I had the sudden urge to get out of the house and explore this weekend. As is typical with me, I started with availability of Starwood properties and saw, to my delight, that the Hotel Elephant in Weimar was only €99/night. Deal! For reference purposes, the Hotel Elephant is part of their Luxury Collection and for the most part is either fully booked or up in the €300 range. Yes, I have been stalking it. So anyway, it seemed like an omen and I booked a night. Of course then I had to remember why I wanted to go to Weimar.... Nearly a year ago when a friend and I went to Leipzig (see the 7 March 2010 posting), there was some sort of reference to Weimar, so I assumed there must be something to see, so I bought a train ticket and was off, with no discernible plan.
Weimar is about a 2.5 hour train ride on the IC (Inter City, not to be confused with the higher-speed Inter City Express). I could pick up the train right here at the Südbah
nhof station a couple of blocks from my house, which was an added bonus. I somehow scored a compartment all to myself, so it was quite a pleasant ride. I was a bit disturbed, though, to see what appeared to be quite massive flooding of fields and lowlands, which appears to be the result of the melting of the massive snow that fell on Germany around the holidays. I continued to be amazed both in Weimar with the swollen Ilm River as well as on the way home at the continued high water levels. The picture here is not a great one because the train was going so quickly, but you get the idea with the road disappearing into a giant puddle.
Hotel Elephant is located right on the Marktplatz, so it is in the heart of the old town. I had looked at the hotel's web site and it said that it was about a mile from the train station. I only had a small overnight bag, so when I arrived (without a map), I pretty much just started following people to what I figured must be the main drag of town. With the assistance of my BlackBerry GPS, I made it there in a more or less direct route, to the extent a direct route is ever possible in a small town with twisting, turning streets at not-exactly right angles. I was able to conduct the hotel check-in entirely in German, which always pleases me. Yes, I'm pretty sure they realize I'm not German, but the fact that people don't immediately switch to English always delights me. They gave me a nice suite with a view overlooking the town square. Really nice property if anyone is ever thinking of visiting. I also enjoyed the large and rather heavy brass elephant pendant attached to my old-school key. You know, the type where you leave the key at the front desk when you leave. Love it!
In a nutshell, Weimar has a rich cultural history, hailing as home at one time or another to Goethe, Schiller, Bach and Liszt, among others (Bach being the link I recalled from the Wartburg stop en route to Leipzig). You might also associate Weimar with the Weimar Republic of Germany from 1913-1933, which would not be a misnomer since the republic's constitution was drafted in Weimar since Berlin had a lot of violent demonstrations that caused the National Assembly to consider it (Berlin) not safe for meeting. Hence Weimar. Weimar also was the start of the Bauhaus movement in the late 1910s. Think Walter Gropius and you will be transported to art history as it relates to architecture. It also, unfortunately, has a dark history in that the Buchenwald concentration camp was only about 8 kilometers from Weimar. Weimar was part of East Germany until the fall of the wall.
Weimar today seems to be mostly a tourist destination primarily focused on the intelligentsia who have lived there throughout the years. (For those interested, Liszt's 200th birthday will be celebrated this year!) It is also home to the Onion Festival. Some things I cannot make up. And no, no relation to The Onion.
All in all, it was a delightful old city. I mostly just wandered around. I was particularly intrigued by the ruins of what appears to be a cathedral near the Ilm. The ruins were magnificent. I will have to dig deeper for the rest of the story. But I highly recommend it to others. But I make no promises on either the Onion Festival or the celebration of Liszt's birthday.....
No comments:
Post a Comment