Eisenach, DE

Eisenach is not only the place where Martin Luther spent time in Wartburg Castle and some time as a child, but also the hometown of JS Bach.

The first photo is the Bach house, where he was born and grew up, although it has been reconstructed since the war.

Second and third are a trumpet violin. The third is the Xray view to show how the trumpet sits inside the violin. I have no idea how someone could play this, or why anyone would think to put a trumpet inside a violin, seems like it would affect the sound, but I was intrigued nonetheless.

Fourth is a collection of string instruments Bach used in his orchestrations, some of which had odd numbers of strings, like 7 or 12, among the traditional 4 we see in orchestras now.

Fifth was one of the organs we got a demonstration of. The girl that worked at the Bach house is behind it, playing, and the man you see was just on a tour like us, but volunteered to pull those straps so air would get to the organ so it would actually make some noise.

Sixth is the Bach statue outside the house and museum.

Seventh is Wartburg Castle as you drive toward it, eighth is a view from right below the castle (Germany and Jesus! --sorry, that may be sacrilege), and ninth is the castle grounds, if you will, inside the castle but still outside, if that makes sense.

Tenth is the room Martin Luther stayed in while in the castle. Supposedly there is an ink stain on the back wall from him, but I'm not so sure, or how you could actually tell which of the dark spots would have been from ink.

Eleventh is the rooms (reconstructed) of where Martin stayed as a boy while singing in choir and going to school.

Twelve, Martin Luther statue in the main part of town.

Thirteen is just a shot of the town as we were walking to a bakery, and fourteen is some of the nice things they had in the bakery window. Yum. I think Germany has better baked goods, at least breads, but it could just be me.