Germany Trip Report, Day 10 : Weimar

Hotel Kaiserin Augusta, Weimar: 

The office team had been put up in Hotel Kaiserin Augusta, Weimar and I had booked a separate room for myself as well. 

The hotel is in a building dating back to 1867.

Kaiserin Augusta was the last German empress and so associated with the glorious past.

The hotel has some lovely antique furniture 

The view from the room is nice ... fall colors in bahnhof platz

Oct 7, 2015:

 Great breakfast for vegetarians included in the rate

Son was off for training with the office team and I started the day on my own.

Bought provisions at Lidl, 750 m from the hotel/bahnhof.

Then started off on the walk through Classical Weimar.

The buildings have distinct decorative features and it's a pleasure to observe.

Weimar is famous as the home of several notable figures in Germany; Luther (Founder of Lutheran church; seminal figure in Protestant reformation; 1483-1546), Cranach, and Bach (music composer; 1685-1750) all lived here. Weimar's greatest period began in the 18th century when Goethe, Schiller, and Nietzsche lived here. In the 19th century, it was the turn of Germany's great composers, while its Art School - birthplace of the Bauhaus movement - attracted many now famous painters. It was also in Weimer's National Theatre that the German National Assembly met after WWI. In 1998, UNESCO designated Classical Weimar a World Heritage Site

Had a very pleasant stroll around the Markt square, where every building has a story.

Great spot for a quiet read, ha, ha!

 

This is the Neptune fountain.

This is Theatre platz with Goethe monument

What Stratford-upon-Avon is to Shakespeare, Weimar is to Goethe and Schiller. Add in Bach and Liszt, Cranach, Gropius and the Bauhaus movement and this small city scores highly for culture and heritage.  It boasts 11 Unesco World Heritage Sites, most within walking distance of one another. Just outside town is the darker side of Germany’s past: Buchenwald, the Second World War forced labor camp.

Goethe–Schiller Monument (German: Goethe-Schiller-Denkmal). It incorporates the 1857 bronze double statue of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), who are probably the two most revered figures in German literature. They were mounted on a large stone pedestal in front of the Court Theater that Goethe had directed, and that had seen premieres and countless performances of Schiller's plays. Goethe is on the left.

Goethe and Schiller had a remarkable friendship and collaboration that was "like no other known to literature or art." Both men had lived in Weimar, and were the seminal figures of a literary movement known as Weimar Classicism.

This is Cranach’s early Renaissance house facing the neo-Gothic town hall, whose tinkling bells are made of Meissen porcelain. Cranach was a renaissance painter 1472-1553.

 This is the oldest hotel Elephant

This 16th-century Hof-apotheke is where Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, picked up his prescriptions. While in town,  he ate “like a Bohemian” and drank “like a German”!!




475-year-old Zum Schwarzen Bären, also on the square.

This seems to be an astronomical clock...

Even a van sports the famous half timber frame

Even the busker is classy...an elderly gentleman on his violin

Weimar has an array of shops and taverns... with interesting welcome statues/sign boards/window treatment

Frogs are ubiquitous... probably prince in waiting?

 Some veggies combined with flowers for an interestng arrangement...

Self explanatory signs on shop facades...

NOT Written in stone!! Written on wood rather... Menu card on a wood bark

Souvenirs

The ever present frog prince again...waiting for his kiss...

 mmm... here's an interesting bookend!

An interesting chair...too much glare from the shop window...

A card welcoming a baby...

Scherenschnitte, which means "scissor cuts" in German, is the art of paper cutting. The art work often has symmetry within the design, and common forms include silhouettes.... (ready-made patterns and basic cutting kits, an Exacto knife are available for the non artists to try out this art)

Cardboard vehicles...

Lovely wood carvings

Terrific miniatures

Sail boat

 Bird houses

Weather houses... 

Delicate ceramics

Halloween stuff...(All Saints' Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October)

 Play sets for little girls....

Plenty of stuff for older girls too... brides are attended to here...

Doughnut in the sun flowers in a bakery window...

Garden on a platter...

Interesting planter... ha, ha

Zum Zweibel...The Onion...Weimar has a thriving onion market

Quirky statue(s)... man buried in sand

St. Peter und Paul church: The first church was built on the same location from 1245 to 1249, but destroyed by fire in 1299. Only the foundations remain. The second building was badly damaged in the 1424 town fire. The present building dates back to 1498

This is Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744 –1803), a German philosopher, Herder attached exceptional importance to the concept of nationality and of patriotism –

Herderplatz

This is the Mother's Love statue at the Donndorf fountain in Weimar— Donndorf  is another illustrious native of Weimar.

A standing draped female figure combining common iconic representations of Charity and of Temperance holds an infant and empties a ewer with her left hand, aided by a boy

The original sculpture was made by Donndorf in 1876, and was placed in 1891 on Union Square in New York.

There are many other fountains ...

This is the famous Neptune fountain...

Swan knight fountain here...

This is Wittumspalais - the Widow's Palace.  Built in 1767, it was the home of the Dowager Duchess Anna Amalia and was, during Goethe's time, the epicenter of social and literary activity in the city. Now a museum, this splendid two-winged palace features fine décor, period furniture, and portraits of the Ducal family and courtesans, as well as portraits of Goethe and Schiller in the Poet's Room. Also of interest is the Round Table Room where guests like Goethe were entertained, and did the entertaining.

It was an entertaining walk through the town. When son came back in the evening we covered some portions till it became dark.

Oct 8, 2015:

In the morning after a lovely breakfast we again raced through the beautiful streets till it was time for son to leave for his training. He sprinted back before 8.30 am and caught up his van just when it was about to leave the hotel.

We had planned to take the afternoon train to Gotha and we managed to do so and even see the palace there for the day. I’m covering that in the next post:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/10/germany-trip-report-day-11-gotha.html