Weimar

This past week was my last full week in Weimar, and it was a very busy one! The Monday following our long weekend we did not have class, but rather a day trip to Kahla and die Leuchtenburg. However, before heading to either destination we made a quick stop at a chocolate outlet store where you could buy premium unpackaged chocolates for next to nothing. I didn’t think that it would be very feasible to transport exorbitant amount of chocolate around for the rest of the trip so I just got enough Ritter Sports to hold me over for a while. (Ritter Sports are squares of chocolate with different types of fillings. My favorite is the dark chocolate with Marzipan filling.) Other people however, were not so hesitant to buy exorbitant quantities of chocolate…

We finished up quickly at the chocolate mart and continued on to the Kahla Porcelain factory. We were able to tour the factory and observe the porcellian making process from Die to finished product. It was pretty interesting to see the amount of hand craftsmanship that goes into making some of the porcelain. It was also pretty impressive to see the massive conveyor firing ovens that heat the porcelain at +1000 degrees Celsius for 5+ hours a piece.  I am very much liking all of the “how it’s made” tours that we have been able to go on. After the tour we were able to go through the shop, where I made a few purchases, and then we continued on our way to Leuchtenburg.

Leuchtenburg is so named, because the hill it is situated atop is made of limestone, and when the fortress was being used, all of the trees on the hill were removed, so it was just a bright white hill. “Leuchten” means to illuminate, and hence the name Leuchtenburg.

 The view from the fortress was superb, and since we had some time before our tour I took a walk around to take in the view.

 I found some sheep. 

Inside of the fortress was pretty cool – both figuratively and literally. It was rather windy atop the hill, and it was already pretty nippy outside. But anyways, they had these chests in several rooms that locked all along the perimeter of the chest with the turn of a central key, and I was very intrigued by them.

They also had a special exhibit just for shipwrecks, and they were displaying various articles that had been exhumed from wrecks. Apparently some of the recently found material from a ship wreck at one point belonged to the fortress. 

 The last room that we went in was a hunting room that displayed various trophy animals and weapons.

The last part of the tour was to ascend the tower. When we got to the top we were immediately greeted by hurricane force winds. The wind was even more intense around the back side of the tower.

 Now I know what it feels like to be a wind turbine… Tuesday was a rather uneventful day of class, and Wednesday too. Wednesday afternoon we took a tour around the Bauhaus University, and we were able to see a couple of interesting things, but it was a little boring. Thursday was a very busy day. After class we had a trip to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Before touring the camp we first watched an hour long documentary about the history of the camp, including interviews with people who survived the camp. After the film we proceed with the tour. We walked down a long gravel road to the site of the old camp where the DDR had mowed down all of the buildings except for gate and the cremation building.

 Except for the foundations of the old bunks the place was completely desolate, and that coincided very well with the feeling you had standing on those grounds. Some 56,000 people died in Buchenwald alone.

After the tour we went back home. Germany was playing in the semi-finals, and we all stayed up to watch the game…luckily very little homework was assigned. In the end Italy won 2-1…schade. Our time in Weimar is already coming to a close. We are leaving for Munich on the 5^th of July and we will be there for 5 days before heading to Berlin.

Ingolstadt!

Ingolstadt is in Bavaria and directly between Weimar and Munich. In order to get to Ingolstadt relatively early, we had to leave Weimar VERY early. The train departed at 7:19 AM and the ride was several hours long. Fortunately our train was brand new and very comfortable.

 I had planned on writing in my journal or reading during the train ride, but the ride was so scenic that I couldn’t help but stare out the window the whole time. The ride passed through what I can only guess is the foothills of the Alps, as well as some green rolling pastures.  After a rather enjoyable train ride we arrived in Ingolstadt and needed to figure out how to get to our Hotel to drop off the bags. I asked the lady at the Deutsche Bahn Reisebuero if we could buy a day pass for the bus and she said that they did not offer such a thing, and she directed me to tourist info. The lady at the tourist info was very friendly and helpful and she hooked us up with a weeklong bus pass for only 3.50 Euro – Awesome! So we took the bus to our hotel, dropped off our bags, grabbed some lunch and headed straight for the Audi forum.

