What Next?

After a seriously energetic Ascension Day, the next day also began early with a train ride to Weimar.From there we caught a bus to Buchenwald, the concentration camp outside the city. Whilst visiting a concentration camp is not the happiest of experiences, it was certainly an education. Only parts of the camp are still standing, but it was still a disturbing feeling to think that I was standing inside an area where such atrocities had taken place. The museum houses any remaining artifacts from when the camp was operational, and the exhibits leave nothing to the imagination. I was glad to view the memorial sculpture that has been placed in a strategic location outside the camp where it is highly visible. There is no way it can be missed if you are traveling on the autobahn, on the river, or in the air, and it serves as a constant reminder of Germany's darkest hour, for all to see.
From there we looked around the historical city of Weimar before catching a train to a wonderful country inn in Muhlberg. If anyone has Germany in their plans, and the state of Thuringen in particular, I would suggest checking out the country inn where we stayed http://www.pension-schuetzenhof.de/en/index.html. The owner was so welcoming, the outdoor terrace so conducive to beer drinking and eating, that none of us would have wanted to miss this experience. And to top it all, the hike up to the Muhlburg (the ruined castle in Muhlberg) left from the back of the pension. When our outdoor dinner was finished, we all deemed it necessary to hike to the top of the hill, enjoy the fantastic views and watch the sun go down--a magic event.

It was good to see an example of a small German town after all the cities that we have visited. Muhlberg had many fine examples of Thuringen architecture which is different from that found in Saxony. The older buildings in Thuringen have exposed beams in their outer walls--similar to architecture that can be found in England. I guess we have to thank those invading Germanic tribes for that!

We left Muhlberg after an excellent typical German breakfast buffet:meats; cheeses; deliciously hot, fresh rolls, cereal, yoghurt, quark, coffee, multi-vitamin vegetable juice. You name it, it was on the buffet table!
The next stop on the weekend trip was Leipzig. The train ride was very pleasant and not too long. The highlight of the afternoon was a Bach choral concert in the Thomas Kirche where Johann Sebastian himself was once the Director of Music. Whilst we could all appreciate the beautiful music, the sermon in German was a bit of a struggle! Coupled with the intense heat, and the fact that we had enjoyed ourselves the night before on the terrace in Muhlberg, a few members of our group nodded off during this part of the concert!

After the concert we had the opportunity to wander around Leipzig and enjoy an Italian pizza at an open air restaurant, watching the world go by. We caught the 9pm train back to Dresden, arriving back at the student accommodation by 11pm. After such a lovely weekend, we all went our separate ways and enjoyed a good night's sleep before beginning our final week of the program on Monday morning.