Lehman/Benson Family World Cup Tour 2011: Eisenach to Dresden, Germany -July 9, 2011

Monday, July 11, 2011

Eisenach to Dresden, Germany -July 9, 2011

We sleep with the windows open because - like many hotels here- there is no air conditioning. There is much revelry last night, being a Friday night, but the singing outside our window is actually quite good.

We wake up fairly early so we can tour Wartburg Castle before we catch our train at 1:00 p.m.

This is known to be one of the most interesting castles in Germany, along with Eltz castle that we visited earlier. We get a tour - all in German- but we have an English pamphlet. This is the Knights Bath- a tradition from the East the knights brought back from the Crusades. They even heated the water.

Below is a chamber filled with mosaics depicting the life of St. Elizabeth that was married to the King and lived here. She set up hospitals and always fed the poor, which was controversial at the time.

When her husband died, she was banished from the castle. This is the mosaic of her being sent away with her children..

The other famous resident of this castle was Martin Luther. During his protest of the Catholic Church and when he was also denied protection by the government, his friends kidnapped him and brought him here. It was in this room, where he lived for 10 months, that he translated the New Testament into a common language for the first time, German...

There is a story that the Devil visited Martin Luther in this room and Luther threw an ink pot at the Devil to banish him. The chipped wall on the right is where pilgrims over the years have chipped away at the wall, hoping to get a piece of that ink.

We arrive that afternoon by train in Dresden. It is known as the Florence of Germany and has always been a center of art and culture, even from the days that it was the seat of the kingdom of Saxony. During the last months of the WWII, the beautiful old city was bombed by the US and England. It remains controversial as being unnecessary and causing the deaths of women and children who had sought sanctuary in Dresden, as well as needlessly destroying historical and cultural monuments. Amazingly, even as part of East Germany, the old buildings were mostly all rebuilt by volunteers. And so we can enjoy almost completely today the Dresden of old.

The girls in front of our hotel, which was formerly a palace for a Saxony Prince's mistress..

We walk along the river Elbe to get cooler in what has turned to very balmy weather (note the old bridge in background)..

The girls have found a new favorite drink. It is called "ice kaffee"' but in German "ice" is ice cream. So it is kinda like a coffee float...with coffee poured over ice cream and with whipped cream on top.....yum..