The Audi manufacturing plant in Ingolstadt is huge (over 2 million m²) and there were four bus stops just for the plant itself. We got off at the Forum which is kind of the center of the Audi complex. We started our little excursion through the Audi Museum. The museum housed Audis (auto unions and DKWs) from the early history of the company all the way up until today, and it only cost 1 Euro for students! On the bottom floor there was a temporary exhibit displaying none other than a matte orange R8 GT- yes please! 

After spending an exorbitant amount of time just gawking I was reminded that there were more cars in the museum to see. So I promptly moved five feet to my right and stopped again to gawk at the fully carbon fiber R18 right next to the R8. The R18 weighs in at only 900 kg. There were cars from all though history and some of my favorites were the big boys from the 30’s.

  These giant cars had inline 8’s or v12’s for a smoother ride. They also had several cars and engines with cut aways so that you could see inside the block and transmission. 

There were also various little hands on stations to demonstrate some of the various technologies in the cars. One such station demonstrated how the steering wheel retracts in the instance of a head-on collision, and it showed footage of a crash test that synced up to the same position that you were at on the model.   

After the Museum we went up to the front desk to schedule a tour through the manufacturing plant, but we found out that the last tour had started tour hours ago and it was completely booked out. Worse yet they do not run any tours on the weekends, because the plant is not in operation then. We were kind of devastated when we were told this… But in a few weeks we will be heading to Munich and Ingolstadt is directly on the way to Munich. I know that some others had expressed interest in the Audi plant and I am hopeful that Dr. Cothran will let a group of us leave a couple hours early to tour the plant. (I have the number to book a tour now) Anyways, we went up to the Audi shop… which is a dangerous place for a fan of automobiles. After finishing up in the shop we went outside where they were setting up for a car show. They had some augmented reality telescopes that transposed little images and information over what you were looking at in order to give you a virtual tour of the plant. That was really cool! We watched some of the car show and one of the first cars was an R8. After finishing up at Audi we went to a café to watch eat dinner and watch the Deutschland versus Griechenland Fussball game. The game was a really good one, and Germany won 4-2.

We decided that Saturday would be a day for relaxation. The breakfast at the Hotel was excellent and after breakfast and a little homework we went for a wander around the city. The city is probably my favorite that I have been to so far on this trip. It’s similar in size to Dusseldorf, but much cleaner and more laid back. You can get pretty much anywhere by foot, and most of the streets are just for pedestrians. We ate lunch on the patio of a little Italian place, because the weather was so nice. I had my first Radler, which is half beer and half lemon-lime soda. Before you say gross…it was actually really good and also pretty refreshing. It tasted a lot like bud light lime. The city is full of beautiful Audis and I also saw a car that I have never heard of before.It was an Artega…Anyways, we walked down to the Donau river and found a little park to stroll through.

There was a little place where you could go to the river, and we went down to feed the ducks. We started feeding just a couple, and before we knew it we were feeding a whole flock!

We found a giant park area and noticed something set up at the back of it that said Audi and we went to go investigate. It was the Donau Classic! The Donau Classic is a car show for classic cars, and they were driving all of the participating cars through the park. We got there just as the event was starting so we found a nice spot in the shade to watch the cars drive by.

There were a lot of Porsches, Audis, VWs, BMWs and MGs, and also a handful of Bentleys, Maseratis, Lambos, and Ferarris. All in all there were over 200 cars in the show, and out of all of them only 4 were American! There were two mustangs, a challenger, and a very old model ford. What I found most interesting was the reaction to the American cars. The Germans went nuts for the Challenger and the mustangs. They went up behind it to see what it was, and went to talk to the driver and cheered. It was really a big deal to see an American muscle car I guess. Honestly I was much more interested in the white Maserati that was right behind it! I don’t think I’ve ever been to a car show where I knew so few of the cars that I saw.

