Tag 12 (Thüringen Tag 1)

Today we went to the town of Ilmenau in Thüringen. Our transfer station was in Neudietendorf...

The train platform at our transfer station, Neudietendorf

A view over the tracks at the Neudietendorf station

After transferring from there, we arrived in Ilmenau, a small town by the Thüringer Wald. 

It is famous for Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe having stayed there and wandered through the forest on the outside of town. We walked through town at first, looking for the address Ashley had written down. This was on a building that had turned into a store...

The sign says, "Here lived Goethe... In this house, Johannes Wolgang von Goethe celebrated his birthday on August 28, 1821"

The biggest building in Ilmenau was probably this Eishalle (ice-skating rink) by the train station

Ashley had written down the address, and we found the street she had written down, but the address number was 14. We started following the road but it turned into a highway around 9 or 10. We kept walking and passed a few places we thought would be the place we were supposed to stay but none were right. 

A bridge over a river on the way to our Gästehaus (guest-house)

We passed by a group of houses, past a sports field, past a little country club with a water slide, and then gave up thinking we wrote down the wrong address. 

A view of the Thüringer Wald behind the sports field we passed

We looked up the number in the Germany handbook Ashley had and called the number but no one picked up. We eventually got back into town and found the office for the housing but no one answered the door or the phone, so we went to get food at this Ali Baba place. We both got pizza and by the time we were done, the people picked up their phone. We eventually figured it all out after wasting a bunch of coins on the pay-phone. Apparently we did have the right address, we just didn't walk far enough (about 2.8km to be exact), so we took a taxi with a jubilant taxi-driver. He complimented Ashley on her German and asked where she was from. She said Kalifornien and he mentioned that we had an actor as our governer (Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course). 

 

The front of our Gästehaus

A rock and sign in front of the Gästehaus. The sign says, "Genuine Thuringian Weatherstation... If there is sunshine under the rock, there is sun. If the rock is wet, its raining. If the rock is swinging, its windy. If the rock is white, its snowing. If the rock is not there, its foggy or someone has stolen the rock."

The side of the Gästehaus

A swing at the Gästehaus

Unsere Raum (our room) #1

Unsere Raum #2

After finally getting to the room, we decided to walk on the Goethe Wanderweg (Goethe Wander-path) which Goethe famously wandered on...

A sign for the Goethe Wanderweg

A bench on the Goethe Wanderweg... It says "Auguste Gotze's dream-song" for some reason...

Another sign for the Goethe Wanderweg, with directions for different paths

Ashley walking on the Goethe Wanderweg with some sunshine

Die Stadt Ilmenau (the city of Ilmenau) from the Goethe Wanderweg

We took the 2.8km-long path back into town and looked around there.

Das Rathaus (city hall)

A caduceus-wielding woman on the corner of a bookstore called Buchhandlung Grimm (named after the Grimm Brothers who are famous for collecting German folk-tales and systematizing the German language in various ways)

After that we went to the small market in town and bought some fruit, cheese, and bread. We eventually walked all the way back to the Gästehaus and passed out.

Tag 7 (Hamburg Tag 2)

We left Eilenau Hotel and took a picture of this small car parked outside. In Europe people have really small cars to the point that a VW Bug looks kind of fat and big and the Mini car looks normal-sized.

Auf Wiedersehen, Eilenau Hotel!

We went into town and went to two of the big churches. This church is the only one not destroyed in World War II, although the interior is quite modern for some reason.

Stained glass and such

Alpha & Omega stained glass

Isis and Horus... errr the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus

After going to this church we passed by the Rathaus again, this time in daylight, while Ashley performs her best Edvard Munch imitation.

Das Rathaus in die Sonne (the city hall in the sun)

The inside of the Rathaus is extremely ornate and beautiful. There is a courtyard with this large fountain...

Fountain with female figure on top and a Satyr playing pan-pipes on the rim below

The top of the Rathaus clock tower

A picture for Jeremy (he will understand), found on the wall of the Rathaus

Ashley with der Löwe outside das Rathaus

After we went to the Rathaus, we walked to one of the bridges that goes over the Elbe river. You can see swans down and to the right...

Binnenalster (the name of this little water-area)

Swans chilling

After that, we saw a Gothic cathedral but did not go inside because you have to pay. Its been turned into a memorial for the dead of WWII...

Gothic spire

After that, we decided it was time to eat and found this nice Italian food place...

Pizza und Pasta und  spritzig Apfelsaft (pizza, pasta, and sparkling apple juice)

With our stomachs absurdly full, we wandered to the famous Hamburg pier...

Schiffen in der Pier (ships in the pier)

A walkway on the pier along the water

In the very far background there is a place that is showing the Lion King (der König der Löwe), which you have to take a ferry to get to... The pier was extremely crowded, full of things to buy, and smelly. It started to drizzle a little bit as we were walking...

Eventually we made it to the far end of the pier and turned towards the inner city again, and we found ourselves in the Reeperbahn, the area known in most places as the red-light district. Its also the place with the most bars (imagine that).  This is a small, small taste of the absurd amount of similar places

"Kino" means movies

After passing through this area which is supposedly quite busy and bright during the night time, rain started to pour heavily with some thunder to complement... We went into a small restaurant/bar thing to wait out the rain. Eventually we ventured back outside to find the U-Bahn but it started raining again. We found and U-Bahn and took it back to the main Bahnhof (train station)...

The gigantic Hamburg Bahnhof

From here we took a train back to Uelznel, and from there we planned to take a train straight to Göttingen. We got on the Göttingen train but it stopped after about 5 minutes and the person came over the speakers saying that a big tree had fallen on the rails (at this point it was raining hard and we could see lightning & hear thunder), so we had to turn back. After being silent for about 30 seconds, the man came back over the speakers and said something like, "Frau Donnehauer (Mrs. Donnehauer), you left your kid back at Uelznel station." I am not sure how she did not notice but luckily for the kid we had to turn back anyways. 

When we got back to the Uelznel station, it was pouring rain and was windy and there were no trains going directly to Göttingen... the train station had called in a bunch of buses to take everyone to the next train station except buses fit about 1/100th the capacity as trains, so they were quite packed. I was smooshed in between Ashley and a large German lady for about 40 minutes on a bus that went to the station past the tree-fallen rail. Eventually we made it to Celle, a small town with a small Deutschebahn station and took a train from there back home to Göttingen. So ends the short excursion to Hamburg.