A weekend discovering the homeland of Johann Sebastian Bach, a short journey in the name of music and memory.
Day 15 Jan 2005
First night in Eisenach
After an exhausting car journey, we arrive in Eisenach in the evening, around 11 pm. The town by night is extremely quiet, in fact, deserted! In search of a decent hotel we drive the car up a hill, along a road that seems to never end.. After a while we stop: the road ends at a gate, beyond it there's only woods.. it's dark, there are no streetlights or sources of light (except the car's headlights), my sister (8 years old) starts showing signs of unease, so we turn around and head back, all the way to the town center. After a while we find a hotel, a very luxurious Best Western (hurray for hidden advertising!), so we decide to stay there. There are two rooms: one for me and my sister, one for my parents.
Ours is enormous, the walls are covered in cream-colored fabric with little red flowers! In a corner of the room there's a large window that forms something like a niche, the kind you find in English houses. Before going to bed we turn on the TV: I try to translate something from German, but I understand little or nothing! Finally we fall asleep exhausted.
Wartburg:the castle
Day 26 Jan 2005
The castle
The next morning we're woken early: a visit to the castle, Wartburg, is on the schedule. You get there after about ten minutes by car from the town center. The parking lot is on a hill from which you can take splendid photos. Unfortunately the day isn't one of the best: the sky is dark, it's drizzling. Despite this, intrepid, we head with a martial step up the hill (again! but not the one from the night before!) that leads to the castle. The road is slippery, especially with the rain. We reach the top panting, but it was worth it: the marvelous entrance awaits us, with its drawbridge. Inside, the castle is magical.. a leap back into the early Middle Ages. The well is still there, with an iron decoration shaped like a coiled dragon. The halls, which can be visited for a fee, still preserve original flooring and ceilings from the 10th century, though partly restored.
The minstrels' hall is magnificent, enormous, decorated with fantastic and brightly colored paintings. At the end of the guided tour you enter a hall where ancient suits of armor are displayed. The best part comes later though: in fact, in the opposite wing is the room where Martin Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German. The room still keeps the wooden writing desk and the original furniture that belonged to Luther!
Johann Sebastian..
Day 37 Jan 2005
Last day: Bach at last
The following day, we take the whole morning to visit Giovanni Sebastiano's house. Finding it isn't difficult: Eisenach is packed full of signs pointing out its location! Across from the house there's a statue of the Master, with his initials. We remain enchanted looking at it, raising something like a chant of veneration.. From the outside the house is very pretty, yellow walls, leaded windows.. you have to wonder whether 300 years ago it really looked like this.. Inside, everything is a little museum: in one room two small organs, a spinet and a clavichord are displayed, originals from the 1700s.. An organist (or harpsichordist, I couldn't say!) plays for us, on the original instruments, preludes and fugues by Bach (obviously) and briefly explains to us in English how the ancient instruments work. Everything has an ancient air, almost sacred..
the dark wooden floor creaks under our feet, and I'm tempted to think that maybe Bach trod the same boards that I trod.. probably not, but it's nice to think so. We leave the house with our eyes sparkling with emotion.. My sister lingers at the souvenir shop, we go along with her and come out with umbrellas, bags, earrings, pencils, pins, magnets, all strictly printed with a page of a Prelude, and with the Master's name. In the early afternoon, we wander around the town center and I make myself sick eating an enormous cream pastry.. it wasn't exactly a pastry, I couldn't describe it well: a heavy and very tasty dessert, with powdered sugar and jam inside! Unfortunately time flies, so we set off again in our beat-up Tipo, accompanied by a sadness mixed with admiration..
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