Thursday, June 5, 2008

Eisenach and south






Now, today, I stopped and hiked to the Wartburg, an old medieval castle at the top of a hill. Pretty interesting to see the way they lived hundreds of years ago. It is amazing to imagine a battle from that castle/fort with other soldiers assaulting it. There was a special "bath" - more like a fancily decorated small swimming pool for the knights. And a nice view all around. This is also the place - Eisenach - where they used to make one of the little underpowered cars they used in old East Germany. It has been long closed won. I think most people drive Japanese cars here in Europe now.

Well, it is now Monday. I decided to change my plans just a little bit. There wasn't really enough to see to spend a whole night and day in Eisenach, so I went on to Wurzburg and spent the rest of the day. The biggest thiing there was a huge castle/fortress overlooking the Main River. It gave me a second good workout for the day climbing the stairs to it and walking around. Wurzburg is in the former West Germany and you can really tell coming back that it is more up to date and there are fewer rundown places. I am almost thinking that Dad came through here during the war. I tried to find out just where the Rainbow Division went before I left but couldn’t find anything on the internet. I know that it is all in the books you have, Mom. Anyway, it is an interesting place. The old bridge over the river has about a dozen statues on it - of biblical figures, knights, catholic bishops, etc. You could see where it looked like there used to be a moat around the old castle.

When I left there, it was on a high-speed train, which got going up to 130 mph, according to the little sign at the front of the car. It really zoomed – and banked a lot on the turns. We passed fields full of hops, safflower and corn, of all things! That is pretty much an American thing, but they must be growing it for the ethanol.

I am going further south today, back to a place where some of us went skiing years ago, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria. I decided I needed a little break from all the towns and needed to get out in the wilds - it is at the foothills of the Alps, so we shall see.

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