We took one last stroll through the old part of  Meiningen.

Church at the Marktplatz

The Deutsche Post in Meiningen

...with its old Reichspost symbol above the window

Having decided to take the scenic route back to Schweinfurt in Northern Bavaria, we were able to pull off the road and saw some interesting spots…

reaching the former border with its watch tower left standing

the guard tower - a remnant of the cold war

a place to contemplate our history

While looking up the tower and peeking over its partially walled-up entrance, I remembered a friend’s conversation. Peter, from the former East Germany, now a theatre director in Japan, had told us how he had to join the former East German military and how nearly everyone was most afraid of being placed at the border: To prevent an escape, each soldier would have to shoot his own countryman. Peter got lucky; he was not drafted into the border patrol.

...where fairy tales are made

This photo was taken about 20 paces away from the guard tower. In the distance you can see another white one perched atop a hill… This was a denuded stretch of No-Man’s Land, which the soldiers guarded to keep their fellow citizens from reaching the West. The neighboring hills and forests are very picturesque, and remind me a lot of the Grimms’ fairy tales. I wonder if the brothers once passed through here? Yet this area is not even the famous Thuringia forest, which lies about another hour north of Meiningen.

Thuringia is well worth another visit. It is a beautiful area in Germany, with hills and forests, friendly people and fairly low prices.

This time we left our children with one of my sisters and drove to Meiningen, a quaint town in the southern part of Thuringia and former Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR). We had been there once in 1996, but besides its greyness, odd smell, and triste atmosphere, there was not much to remember.

Our drive on A71 to Meiningen was done with very little traffic and in plain surroundings (no ads, no fast food chains– just trees and plains). The road seemed to stretch forever. It was reminiscent of driving in Montana, but without the hills.

wide open spaces on the Autobahn

With its wonderfully painted houses around the Marktplatz, this city has gone through a major transformation. Of course, the means for that had to come from our beloved Solidaritätszuschlag, which seems here to stay. This money was invested wisely.

Marktplatz in Meiningen

But the two most significant points I observed were the inhabitants’ distinct friendliness (not just from service personnel in hotels and restaurants) and their lack of discernible dialect. The spoken German sounded very clear, with no trace of any regional expressions, and it was a pleasure to listen to. We Franconians – living less than an hour’s drive south in Schweinfurt, for example – must sound like Barbarians compared to these well-spoken Germans.

We had booked a night at Meininger Hotels mit Flair in the Hotel Schlundhaus, where we spent the night in a separate guesthouse called Rautenkranz. The room was good, with a bit of a rustique flair to it, and the price at €49.00 per person seemed reasonable.

Schlundhaus Hotel

We toured a bit of the city, but most shops closed at 4:00 on Saturday.

While walking around we got to see the infamous traffic light, which had been disputed over once when East and West Germany reunited. The Ampelmännchen was born in the former East-Berlin in 1961 and is becoming more and more popular also in the western part of Germany.

the little lamp man of the old East German crossing signal

the little green figure - with hat - symbolizing it is safe to cross

Museum in Meiningen

We then had dinner at the Schlundhaus Restaurant, and I tried their local specialty called Hütes, a special kind of potato dumpling, with my meal. After dinner we visited a  French Culture Café called Le Monsigny, which allowed smoking after 21:00. A lot of French was heard in our part of the café and the atmosphere was great! Well, a glass or two of local red wine helped, too. This place is great – if you don’t mind the smoke – and well worth a visit. The prices I found quite low:  €1.50 for a cup of coffee, € 4.00 for a Caipirinha, etc.

We left the café before midnight and only had to walk three blocks to get back to our room near the Marktplatz.