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.