Free internet is not too present. Maybe later I'll suffer through my weak German to get the Wi-Fi password for our pension. This time we're not within walking distance to our stops, but we get to stay here two nights. It's only about a ten-minute drive from our little village of Kühnhausen to downtown Erfurt. We're driving out to Eisenach and the Wartburg today from Erfurt... but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Eisleben is the birth and death place of Martin Luther. The birth house is a UNESCO historical site. They built a terrific museum and have done their best to rebuild and restore the home to its original design. The first house was destroyed by fire. We learned quite a bit about the family, the region, and its Count Mansfield, and mining. (Luther's father was a miner.) While we were walking through, we noted that the english-speaking tour group we followed through the museum was from Lincoln, NE. One of their group is even from Fort Wayne. We stealthily avoided introducing ourselves and getting bogged down.
We also visited St. Peter and Paul where Luther was baptized.
The death house was interesting albeit with all the displays in German. I enjoyed seeing original printings of the writings that I have read for coursework.
We successfully navigated the Deutsche Post to buy stamps. We picked up a couple things from the bakery for a lunchtime snack. I don't think we're quite adjusted to the local time.
Our drive to Erfurt had a few unintentional detours to visit the northern Mansfield lands, but we eventually managed to travel south towards Erfurt. We got a nice close-up view of one of the wind farms which had fascinated me for the trip. After checking into our pension, we drove into the town platz of Erfurt and parked in the main garage.
Downtown Erfurt has a large center market with a basilica "Dom," a church, and many restaurants. The "Dom" is a typical large basilica. It reminded me of the basilica in Le Mans, France.
Our primary purpose of Erfurt was to visit the Augustinian cloister where Luther was a monk. He also was a student at the local University, studying philosophy. The cloister is part of the state Lutheran church. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit much of it because they were having a party there. They rent the rooms and the larger halls for parties and concerts. We did go into the chapel which was instantly familiar, having seen the Luther movie.
After the visit to the cloister, we hiked back down to the center plaza and had an enjoyable dinner of Thüringer bratwurst, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. Apparently, Thüringina is known for their rostbratwurst, based on the roadside stands all the way to Erfurt. We had some terrific ice cream before leaving the downtown.
We had a little fun at the parking garage as apparently I had misread the sign coming in and found we had not loaded our token with our parking fee. After a little harassment of the gate keeper over intercom, we managed to exit the garage. We'll know better if we go back. This ended our early evening tour of Erfurt. I think I fell asleep at 7:30 p.m.!
