Germany

Having spent most of the summer gadding about Europe, I've just returned from Germany. I thought I’d share (groan!) some of my snaps (here I am in a vineyard…, that’s me in another vineyard) with you.

Here’s the beautiful 12th century Cistercian abbey of Kloster Eberbach (if you remember the film of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, then chances are you'll remember the abbey):
(they have a pretty good wine shop, too).

Then there was a visit to Eisenach, to the house where Bach was born:

and Weimar in the footsteps of Goethe, Schiller and Cranach:

— the above is the Stein des guten Glücks (the Altar of Good Luck); Goethe’s astonishing prefiguration of 20th century sculpture,

… though post-communist Weimar has certainly developed a capitalist side,

the Goethe Department Store (the art of shopping, it says).

And finally no visit to Germany would be complete without a picture of a wurst or a dumpling.
This is a dumpling; it may look like a meat loaf, but don’t be fooled, it is a thinly disguised dumpling!

Hope to see you all on Monday.