Sunday Afternoon

After our wonderful morning worshipping in Mühlhausen and having a brief tour of the city we went for a Sunday afternoon drive through the German countryside. That sounds pleasant doesn't it?

Our goal was to find the place where Luther was kidnapped and taken to the Wartburg castle. Rachel, David's cousin's wife, had told us it was a neat spot to see if we had a car and gave us these directions to find this out of the way spot:

"It's not far off of the L 1027 (the name of a road) from (the town of) Steinbach in the direction of (the town of) Ruhla, where after a curve on the right side of the road, a sign is posted on a small forest path."


But we were now coming from the north, so we pulled out the map we purchased the second day we had the van and looked at the map. We saw where we needed to go and headed south towards Eisenach using our GPS.

Our intent was to find a place to eat soon as everyone was a bit hungry but found no place until Eisenach. And finding a place to eat was no easy feat because we didn't have a clue where we were going or an idea of a place to eat and tensions rose with the heat.

Finally after much driving this way and that through the city of Eisenach, we found a Thuringian Bratwurst Stand at the side of the road. We gladly paid the parking fee, ordered brats, cappuccinos, waters, and sat in the hot sun. Don't try this at home. Instead save your tasty brats for when you can wash them down with a good dunkleweiss beer or save your cappuccino for a nice afternoon sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch. But please don't have your brat with your cappuccino while sitting in the hot sun. Save that for the clueless Americans driving through the German countryside on a Sunday afternoon.

Now that we were refreshed, ahem, we climbed back into the van and proceeded south. This time we put the GPS destination as Steinbach and followed along. We were now driving through the Thuringian Forest and the road was perfect for a Porsce 911. However David was driving a nine passenger VW Caravelle and it just wasn't the same experience.

It was a winding road, proceeding up and down and all around through the hills. Here's a picture from google maps:

 

And here is one I tried to snap out the front windshield:

 

And to get a better picture, think of how little children like to scribble on a piece of paper. Have that image? Good, that is what the road was like. And all the sporty cars and motorcycles behind did not appreciate David's cautiousness.

But we did eventually find the spot. And it was just a sign by a curve (having driven that road, that now makes us laugh). After pulling off and parking, we hiked a bit down the path.

 

 

There we found the monument marking the spot of Luther's kidnapping.

We stayed for a short time and headed back to the van. We were all ready to be back at the hostel and David was more than ready to be off that winding road with all its many, many double backs.

But no, we still had more of that road to go because we took a wrong turn and drove through part of the town of Steinbach. It is located on the valley and hill below the spot of Luther's kidnapping. A quaint, pretty town, but with roads that get narrower and still are supposed to be wide enough for two vehicles. We quickly turned around when we realized our wrong direction and took that winding road once again.

Finally after about ten kilometers of that winding road and about ten more kilometers of country roads, relief came in the form of the autobahn. It is definitely a day we will not forget.