2023 Balkans - Prologue - Germany

We spent the last 4 days visiting our friends, Tina and Annabelle, in Germany, before proceeding to the Balkans Road Scholar trip. They live in the village of Ronshausen, a pretty little village of 2,400 in Hesse. 

Tina grew up here, and moved back in 2019 to live in and renovate the house in which she grew up. 

The village is old - first mentioned nearly a millenium ago in 1061. It was abandoned several times during the Thirty Years’ War in the 1600s and the Seven Years’ War a century later, but by 1780, it was mentioned as a “big village” of 468 inhabitants. 

They have a delightful dog, Luna, who was acquired from a circus as a COVID puppy. She is friendly and very smart, already understanding German much better than I do. 

We spent our first jet-lagged afternoon on a nice ramble through the surrounding countryside. We walked down the main street, up to the cemetery where Tina’s parents and grandfather are buried, and past fields of young oats and bright yellow rapeseed (which we’d seen from the air while flying into Frankfurt).

There was also, of course, a bit of geocaching. Greg introduced Annabelle’s father, Enno, to geocaching many years ago when Annabelle was a toddler. And now Enno and Annabelle geocache together. 

The next morning, we had a super breakfast at home and a lazy morning until it was time to pick up Annabelle from school. Her school day is from 7:50 to 1:10 daily, and she’s home for lunch after school. She usually takes the train to and from school, but we were going on a field trip to Wartburg castle. Much of the half hour drive paralleled the former border between East and West Germany, until we arrived in the town of Eisenach. 

Wartburg sits high above the town. It was the first German castle named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In its citation, it was described as “the ideal castle of the feudal period in Central Europe, blending harmoniously with its wooded surroundings, perched on a spur 200 meters (650 ft - or roughly 65 stories) above the surrounding countryside.”  

The Südturm (south tower), built in the 1400s, has an external staircase. There is a sign at the base of the tower cautioning that in case of thunder, everyone must descend immediately. Of course, as soon as we emerged from at the top, we heard the first rumblings of thunder. We took a quick look and photos, and obediently headed back down. 

From the top of the square tower. 

Greg on the staircase.

Two historic personages and one event are most associated with Wartburg. Saint Elisabeth of Hungary was brought here as a small child in 1011, and was betrothed to the landgrave of Thuringia, Ludwig IV, at age 14. She had three children, living an ascetic life modeled after Francis of Assisi. She founded hospitals and cared for the poor and sick. After her husband died in the Crusades, she moved to a monastery and continued ministering to the sick.

Inside the main palace, the room now called Elisabeth’s bower was decorated in glass mosaic in the early 1900s. The room depicts scenes from the saint’s life.

In the early 1200s, a renowned contest - or Battle of the Bands - between poets and singers was held in the Hall of Minstrels. The legend has been commemorated in many works, most famously in Wagner’s opera, “Tannhäuser”. 

Perhaps most famously, Martin Luther spent the better part of year taking refuge at Wartburg. After nailing his 95 Theses to the door of his church in Wittenberg and being excommunicated by the pope as a heretic, Luther sought safety and refuge behind the walls of the fortress. It was here, living under a pseudonym, that he translated the New Testament from Greek into German. The room in which he worked is stark. We were startled to see the pages of the book occasionally turn, and to hear a slight cough, or a sigh emerge from the room. 

Other sights in the castle:

A few of the famous (so we were told) white Wartburg pigeons. Tina calls them wedding pigeons.

On the way out of Eisenach, I asked Tina to drive by the birthplace of J.S. Bach. 

In honor of Bach, I even am allowing my photo in the blog (sitting on the wall)

We walked to breakfast in town the next day (Saturday). German bakeries are great!

There was a lot of discussion about what we’d do with the rest of the day, but we’d gotten a late start in the morning and Annabelle had homework to wrap up before Sunday’s festivities (Annabelle’s confirmation), so we ended up talking and napping, and watched a little of the coronation parade. Some friends who arrived in town for tomorrow’s celebration stopped by. We met other friends of Tina’s for dinner in Rotenburg an der Fulda. It would have been interesting to stroll around in the daylight, but even at night, the narrow streets of half-timber houses in the old walled city had a character all their own. 

This morning (Sunday) was Annabelle’s confirmation. We traveled to their Evangelical church about a half hour away and watched as 8 kids were confirmed. It was different than a Catholic or Episcopal ceremony - no bishop or hierarchy involved. Very nice, and to our surprise, several hymns (with which we were unfamiliar) were in English. 

This is Tina’s sister, her niece Christine and her family. We spent a lot of time getting acquainted and laughing with them at the confirmation party, and hope to see them in the US in a couple of years. We’d love to show them around the NE corridor!

We said goodbye and warm thanks to Tina, Annabelle and Luna. Annabelle’s father, Enno, kindly drove us two hours to our hotel near the Frankfurt airport, from which we’ll depart in the morning for the next part of our trip. We stopped en route at a restaurant in Wiesbaden, where we got to meet Enno’s friend, Petra, and their little dog, Boomer. It was nice to have some time with them, as we’ve seen Enno several times over the years (including in the US) and always enjoy his company.

So now we are settled in and ready to switch gears for the Balkans tomorrow.