A Well Kept Man

My final official stop on my German Heritage Tour was Eisenach, with the Castle Wartburg perched above the city watching the valleys below. I parked my car in the castle parking lot and proceeded to climb the roughly 200m to the castle above, often taking two steps at a time (all that biking and walking in Lausanne's hilly streets finally paid off). The other American tourists were easy to spot as they were taking full advantage of the benches and plateaus every 30 steps on the climb up the hill. The castle is where Martin Luther hid out under the assumed name Knight George and translated most of the Bible into German...he also managed to get into a fight with the devil which apparently resolved by throwing ink at said Devil. The castle contains the room where these activities occurred, although previous treasure seekers have managed to chip away all of the ink-stained stone. Nevertheless, it was an interesting place to visit.

After leaving the castle, I headed down to my hotel which is perched on a different hill within the city...my room opened up to a view of the Wartburg Castle across the valley (I highly recommend the Haus Hainstein for those staying in Eisenach). After taking a quick nap, I walked down into the city to check out the sights and avoid the rain drops. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in this city, so his house is now a museum. I walked through the church where he was baptised and thought how cool it would have been to hear him play his music in a church like this...Eisenach also had its own Luther statue, and quaint pedestrian mall where one could pick up a tasty wurst for a couple euros and people watch until it was ice cream time.

The town of Eisenach has an old automobile factory from the Cold War that now sits in a state of ruin much like many of the old factory buildings in this part of Germany. In spite of this, Germany is making many strides to redevelop areas like this in hopes of bringing new economic growth to the country. It is encouraging to see this, and for visitors from the States, it gives one a chance to see the remains of an era past without having to travel all the way to Eastern European countries.