After the cars had all passed by we re-commenced our wander through the city. We found a culture fest, and a store that sold dirndls. We also found a little store that brewed different types of Liquers and you could fill up bottles of your choosing. After a good couple hours of wandering it was about time for dinner and we stumbled upon a little beer garden on the outskirts of town. I ordered something random on the menu, and I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it was really good! I also order a Pantherweisse, which is an extra-dark Weiss beer, and I think that it was probably the best beer that I have had on the trip so far. It had that banana-esque flavor that a lot of wises beers have, but it was extremely smooth and just all around good. Charlotte seemed to agree that it was good, because she kept sneaking “tastes”. We finished up and got some dessert at a little café and called it a night. Our train back to Weimar was another early one. I’m back in Weimar again and avoiding doing homework again by writing in my journal. The house is still pretty empty, because most people are still not back from there exotic destinations.  All in all I’m glad to have made the trip to Ingolstadt and to have had some time to relax and enjoy myself.

This time on "How it's Made" - Pills and Glass

Another very busy week in Weimar has come and gone, and I’m finally getting a chance to write about it on the train ride back from Ingolstadt. We had a quiz on Monday and that went well (I think) and after class we had a tour of the Bayer facility. Bayer produces medicines in the form of hard pills, and at this plant in particular they produce “The Pill”. We were greeted with cookies and drinks, and the guy that was giving our introduction and tour kind of reminded me of Phil from “Better of Ted”. The tour was pretty cool. They began by showing us their shipping and inventory. All incoming supplies have to be taken off of the wooden pallets and moved onto what looked like stainless or aluminum pallets for sanitary reasons. The whole plant is kept immaculately clean…for obvious reasons. Their inventory system was also really interesting. The entire process is automated and whenever something is needed in the factory, a forklift retrieves the item and puts it onto a conveyor where it is then delivered to the desired location in the factory without ever needing human assistance. After exploring shipping and inventory we went into the manufacturing area.

In order to get into the manufacturing area you first have to suit up in the proper attire. A smock, hair net, and shoe covers are required to enter the manufacturing area…so we were touring in style – lab-tech style. We also had to go through several different rooms and cleaning processes. Again, most of the manufacturing processes were automated, but there were some people needed to operate and monitor the different machines. Unfortunately the machines were not running while we were there, but we still were able to get a pretty good idea of how the manufacturing and packaging processes work. It was kind of like being in a German “How it’s made” show. After we finished up in manufacturing we headed back to the good ‘ol Hedwig Pfeiffer House. We have been allowed to cook at the house, and there is a little market just down the street from our house, so I have been cooking dinner for myself to save some money. By cooking myself I can have a pretty large diner (zB. Porkchops, apple sauce, and a large salad) for around 4 Euro – not too shabby. The only thing cheaper would be dönner, but I have limited my dönner intake to once a week on Dönerstag.

Tuesday was a normal day of class. In the late afternoon we had a tour of the Anna Ammalia Bibliotek (library), but before the tour Dr. Cothran set me up with an interview for my project on life in the DDR. My interview was with an old toymaker who had lived through the Third Reich and the entirety of the DDR. We met at his toy shop, which was full of handmade toys and old books. In the back of the shop he had built a playground for the local children, and we had our meeting there. He described his accounts of life in the DDR and later one of his relatives showed up and joined the conversation. It was all pretty fascinating. After the interview Dr. Cothran showed us a little garden with flowers, herbs, and fruit and nut trees across the way from the toyshop and then when journeyed over to the Library. The library had an enormous collection of books, with some dating back to the time of Charlemagne in the 800s. There were also some signature books (which were popular back in the 1700s) with signatures from numerous notable figures…including Galileo Galilee. The main hall of the library was in the Rococo style and consisted of three levels. Around each of the etages were the busts of various significant figures from the enlightenment period. Goethe was at one point the head librarian of the Library. Oh yeah...the floor in the library was a really old wooden floor, and in order to preserve it we had to wear these giant felt slipper things over our shoes.

