This morning we left for Weimar. This drive was only half as long as the trip to Berlin, about two and a half hours. The trip ended up taking about four, thanks to a stop for lunch. Upon our arrival in Weimar, we were dropped off at the hostel and given our room assignments.
Our hostel was a special type of youth hostel, called a “Jugendherberge.” Ours, “Jugendherberge: ‘Am Poseckschen Garten’,” fit the typical style of these youth hostels. Designed mainly to be place where groups of schoolchildren stay while on trips, our group was given rooms for eight people apiece, bunk-beds and all. The activity of the afternoon was a walking tour around Weimar. Weimar has a rich history in the arts and literature. The composer Franz Liszt settled in Weimar for a time to work on his music and give lessons in piano. Johann Sebastian Bach lived there for part of his life, working as an organist, and the local Duke’s concertmaster. We got to visit their former residences, as well as those of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (considered the supreme genius of modern German literature), and his close friend Friedrich Schiller. Weimar is a city filled with a lot of history, and all of these famous people are quite interconnected. Weimar has a huge public park, designed by Goethe, which was beautiful through which to walk.
Rostbratwurst is a popular “fast food,” especially in Weimar. Carts are set up around the central marketplace, selling these foot long grilled sausages, set in four-inch long buns. Yes, that does leave a lot of overhang on both ends, but the meat-to-bread ratio worked out quite well, and they were delicious. The taste was not quite like a normal bratwurst, lying somewhere between that and the taste of Bavarian weißwurst.
After walking around Weimar, some friends and I looked for a place to have dinner. For dinner, some friends and I found a place called the Shakespeare Biergarten, serving a mixture of traditional German food (such as Schnitzel) and foreign dishes (like Chicken Curry with a mango sauce).
From there, we walked around the city centre a bit longer before heading back to the hostel to prepare for Sunday’s adventures.
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