"The Road to Eisenach"

...where I am sure to meet Dorothy Lamour.


It seems like a week since I last blogged, but actually it has only been a day and a half. A lot has happened! Sunday morning after my last post I raced off to the train station to catch the train to Eisenach, which was about 4 hour ride. The Germans, for all their efficiency also have a great love of red tape. When I got to the station I went to the Deutchesbahn information desk, where I was directed two floors above to a lady who informed me that I was on the wrong line and needed to take a number for the right line and it would be about a half-hour wait to have the rail pass I bought online (with no fuss...) stamped. Whew... luckily I had arrived at the station 42 minutes early... While I was waiting a man came up to me and said "You're with us!" It turned out to be two other "Bach Scholars" who were catching the same train, and recognized me from the Facebook group we have. I was no longer alone in a foreign city. I now had companions who were as clueless as I was... we got our passes stamped (the Germans love stamping documents - national hobby), raced down two escalators to the train platform, and made the train with at least a whole minute to spare. Good thing too - true German style, the train left exactly on time!

The rest of the trip proceeded like the Hogwart's Express - we kept gathering members of our group as we traveled along. Rapidly outside of Berlin it becomes very rural. This is a big agricultural area, with occasional small towns, and every now and then popping up in the middle of a huge field there will be a factory, or an Ikea distribution center, or something like that. I had an assigned seat on the train next to a retired lady, who seemed very excited to practice her excellent English with me. I learned a lot about her experiences - her father was a veteran of the Eastern Front, where he lost an arm ("He left his arm in Russia..."), and sometime in the 50's he decided that the Russians would never leave East Germany, so during the night they left all their possessions and property behind and crossed over to the West. Later, as an adult she worked in a museum in West Berlin, and was there when the wall came down - which to her was a very exciting and frightening time. She is now retired and lives in a formerly East German town and travels on the train regularly to visit Berlin. Here is a picture of the landscape we saw during our conversation:

I asked her what they were growing here and she kept saying "mice." We went back and forth on that one for a while, until I finally figured out she was saying "maize." I was so caught up with the moment that I had failed to recognize corn. Apparently it has become a very popular crop in Deutschland. I had to part with her when we switched trains, but I have to say it turned out to be a most memorable and enjoyable conversation.

We arrived in Eisenach a little before 3 in the afternoon. Eisenach is the town where Bach was born and lived for the first 9 years of his life. It is a charming ancient town, with steep hills, old churches and open cobbled plazas. There are many shops, and a wide variety of architecture. Apparently, the streets were designed by hyperactive ferrets, and their descendants now drive on them... Wisely many of the streets with the shops on them are closed to all but pedestrian traffic, and of course, the ever-present German bicycles.

 Our hotel. It is charming, clean, and is comfortable. It has great food, and very slow internet.

 This is the church where Martin Luther and J.S. Bach were both choirboys, a century apart. The inscription above the door is a quote from Luther - "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." Unfortunately the floor inside is being renovated, or we would have been able to see the font where Bach was baptized.

 A street scene in Eisenach, across from the church.

 Bach's father was the town musician, an apparently he used to have his band play their horns from the little tower in the center of the picture.

 A fountain of St. George. It seems that while a team of iguanas regurgitated (note the bottom of the fountain...) he killed a dragon. He must have done a good job of too, as I haven't seen a single dragon since I got here.

 German multiculturalism. This restaurant has Thai and Chinese, as well as Beck's beer. They also sell sushi, and I bet they have wurst and potato salad too.

 I have no idea what this is about, but it's probably a good story. It seems to be a rooster staring at a sunflower over some pretzels while laying Easter eggs.

Luther's family. They all look pretty happy, except for Hans who also looks like he has some personal hygiene issues. 

This is the house where Luther lived for 3 years as a teenager - his room was behind those two small windows. He earned his board by singing and babysitting. Another example of how I would have functioned well in this society. The school he went to is also the school Bach later attended, and believe it or not, it is still an active school. Most of this house is a reconstruction, the roof was taken off by bombs  in WWII. Our tour guide, who is British, said "We did that one. The places you guys did were completely leveled." We all laughed, and then thought about it. Eisenach was a target because of the railroad, and the automobile factory. They also produced gauges and dials for machinery, which I believe is what my Grandfather was doing for us at the same time back in New York. The automobile factory was also involved in producing Messerschmitt fighter planes. The city did see a lot of damage, in WWII, but then they also did in the 30 Years War, and of course from Napoleon.

Communist East Germany, while secular and oppressive, did attempt to preserve some historical and cultural sites. We have to give them some credit for that. They did not have the economic vigor to pull it off though. Eisenach saw a big population drop during that time, but seems to be doing okay today.

Here is the big guy himself! We also spent the morning in a lecture giving us an overview of Baroque style and Bach's life, but it's hard to have good pictures of a lecture. Tuesday we are to tour the inside of the Bachhause, as well as hike up to the Wartburg Castle. Should be a great day!