Wednesday we had a shortened class period, because we were leaving early to go and visit the Schott glass works in Jena. When we got out of class we had 30 minutes to get to the Hauptbahnhof. We all went to the main bus stop, and for some reason we assumed that all the bus lines went through the Hauptbahnhof. Unfortunately, that was not the case. All but two lines run through the Hauptbahnhof, and we unknowingly decided to get on one of the two lines that doesn’t. At first the bus was headed in the right direction, and then at an intersection where we should have turned left we turned right, and started to drive through the country…oops! We got off as soon as we could, and we only had ten minutes left to get to the Hauptbahnhof. Given our limited time we decided to start running. I should remind you that for all company visits we are required to wear business formal attire. So we were all running through the streets of Weimar in full business suites. I’m sure that we were a sight. Anyways, we all made it to the train station just in time – and we were all also thoroughly soaked with sweat.

The Schott glass factory was fairly interesting. Like Bayer they provided cookies and drinks (which was good, because we all needed something to drink), and they gave us a solid overview of the company. Schott specializes in special glass (ie. for solar, medical, and technical purposes). We then toured through a museum about the Schott family and another about Schott’s products through history. I was hoping that they would have a gift shop so that I could get a “Schott Glass” (see what I did there), but they didn’t. After the tour we headed back home and commenced studying for our test on Thursday. In order to make up for lost class time on Wednesday we had to start class all the earlier on Thursday – yuck. We started class at 7.30, took our test at 9, got out of class at 12.30, and promptly started our long free weekend.

Some people were leaving immediately after class for such destinations as Prague, Paris, and Rome, but I decided to start my weekend with a nap! After taking a pretty solid power nap, Charlotte and I decided to take a little day trip over to Erfurt. A group of girls in the LBAT program had recently gone there and found a coin store that sounded pretty cool, so we wanted to go and check it out. The coin store was actually located atop a bridge. There was a whole street of stores on top of the bridge, and it took us a little bit to find it, but we managed. In the back of the store there was a large chest filled to the top with old coins from all over the world. We took about an hour looking through the coins, and we found some from the DDR, the Weimar Republic, and the Third Reich. They were only 25 Euro cents apiece so we bought several. We walked around and went into a couple more stores, and went to an ice cream place where I had my first Spaghetti Eis. Spaghetti Eis is pretty much extruded ice cream that looks like spaghetti, and it was really good. After walking around a little more we found a nice little place to eat on the riverfront, and there were some very brave little French fry stealing birds and an Aflac duck that joined us for dinner. We finished up and headed home to pack and get to bed so that we could be ready for our early departure to Ingolstadt in the morning!

Weimar

We recently took a day trip to the little town of Naumburg. Upon arrival we had an hour or so before our tour through the Cathedral there, and Dr. Cothran let us loose to get some lunch and explore a little bit. The buildings in the downtown square were very unique looking, because they all had an exorbitant number of doghouses on them.

 I later found out that the windows were there for the production of special blue dye that is derived from the Waid plant. There were lots of interesting little shops and stuff to investigate, and I got a souvenir or two for my family. I also saw the most epic mustache that I have ever seen. The possessor of the mustache actually had it tucked in behind his ears!

On our tour through the church we were able to go into the attic/roof of the church. The church was being built at the beginning of the Gothic period, and it was interesting to see the architectural changes that were implemented in the construction. We then scaled one of the towers and enjoyed the view of the city from 90 m high.

 At the top of the tower our guide pointed out small hooks on the roof of the church, and informed us that they were there to keep the snow from falling off of the roof in one solid sheet – Smart! Oh yeah…it was also very windy at the top of the tower.

After finishing up in Naumburg we were off to a wine tasting in Bad Sulza. On the way there we drove though some very pretty countryside and I am pretty sure our bus driver got lost, but we eventually made it. 

Before the tasting we toured through the wine production facility and we were able to see the process from harvest to shipping of the final product. The tasting took place in a rustic looking wine cellar, and we had a nice dinner of meats and cheeses to complement our first wine. Our first wine was a very sweet and fruity white wine which was a mixture of different white wine grapes. The second wine we sampled was a Riesling, which was my favorite (I bought a bottle). We also tried a Gewürztraminer and a couple others.

