Erfurt

Wednesday 7 May

A much quieter night last night, I don’t know if there was anyone else on our floor, if there was we didn’t hear them. The room we were “upgraded” to in the hotel section (“and we won’t charge the additional amount”) was actually smaller than the room we had in the hostel section, so I suspect A & O Hostel/Hotels charge more for less by calling the room a hotel room.

We have been staying in hostels for over 20 years and this was the noisiest one we have stayed in, hostels usually have a noise curfew and anyone not complying is asked to leave. When I asked the manager why A & O Hostels didn’t enforce a noise curfew and ask people to leave, he said ‘we would lose half the students staying at the hostel”, it doesn’t matter if other guests are disturbed. If this is the attitude of the company at their other hostels in Germany and Prague we wouldn’t recommend A & O Hostels to anyone.

As well as being noisy the hostel was cold and clinical, most places have a warm and welcoming feel but this hostel had as much warmth as a morgue slab. However the desk staff were very charming and helpful, it is probably the company policy and sterile box construction, building and rooms, that makes is such a cold place.

On a happier note, it was another warm sunny day, two in a row, and travelling on the train to Erfurt through a wonderfully green countryside with hectare after hectare of cereal and canola crops, the sun shining on the yellow flowers of the canola was a beautiful sight.

Another part of the scenery which we should have mentioned before, all through Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany there has been clumps of lilacs everywhere, in parks, the woods, along the side of the railway and lining farm fields, ranging from white to the deepest purple and the perfume when we have walked past them, has been overpowering

To further brighten our day, when we arrived at the Re4hostel in Erfurt we found it to be in a heritage listed old Police Station, large comfortable rooms and a nice outdoor area, with a well kept garden, to sit and enjoy a coffee and very friendly staff. After checking in we walked into the old town area for dinner, through winding lanes lined with lovely old buildings and from what we saw we are going to enjoy our time here.

Erfurt has a very old university founded in 1392 which closed in 1816 but was reopened in 1994; probably its most famous student was Martin Luther who graduated in 1505.

Thursday 8 May

After a good night’s sleep, we awoke with the sun streaming into our room, a record three days in a row; our room is decorated with original oil paintings and pots of plants and is about three times the size of the box at our previous hostel. A nice breakfast and we were ready to tackle the town.

We walked back to the main station, but unlike the way we came last night, through a park and continued up the Bahnhofstrasse to the Reglerkirche, one of many old churches in the town, this church has a carved altar, dating back to 1460. Further on we arrived at the old fish market square, dominated on one side by the Rathaus and on two other sides by Renaissance houses from the 1500s. A short distance from the square is the medieval Kramerbrucke (Merchants Bridge), 120 m long and Europe’s longest bridge with houses on both sides, walking across the bridge we viewed it from the outside and the stream flows underneath through three arches.

Our next stop, on what has all the appearances of a religious pilgrimage, was the Augustine Church and Cloisters, home to an order of Protestant Nuns but in the early 1500s it was a monastery. Martin Luther was a monk her from 1505 to 1511, after he graduated from the university and it was here that he read his first mass after being ordained as a priest.

We decided that we would go back to the hostel and have a relaxing afternoon and as we approached another church, heard organ music so decided to enter and we were entertained for about twenty minutes by the organist practicing. The church was St Michaels were Martin Luther preached in 1522 (this is beginning to sound like a religious instruction class) and it has a decorated organ built in 1652. When we arrived back at the hostel we were advised by the owner that we have what the locals call “Spring Tiredness”, so that was a good excuse to sit and do nothing for the rest of the afternoon. “Here endeth the lesson”.

After a rest and a G & T we felt ready to face the walk back into town for dinner in an old “Beer House” a very old building with dark timber panelled walls and the passage to the bar lit with candles. The owners must have gone to every garage sale and op shop around as there wasn’t a spot on the walls that wasn’t covered with old photos and many old enamelled advertising signs, going back to the 1880s. The photos included family groups, school photos, people in military uniform and many others, together with old wood cuts and etchings; we wondered what stories were attached to all these photos. After a meal of Thuringen Bratwurst and Bratkatoffeln (sausages and fried sliced potatoes) washed down with a local beer we walked back to the hostel for a coffee.

Friday 8 May

Another bonus a sunny day and we set out to continue our religious pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages Erfurt had ninety churches, convents and monasteries which gives some indication of its wealth and that it was on several trading routes, today it has twenty churches. I suppose the reason it still has so many is that the government levies all Christians a 9% church tax in addition to their income tax, this money is used to support the day to day running and maintenance of churches in Germany.

We arrived at Dom Platz, the square below the cathedral to find the annual three day flower and plant market had just begun, there must have been fifty plant and seedling stalls together with food and handcraft stalls and a stage with several band and traditional singers.

Climbing the 70 steps to Marien Cathedral which is built on an artificial hill, we realised that there is another large church, St Severus right beside it and wondered if they compete for a congregation or take it in turns to hold services.

Climbing an even larger hill we arrived at the gateway to the Petersberg Citadel a large complex covering 36 hectares and surrounded with 20 m high walls. We joined a guided tour, all in German, but we were able to gain some information and the guide added a few words of /English from time to time. The reason we joined the tour was to visit the labyrinth of tunnels which had been built under the complex as these can only be viewed on a tour. We didn’t obtain a complete understanding why they were built but we think as part of the defences and to provide an escape route if necessary, though they would have to dig their way out as the tunnels don’t have any openings outside the walls even though they extend well past them. They were also used for food storage as cellars had been built open off the tunnels and one had a well.

Returning to the old town we walked around several street we had missed yesterday and found some more historic houses and a few churches, I don’t think we could have missed many churches over the two days.

Another interesting feature of the town is the River Gera which is only about ten metres wide; it splits and rejoins many times as it meanders through the town creating a lot of small islands. It also appears to flow in a circle around the old town’s perimeter but that channel appears to be man made.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to a quiet day on our way to Luxembourg, if one considers three different trains and a six and a half hour trip a quiete day.