark chocolate) for 2,40. We found a table in the arcade next door and sat down to enjoy our find. Great as always!
On our way back, I took a moment to photograph one of the banners that had quotes from Luther. I rather like this one: Who lies, must have a good memory.
Even though time was running short, it was absolutely necessary to stop at the restroom again and pay the lady another 0,50. We got to the bus with some others from our group at 1:17, two minutes late, but still had to wait for others, before we finally left at 1:23.
Our destination was right above town, the Wartburg. At 1:40, Charlie let us off the bus to begin our climb. Some of the older folks opted to pay to take a shuttle up to the top of the mountain. My husband wanted me to do that, but I thought the climb would do me good. Well, maybe not good, but it wouldn't kill me. If it had just been a steep slope it would have been one thing, but it was steps. First, it was a regular staircase, which is bad enough. Then, it was wide steps. Water helped calm down my breathing, as did taking a break to look at the art an older man had spread out on a bench. I am a sucker for roses and he had a lovely colored drawing of a rose for 10 Euros. He also had a nice drawing of the Wartburg, that would be perfect on the wall with our other travel art, and it only cost 15 Euros. He was very pleased that I spoke German with him. Then, I climbed upward.
At 1:58, I reached the restaurant level, where my husband already was. Luckily, a restroom provided a reason to take a break, before going the last part. The end was in sight!
At the top at 2:07, there was just the most wonderful view of the valley below. That alone was worth the climb.
We had to walk to the middle of the castle to join the group. Here, Brane helped an employee of the castle in handing out audio guides. These were keyed to numbers in the rooms and on signs. We would be going through an exhibit about Luther and the Germans. Unfortunately, no photos would be allowed as we went through it, the rooms relating to St. Elizabeth of Hungary (whom I knew all about, I thought, but did not know she was married to a German king and lived here), and the rooms relating to Luther translating the New Testament, while he was here. That is just such a bummer!
As we walked around the cistern to the entrance, we passed the medieval castle garden and the knights' bath, both of which were quite pretty.
Being a group with a reservation, meant that we got in easier than others. I must admit, that I did not listen to every single thing on the tour. There just wasn't time. There were also more stairs to navigate and that took some work at times. My knees were seriously angry. I did like what I was seeing, though. I ran into my husband in the Meistersinger's Hall. I saw Charlie at one point, too, which surprised me. You don't usually see the bus driver at the points of interest.
I got a couple of postcards and a pin. My husband considered climbing the tower at the end of the castle, but changed his mind. We took some more photos and were about to take a selfie, when D. from CNN saw us and offered to take it.
It was time to head back down to the bus.
Another stop at the restaurant level for the restroom at 4:03 and then the two of us climbed the rest of the way down to the bus. The artist was no longer there, but a few people were still climbing up. We reached the bus at 4:14, a full 16 minutes early. Charlie was there and I asked how he liked the castle. He said, "It is our castle." And then I remembered, he's Hungarian, of course he'd be interested in the castle that St. Elizabeth lived in.
4:30 came and went.The last bunch was a group of the Wyoming people, a full 14 minutes late. They didn't even really apologize, which really irked me, because I knew what this meant. I was right- by the time we arrived at the hotel at 5:52, it was too late for me to reach the shop that I'd seen the night before that had the miniature room that I wanted. To say I was unhappy was an understatement.
At 6:30, we gathered in the room where we'd had breakfast. The buffet that was laid out was absolutely amazing.
That last one is the desserts!
Yes, that last one has a whole fish in the middle, very unappealing to me, but here in the interest of completeness.
Good grief! What a meal! Great food and good conversation.
When we left at 8, we walked down to the ground floor, so that I could buy some postcards of Erfurt, having had no opportunity to shop in the town. We got back to the room at 8:15. The suitcases needed to be prepared for departure tomorrow. But, around 9, I looked out and had this view of the full moon:
The cloud over the bottom edge seemed odd, since there were no other clouds. On the news the next morning, we found out why: We'd seen a lunar eclipse!! Yes, that in and of itself is cool, but what makes it awesome is that there is a solar eclipse back home later in the month that we will make every effort to see. Both a lunar and solar eclipse in one month! It turns out that they do occur in the same month as a usual thing, it's just that they aren't visible in the same place.
The phone says 8, 563 steps today, compared to 11,083 yesterday. I find it hard to believe that I walked so few steps today. And it claims I climbed 13 flights. Well, that may well be. There were a lot of stairs today, even in the Lutherhaus.
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