The day after we went to Naumburg we had another day trip to Erfurt. Erfurt is the capital of Thüringen, and is much larger than the small town of Naumburg and even Weimar. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Amsterdam. We were given a guided tour through the city, and my groups guide was an old Russian guy – who was hilarious. During our tour he would randomly stop and say something or point out something funny and then be back on his way. We even had a Mr. Kim moment! He stopped and pointed out a water fountain that was built as a memorial, and asked us if we knew what it was supposed to look like. None of us knew, and he replied “Neither do I” and kept on walking. He also pointed out small recesses on either side of the doors on very old buildings. In the old days, the water was not fit to drink, and as a result nearly everybody had to drink beer. Only licensed people were allowed to brew and serve beer, but licensing was an issue, because very few people were literate. As a result they devised a more straightforward method of licensing. They put two big holes by the sides of the doors at certified breweries and when the breweries had beer they filled the holes with straw.

The tour was very enjoyable, but as soon as it was over a lot us elected to head straight back home since we had been assigned copious amounts of homework. That’s ok though, because after all of our homework was turned in we had yet another day trip to Eisenach! Eisenach was home to both Bach and Martin Luther, and we were fortunate enough to tour each of them. The Bach house has been turned into a museum, and half of the museum is the house and the other half is an ultra-modern addition to the house.

The museum houses some of Bach’s instruments as well as other rare instruments and articles from his life. Our guide through the house also took some time out to play several different pieces by Bach on a couple different instruments. The Luther House was a classic looking German frame house, and it too contained various and sundry articles from Luther’s life.

After checking out both of the houses we went for a climb up the Wartburg Castle. (By the end of this trip I am going to be a stair master, because we do a whole lot of climbing and going up stairs!) Anyways, the castle dates back to 1068, and is also the place where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in 1521. The view from the castle was phenomenal, and Goethe is said to have frequented the castle for the view.

After touring the castle we had the option of going to a car museum… for me this was not an option, but rather a must! The museum had a couple awesome BMW roadsters from the 30’s,

and also some EMW’s. EMW stands for Eisenacher Motorenwerk, and was the soviet precursor to BMW. 

It was amazing to see the dinky little engines they put in the soviet cars. They were tiny little three cylinder two-stroke engines. I felt like I could pretty pick one up without assistance. In 1954 EMW changed its name to Automobilwerk Eisenach (AWE) and made a car named after the castle in Eisenach- The Wartburg.

On Thursday we spent the day in Leipzig, and when I say the day I mean the whole day! We left Weimar at 8:25 and didn’t get back until half past midnight. The ride to Leipzig took about two hours by bus, and when we arrived we hit the ground running. We took tour of the city which included the St. Thomas Church, the St. Nicholas Church and Auerbach’s Keller. The St. Thomas Church is the Church in which Johann Sebastian Bach was Cantor, and the St. Nicholas Church was a major site for the Monday demonstrations near the end of the DDR. After the tour we had a quick break for lunch, and we were able to pop into a local brewery the “Brauerei an der Thomaskirche” and sample their wares. I had a Pils and it was probably the best (pils) that I have had in Germany. After Lunch we toured through DDR history museum. The museum was pretty cool, and it was interesting to see some of the things that I had learned about in my Berlin seminar last semester. After our tour of the museum we had another brief break for dinner and then we were off to see an Orchestra perform some of Bach’s music.

I enjoyed the music thoroughly, but a few of my peers had a bit of a hard time staying awake. We later found out that the interpretation that we had listened to was written for one of the Kaisers so that he could fall asleep at night…so I guess you can’t blame them. I found plenty of interesting things to look at while we were there though, so I managed to stay awake pretty well. The oboe player was very into playing his oboe, and his antics while playing were rather enjoyable to watch. There was also another epic mustache. I wasn’t quite able to snap a picture of it, but it was pretty much a straight line that extended along his face all the way over to his eyebrows. He definitely earned some creativity points for that one.

Halt die Klapper!

