Quedlinburg - Eisenach, Germany

Thursday 30th September 1999

We began the day with a long drive out of the mountains and through the state of Thuringia, formally part of East Germany, heading initially for Erfurt, the state capital.

We drove into the city to discover they were running their own version of Octoberfest, although it only consisted of a few fairground attractions placed somewhat incongruously in front of the cathedral. The cathedral however was perched on a small hill so wasn't overshadowed in any way.

We managed to park just behind the cathedral and made it our first destination. After some difficulty in even finding the door we were initially disappointed by the modern interior. We then discovered around the corner a magnificent choir, complete with 14th century carved choir stalls and soaring stained-glass windows.

We continued around the town, finding numerous attractive buildings along the bustling streets. Erfurt had the feel of a busy city with many modern buildings to match but they didn't detract from the character of the older ones. Overall quite a pleasant place.

We had a number of interesting towns in Thuringia which we could see but we decided to choose just a couple. We were hoping to reach Munich by Sunday, the last day of Octoberfest, and we still had the sights of the Romantic Road to contend with. For our other attraction we chose the castle of Wartburg, overlooking the town of Eisenach.

We decided to take the scenic route rather than the motorway so it was quite late in the day when we arrived. We thought we would stop for the night then look at the castle in the morning but a quick look at the map revealed that the most promising area to stop would be in the forests around the castle. We begin climbing the hill to the castle but there were no stopping possibilities on the way. We found ourselves in the car-park below the castle and were considering our options when a stunning view appeared between the trees as we drove. That decided it. We'd stop here. The car-park was vacant apart from one other camper and the castle was still some distance away so we thought it would be okay. We pulled up in front of the gap in the trees and settled in with a cup of tea to watch the sun set over the valley below. Wonderful.