Anttilat

On Thursday it was time to pack our things again and leave lovely Siloah behind. There was an opportunity for another hike that day with amazing views on top of beautiful hills. This time however six of us decided not to go on the hike for different reasons. My reason was a really sore throat and quite nasty cough.

Those of us who didn't go hiking went by bus straight to Eisenach. It was a beautiful town with a rather large historical center. We went to see Luther house where he supposedly lived as a schoolboy. Most of the information was in German so we didn't understand most of it but it was still quite interesting and only cost a couple of euros. We enjoyed our lunch in a nice cafeteria where Tuomo and Dave captured two wasps under a glass and me and Simon were horrified. To make the fun day even more fun we found two geocaches. Dave found one of them and was quite excited about that for the rest of the day (as everybody who talked to him found out).

The few hours we had in that beautiful town went past quickly. Soon we were picked up to the minibuses and we drove to meet others right below Wartburg. There is a medieval castle built typically on a mountain, which means we had a lot of stairs to walk up (again). The view from the castle was worth it though. Big hills alternated with valleys and there were trees and fields as far as I could see. Eisenach layed below Wartburg probably in much of the same manner as it did during the middle ages. It all felt like a view from a fairy tale.

The castle itself was interesting. We had again a guided tour that showed us some of the rooms in the castle and explained about their history. The tour was in German, though, and I had to rely on a little leaflet that had Finnish explanations about different parts of the tour. The explanations were quite short and the rooms had been changed quite a few times during the many hundred years the castle has stood on the mountain.

After the tour, however, we had some time to admire the castle's museum. It just doesn't cease to amaze me how much history has been preserved in this country. The museum had plenty of items that were over 500 years old, like a lute from 1400's. They also had really, really old books, including some that were Luther's handwriting. The museum part was absolutely amazing and at least I felt that we had way too little time to spend there.

We were already in some hurry when all of us were finally gathered outside the castle again. Before leaving Robert played "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" (aka "Jumala ompi linnamme" aka "A Mighty Fortress is our God") with trumpet. Martin Luther's old and familiar hymn fitted well into courtyard of the castle where he translated the New Testament into German.

Then we had to walk all those stairs down again (which was luckily much easier than going up!) and hurry back to Eisenach. There we had dinner in "deaconess mother house" - potato salad and sausages - and started off back to Braunschweig. Driving back took several hours even though there was an autobahn much of the way. I want to thank all those who drove minibuses and cars during our trip and got us everywhere safely. Especially driving late at night after several long days and still get there safely was quite an achievement. We own you several great days and wonderful experiences!