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Click the Brandenburg Flag for a German translation Für eine deutsche Übersetzung dieser Seite einfach die Brandenburger Flagge anklicken |
 Thuringia State |
Vacation 2010September 17, Germany
Erfurt, Thuringia |
 Erfurt City |
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Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and is the main city nearest to the
geographical centre of Germany. The town itself is 1,300 years old, but people have lived in this area continiously for at least 100,000 years
(yes - one hundred thousand years!). We started our tour at the town's central square, called the Anger. |
Shopping Center
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Central Post Office
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Anger 1
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Dominating buildings at the Anger are a shopping Center, called Anger 1, built in 1908 and the Central Post Office, built in 1886. The square is also famous for its fountains and its churches, amongst them the Church of St. Lawrence, built in 1140, the Ursulines Monastery, built in 1235 and the Merchant's Church, built by Friesian merchants in the 11th century. |
St. Lawrence Church |
Ursulines Monastery |
Merchant's Church
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The other two large squares in town are the Fish Market with the Town Hall, built in 1875 (above) and the Cathedral Square (below). |
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Cathedral Square is, of course, named after Erfurt's St. Mary's Cathedral. This
1,200 year-old church is probably the oldest church we will ever get to see. We were there in late afternoon and the sunlight wasn't cooperating while we took our pictures. That's why we added two pictures of people who were luckier (left and right) to our own pictures (below). |
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One of Erfurt's main attractions (and our favorite) is the
Merchant's Bridge. When walking across it, it looks like any other
alleyway. It took a while until we found out that we were actually walking across a bridge, covered with inhabited buildings on both sides. The bridge has been occupied since 1117. But in its early years, it was repeatedly destroyed by fire. The houses adorning the bridge today were built in 1472. |
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Yes, it looks like just a narrow street (above left), but it really is a bridge! (above right and below). |
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| And then, of course, there was Bernd das Brot! |
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Bernd has been our travel mascot since 2005 and we have created his first
fan page in English language. Erfurt is the home of German Children's TV and that TV station is the home of Bernd. This larger than life statue is right in front of the TV studio. |
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Little Bernd & Big Bernd |
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| After we paid our respect to Bernd, we went back to Jena, and the next day we were on our way to Potsdam, with one last stop in Saxony. |
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Click the left turn sign to get back to the previous page. Or click the right turn signal to move on to Europe's largest monument. |
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