Erfurt, Wartburg, Wurzburg
From 2007 World Tour in Erfurt, Germany on Oct 06 '07
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Today we are refreshed after a good night sleep. The bad headache that Joe had been carrying around yesterday has finally been put to rest with the help of pills and a good sleep. We are in a Radisson hotel which has a scandinavian design and the rooms feel like they are right out of an Ikea catalogue. The rooms are small - just enough room for two beds and a small desk. The bathroom even has a single door that operates at 90 degrees- one way for the toilet and the other for the shower. A comment at dinner last night is that if the rooms get any smaller we'll be staying in a capsule hotel like in Tokyo!
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We head off at 8:30 this morning for the relatively short drive to Wartburg Castle. Here the bus cannot get up to the foot of the castle, which is located on the top of a hill. We have to climb up the steep path and alternate staircases. The steps at the Cathederal yesterday must have been the warm-up. It is an effort for me and I have to stop close to the top to catch my breath. The air is great and you can just feel the freshness of it when you inhale.
Saint Elizabeth Collection..
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We don our headphones and a castle guide takes us on a tour of the St Elizabeth exhibition that is currently being displayed here. No Photos are allowed to be taken inside the exhibition. Elizabeth, born to Hungarian royalty was sent to the castle at age 4 in accordance with an arranged marriage. At 14 she married Ludwig the third who was 21. She had three children at yearly intervals, a boy and two girls. She was a person of the people and helped with the sick and poor of the area. This was frowned upon by her mother-in-law as the elite of the area did not mix with the common people. He husband went off to fight in a crusade and was killed before he got there. Because of her beliefs, she left the castle, leaving behind her two oldest children so that they could be schooled. Her daughter she placed in the care of a monestary and herself setup a hospital for the poor. On her death in her mid twenties she was cannonised as a saint due to her good deeds.
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We then descend to the bus (which is a hell of a lot faster than going up!). We soon stopped at the next roadhouse for lunch, which is located at another of the old east/west crossing gates. The guard towers are still in place which gives the area a bit of an eerie feel. The roadhouse is absolutely packed and it is an experience moving through the food service area just to get a coffee and salad roll for lunch. I just have enough time before we leave to get a double-scoop icecream of maple-walnut and chocolate chip - yum-mee! Yes, or those that hadn't guessed, the weather today is much warmer than yesterday.
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Back on the bus we have a 2.5hr ride now to take us through to Wurzburg where we will stay the night. Maria suggests a short city walk after a quick check-in which we think is a great idea. We walk up to the square in front of the old Bishops Residence. This building is immense in size and Maria tells us that the bishops, like the feudal lords of old held the power within the towns. We get a glimse inside the Bishops private chapel, as there is a concert that is about to start, but Maria once again uses her charm for us to get a peek. She then leads us into the French style gardens on the right hand side of the residence. In here there are carefully shaped trees, shrubs and fountains.
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We continue on through the town, past the city hall building down the the bridge which spans the river Main. Here the bridge has statues at stations along the bridge which reminds us very much of the Charles Bridge in Prague, although here there are not continual artist stalls selling their wares.
We wander back to the hotel where we stop at the bar for a drink and mix with a couple of the other tour people who had the same idea. The tour group gets together then for dinner. Tonight the meal consists of cream of vegetable soup, pork steak with mushrooms, pasta and mixed vegetables and apple pie and cream for desert. We sit at a table with a mum and son from Maitland and decide to share a bottle of local wine with them which goes down nicely. That ends our day.
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