Getting a little behind on my journal again… I meant to write on the train to Weimar, but sleep happens. So this entry is just going to be a quick recap of everything up until today. We went to Aachen and saw the Aachener Dom and at first I was not incredibly impressed. The cathedral is a mixture of multiple different styles, and from the outside it looks impressive but a little mix-matched.

 Charlemagne had the original part of the cathedral built in 792, and it was also his last resting place. Before entering the cathedral we went into the neighboring museum and saw several relics of Charlemagne. They are true relics, in that they contain actual bones from Charlemagne. The one of his bust actually contains an appropriately positioned piece of his skull. We finished up at the museum and went into the Cathedral.

My opinion of the Aachener Dom completely changed upon entrance. Polished marble of every color, gilded mosaics, and lofty walls of stained glass filled your every glance. Attempting to even vaguely portray the inside would be a rather onerous task – so here are some pictures.

 There are also two shrines in the cathedral that are said to contain the clothes of the Virgin Mary and the swaddling clothes and burial robes of Jesus Christ. When in Aachen I also saw a matte black Audi RS-4, an Audi R8, and a German Mike Ditka – Good day!

Our time in Düsseldorf was quickly coming to a close, and we had still yet to visit one of the iconic areas of Düsseldorf…the Medien Haffen.  Luckily Frau Cothran had that covered, and had a tour scheduled. The Medien Haffen is the business district of Düsseldorf that contains the iconic Gehry buildings and the Fernsehturm. It was previously an old shipping harbor for the coal and steel industries and in recent years has been renovated, and is now one of the most modern areas in all of Düsseldorf. Unfortunately it was kind of rainy during our tour, but the buildings were a spectacle none the less. I also managed to snap a couple of decent photos!

One of our last excursions before leaving Düsseldorf was our trip to Schloss Burg. Before touring the castle we had a hike planned through the adjacent woods. So we got off of our train at a stop that was pretty much in the middle of the woods and started hiking. After walking for a bit we came across a slide that went down a hill in the middle of the woods. The four year old in all of us was immediately excited, especially since this wasn’t you’re everyday rinky dinky playground slide… it was a serious slide. 

So that was rather fun. There were also other random interactive things in the woods like a rope bridge and some little animals with springs for legs that you could ride. Anyways, the hike was great. There are so many different types of trees and animals to look at, and it was nice to get away from the city and relax a bit. It was also nice to get some fresh air and not have cigarette smoke blown in your face every time you go around a corner.

Our hike took us to a tiny little town in the middle of a mountain valley. The town actually looked a lot like Helen, GA, except it was authentic. And I mean really authentic… we were probably three hours from the nearest anything. We walked through the town and to a ski lift that was to take us up to the castle. Now it felt like we were in pigeon forge. I had never ridden on a ski lift before, and it was pretty cool. When we got up to the top of the castle there were several small houses and shops in the vicinity as well as a Waffelhaus! We went in to tour the castle, but unfortunately I got in trouble and had to be put in time out…

The castle was a very medieval castle and there were several actual suits of armor from various Knights. The armor suites weighed around 75 kg and we extremely hot. During church services the knights used to have to stand in full armor for the entire 3+ hour service and it was not uncommon for them to pass out. In doing so they often knocked down their pedestal and the Priest would tell them to “Halt die Klappe” (Stop the clapping). The same phrase is now used to tell people to shut up.

Me "Halting the Klapper"

The train ride from Düsseldorf to Weimar was five hours long, and was extremely exciting….

But really, the view was very scenic and beautiful but it was a very good opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep. Before leaving Düsseldorf we were subjected to tests and projects galore. We arrived in Weimar and quickly went to drop off our luggage at the house. The house is like a small castle and I feel like I am staying at Hogwarts or something. After dropping off our luggage we went out to our reception dinner. At dinner I had Thüringisches Rostbrätl and a Köstritzer Schwarzbier and a Ehringsdorfer Pilz that were all specialties of Weimar. Everything was excellent, and it was nice to have beer other than Alt! I am now in the process of getting acclimated to Weimar, and so far I really like it here.