Andy's Germany Adventure: Day 4, Part 2

Thursday, 13 January 2011. Day 4 of 18.

I managed to wake up in time for breakfast today, then hit the road for Weimar. The route took me over some pretty countryside with snow still lying on the ground (A44 via Hess. Lichtenau for those tracing me on a map). I enjoyed the drive despite unceasing rain, some mist and the roads flooding with snow-melt. On the way I found a helpful man who sold me a tankful of LPG as well as providing the necessary adapter.

I joined the A4 motorway near Eisenach and crossed the old border with East Germany, the DDR. I was surprised that the rusty watchtowers are still there (one in use as a mobile phone mast). The old customs area is now a service station. I remember the 1980s when you had to wait maybe an hour while they did the paperwork and searched your car, confiscating degenerate goods such as western music cassettes. After the old DDR border, the A4 is now a brand new 6-lane highway with 130km/h (80 mph) speed limit. My SatNav went bananas because no one had told her about this! How was I doing 130 km/h over open countryside? I had to turn her off as all she could say is 'recalculating' all the time. Fortunately, I did have an old fashioned, but up to date, paper map with me too.

After the detour to Buchenwald (previous posting), I went into Weimar town centre. I walked the camera around in the rain for a while and you can see the results below. Weimar has been a cultural city for centuries, being associated with Goethe, Schiller, Cranach, Dürer, Bach and many others - but you can Google all that. It is also a very pretty place and must be lovely in summer.

I lunched well on an veal medallions topped with cheese and tomato, with a salad and a home-made lemonade that came in a huge glass with lime chunks and several whole lychees on top!

My main destination was the Schlossmuseum (Palace museum), which is in three parts, on three floors. The ground floor has a small but outstanding exhibition of works by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his 16th century contemporaries. I loved the piece "Naked Men Fighting and Women scolding" (1527). It's just hilarious; the men are beating seven kinds of s**t out of each other with clubs, while their wives stand around the scene scolding them! All naked. No one knows why he painted it. It's painted in a realistic style, so does not appear to be allegorical; and no one has found a literary reference yet.

The middle floor is an exhibition of antique furniture and art from the 18th and 19th centuries. The beautifully restored palace is itself an important part of the show, especially the ballroom and Goethe room.

The top floor is an intriguing exhibition of German post-expressionists. In the 1890s and 1900s, the Weimar Art Academy was much influenced by the French, especially Monet. It is interesting to see how they first exactly copied the French style (very well), and then developing their own variations. As well as the post-impressionists, - e.g. Ludwig van Hoffman's "Weinlese" (Grape Harvest), they were clearly influenced by the symbolists - e.g. Theodore van Rysselberghe's "Badende Frauen" (Bathing Women) - in a way that I see preceding the later German Expressionists. I particularly loved Christian Rohlfs' "Steiniger Weg, Obsplantage in März" (Stony Path in an Orchard in March), but reproductions don't do it justice; it has to be seen in real life to appreciate the way each twig on the trees stands out and to sense the hard, cold feel of the stones. It is particularly evocative to see it now, when the weather an landscape outside is much like that in the picture.

From Weimar, I completed my journey to Leipzig. The new motorway gave way to road works and contraflows after Weimar, so it was another dark, wet journey. I gave the SatNav the wrong address at first - another street with both a similar name and postcode. Fortunately it proved to be only about 15 min from where I wanted to be. I was made very welcome and shown to my room, which is more of a four-roomed granny-annex. The internet works here, so I caught up with the last two days' blogs then enjoyed and excellent German meal of Venison stew with red cabbage and dumplings washed down with the local Schwarzbier (Black beer) before sending this one.

I have now clocked 1300km (800 mi) since leaving Bransgore.