Eisenach 

Whenever we can, we break up the 8 hr drive to Andrew's parents' house, doubly so this Christmas with Andrew's arm still being in a cast which meant I got to do all the driving.  So we chose Eisenach because 1) it was on the way! 2) Johann Sebastian Bach was born there and Luther lived there and 3) it's yet another charming German city.

Das Bachhaus is a fantastic example how to marry old and new.  His childhood home has been amazingly restored due to 600 years of time and then the bombing in WWII.  Hmm, I wonder who did that?

The renovated sections have been connected to a sleek high tech museum showcasing a wonderful variety of his works, contemporary books and instruments.

This little treasure is a glass harmonica, invented in 1760, and played by rotating a pedal and wetting your finger!  Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss and Wagner also wrote pieces specifically for this instrument.

Emma liked this Taschengeige (pocket violin) which was used by dance teachers.  They could easily stow it in their pocket, show their students the correct steps and then play the piece again.

Now, I'm no cartographer, but I would guess this world map is not to scale...

Notice the location of the black and white keys - ivory was known but incredibly expensive.

Here's a little nugget: Bach (1685-1750) and a friend walked to Hamburg in search of work after they finished their schooling.  Also, Bach had 20 children! He had seven children with his first wife, his cousin, and thirteen children with his second.  Only 10 in total survived childhood.

Luther Statue

Martin Luther in a nutshell: (1483 – 1546) German monk, priest, professor of theology and major player in the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed many practices in the Catholic church's including the claim that sins could be "paid off" by purchasing  Indulgences in his Ninety-Five Theses which he nailed to the front door of the castle church in Wittenberg in 1517. His refusal to retract all this got him excommunicated.

With a price on his head, he was "kidnapped" by Frederick the Wise of Saxony and hidden away for a year at Wartburg Castle.

Eisenach's Wartburg Castle

During this time, he translated the New Testament into German.  Up until then, it had only been in Latin and only available through the filter of the clergy.  This made the message of the Bible more accessible, causing a tremendous impact on the church and on the German  language because a standard German was now in print. This is tremendously exciting for linguistic geeks like us!  In addition, by marrying Katharina von Bora, he set a precedent allowing Protestant priests to marry.

Fussball!

HSV

One of the things Andrew has relished about being here is Fussball.  In Europe (and most other countries in the world) it is fair to say, that it is by far the most popular sport.  Based on how passionate some of the fans are and how soccer consumes so much of society and daily life, it is seemingly the only sport.  Vacations are planned around team schedules and hidden cameras have caught people trying to get a "sick note" from their doctors so as not to miss big championship games.

                                                      Having grown up near Hamburg, Andrew is, of course, a HSV fan (Hamburger Sport Verein) and we both went to many games when we lived in Kiel.  Now that we live in Bavaria, of course we jumped at the chance to see a game between two dueling Bavarian teams, 1. FC Nuernberg and FC Bayern Munich.  50 Euro per ticket.  Andrew nearly hyperventilated seeing so many big names ((Manuel Neuer, Rafinha, Jerome Boateng, Phillip Lahm, Franck Ribery, Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Arjen Robben, Mario Gomez and David Beckham.)  Alright, no David Beckham -- just wanted to see if any of you non-soccer fans read to the end of the list! :)

The first thing you notice at German soccer games is the absence of  the supplementary entertainment common at Bucks, Admirals or Brewer games.  No big display sharing random trivia, no background music to fill time outs, no cheerleaders, no Sausage Race.  It's all fan driven and these fan clubs take this very seriously.  Before the game starts, the various recognized fan clubs can enter special members-only "pre-party" tents right outside the stadium.  They have their own flags and insignia and organize buses to away games. 

One fan leader has a drum and starts a cheer or song and the rest of the group joins in .  Amazing how much variety they come up with!  Some chants require action from the entire crowd to stamp their feet or hold up their team's scarf.  Everyone seemed to follow along.  The opposing team's fan club would often counter with their own chant or they would just try to outscream each other.  It was really quite entertaining.

A friend of ours has been a club member for 20 years and gave us the inside scoop. Lots of younger men, lots of alcohol.  They have designated areas in the stadium and due to overcrowding, there are no pesky tripping hazards, like chairs.  They stand the whole time and don't dare leave their spot even to go to the bathroom, they just repurpose those empty beer bottles!  There have been, of course, some tragic overcrowding and trampling soccer-related accidents such as the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster in England, where 96 people died.  Since then, various safety measures have changed including the location of barriers.  

Nonetheless, the crowds can get really rowdy and we were treated to several rounds of forbidden Bengali Fire which the fan club to our left set off in the stands!  The police attempt to control the rivalry between the opposing fan clubs as well.  Here near the end of the game, the police line up ready to escort one of the clubs directly to their bus.

Date Night!