In June, I took a wonderful trip back to Germany after 18 years away. On Wednesday, June 12, I began the day at Tagungskloster Frauenberg in Fulda and was planning to end the day a four-hour drive away at my friend Kate’s home in Leipzig. Right in the middle of my route was Eisenach, which is near the village of Sondra.
More about the village later. When I dragged my family to Sondra in 1998, we visited the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, but for this trip I had something of a Bach theme going, so I decided to visit the Bachhaus there. They don’t think it’s actually where Bach was born any more, but he was probably born in a home around the corner, and they’ve made a wonderful interactive museum out of this home where he definitely spent some time.
As planned, it took me a couple of hours to get to Eisenach and find the Bachhaus. A German man helped me figure out the parking system. (You could pay with a credit card!) And I thought to take a picture of the cute little Fiat that was carrying me around Deutschland.
I am not crazy about driving in cities. But Eisenach’s city center was simple enough and had a parking lot right in front of the Bachhaus. I love the old buildings.
Then it was on to the Bachhaus!
There was a whole lot to explore inside. Old instruments, rooms furnished as they would have been in Bach’s time, and even a back garden. Pretty much everything had a description in English as well as German and the many things set up for audio had narration in English with the push of a button.
I liked this room, very much set up for listening. You’d sit in one of these hanging chairs and hear a piece by Bach and get information about it. And there was even a view out the window to the castle on the hill.
After an hour of exploring, I had a ticket to attend a half-hour concert where a musician played about a half-dozen different keyboard instruments from Bach’s time.
After the lovely concert, I spent a little more time in the garden.
Then I had a delicious lunch at the Bach Restaurant out front and was ready for my next destination – the village of Sondra, where I was going to take a new picture of the sign, as I had done with my family 27 years before.