Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Meiningen

Our house exchange host works in Meiningen which is approximately 20 kilometers north east of Mellrichstadt. He is a member of the local symphony orchestra and I have been enjoying playing his CD collection.



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We parked in a public lot beside a small stream that flows though the town.


It was immediately obvious that this was once a very wealthy, very powerful town. It was much bigger than Mellrichstadt and was the 'the cultural, judicial and financial center of southern Thuringia' according to Wikipedia. For people who live in Adelaide, it's worth reading the Wikipedia article because it refers to the princess after whom Adelaide was named. She came from here.


The colours on the church roof are amazing.



The large square.



The church.


No, there is no modern Martin Luther nailing his ninety-five theses to the church door. It was just a flier for a concert.



I liked the green.



This town was formerly in East Germany and while many of the old buildings have been restored to their former glory, there is still a lot of work to do. I suspect that prior to 1989, most of the buildings were like this.




Very few tourists have heard of Meiningen but it certainly has a lot to offer. It reminded me in many ways of Selestat in Alsace where we did a house exchange last year.





This town is a delight to walk around. There are not many other tourists and traffic in the old part of town is kept to a minimum.



Not everything is old. The town was heavily bombed in early 1945 with lots of damage.



It will take years to restore these grand old buildings, but it's amazing how much has been done since reunification.


Some greenery certainly can help the looks of an apartment block.





It's really rare to see rubbish laying beside the street in Germany.


Ludwig Bechstein.





The Elizabethenburg Palace. This building gives you a sense of just how powerful this town was in its heyday.




It now houses a museum and we will go back there one day for a more thorough investigation.



An old Trabant, the East German People's Car.




Meiningen still produces a beer.



Un-restored and restored buildings sit right next to each other.




The water works.



Just to the north of the old part of the city lies this grand street lined with grand buildings.


Some are restored.


Some are not restored.


Marianne and I liked the green.



The Meiningen Theater. Our exchange host is a member of the Meiningen Court Orchestra that is the resident orchestra. If you click on the link, you will see the impressive list of conductors who were Music Directors of the orchestra at one time. They also performed the world premier of Brahms 4th Symphony. To see them in action, click here and here.


The front doors.


Another grand building across the road. We think that one side of the street was lined with public buildings and the other side with private residents. Millionaire's row.


From the bill board, there appeared to be a lot going on in the area.


Behind the theater is an English Garden with some picturesque ruins. There will be no jokes about which ruin we are talking about here.



Small lake in the gardens.





The back of the theater.


To be honest, we were surprised by the long grass. We tend to think on English Gardens having mown grass.




Still it was all very lovely and a pleasure to walk through. There were quite a few other people enjoying the gardens as well.



A small chapel. Or perhaps it was really just a folly.



Spiffy looking hotel across from the gardens.



Unrestored grand house. There is work going on everywhere. I presume that many of the buildings in East Germany looked like this before reunification so it's easy to see that a huge effort has gone into restoring the former glory. The town suffered a severe bombing raid in 1945 and as you walk along the main road through the town you can see where one house was missed, but the next was hit and replaced by a nondescript building.




So we went to a large Toom supermarket just to the north of Meiningen. Clare and Ric found some Nuremburger sausages which are their favourites and we had them for dinner. They were really tasty.




2 comments:

  1. Some of the old architecture looks extraordinary. It has been kept rather well too!

    ReplyDelete