I'd wanted to visit Eisenach for a while, but never found the time until my last week in Germany - and didn't manage to find enough time to post it until this week.  Eisenach and Marburg share a number of connections - they were even sister cities when Germany was divided into East and West.  They both have nice old castles on hills (and both were residential palaces, not defensive fortifications) and they both have a connection to Luther.  Eisenach was were Luther translated the Bible into German, creating Modern High German (what they speak over there nowadays) in the process) and Marburg hosted the Marburg Colloquy (our connection is far more tenuous, but we're still proud of it).  They both have a university (Marburg wins this battle), and their old towns are covered in half-timbered houses.  Even the original Hessian (the state that Marburg is in) royalty were originally Thuringian (the state that Eisenach is in).

Most of these similarities are superficial, and once you start to look into the history of the towns they start to diverge rather quickly.  After the High Middle Ages/Early Renaissance, both cities went into a decline, and while Marburg became a relative backwater, Eisenach maintained prominence, especially when the Prussians (good Lutherans all!) started to unify Germany.  Luther's "spiritual unification" of Germany (just don't tell the Catholics in the South...) became a major Prussian selling point, and they jumped on the Wartburg (Eisenach's castle) as a symbol of unification. 

The symbolism of the Wartburg was then put to more nefarious (to the Prussians at least) means during the early German democratic movement.  A number of students and professors (among them the Brother's Grimm, who had studied in Marburg...) occupied the castle, proclaimed a new German Democratic Republic (not to be confused with the one that came later...) and for good measure, invented a new flag - the modern German tricolor.  The Prussians were less than pleased, and promptly removed the offenders, but it was a major incident on Germany's long path to democracy.

Getting to the castle followed a similar route to what the students must have done - from the train station it's about a two mile walk (mostly uphill) through the old town, the suburbs, and the German version of wilderness (including a Bratwurst stand at the end of the path) to the Wartburg.  It was quite popular when my tandem partner and I went, but we managed to escape by latching onto a guided tour (fairly standard as far as castles go).  From the Wartburg it was back into town, where we regained our strength at one of the cheap (yay for the former East Germany!) beer gardens, walked through the old city, saw the house where Bach was born, and jumped on the train back to Marburg.  Not bad for a day trip. 

Apologies for not updating sooner; the readjustment process has been chaotic (putting it mildly) and the blog here fell off my radar screen for a while.  My last week in Germany was also rather busy, between some traveling in the region (post on Eisenach coming soon) and the annual MPI soccer tournament.  I'm happy to say that our team (the Rocket Cows) came in 5th overall (out of 12), which isn't too bad for never having practiced.  My arrival in the US kept the general level of activity high - a few days after arriving we left for a family vacation to New York City (my first time there), where we had a great time.  Pictures for the interested. NYC was a shock - even the largest cities I'd seen in Europe couldn't compare to the overall activity level of NYC, and the massive American flag presence (it seemed like every street corner...) made sure that I knew where I was.  

I've also been getting my fair share of US (well, southern US) "culture" - lots of BBQ and grilling, as well as going shooting and "creek walking".  Creek walking was new to me but it's becoming one of my favorite activities.  It consists of finding a creek, and then seeing how far up the creek you can travel without getting wet, with crossing from one to the other as you see fit to add a challenge.  The creeks here in the Smoky Mountains are riddled with boulders, so moving up the creek requires a combination of climbing, jumping, and creative movement skills (as seen by my friend Cisco's boulder hopping in the picture).  Of course, you end up getting wet (falling in, misjudging a jump, slipping on moss...), and then walking back through the cold water on a warm day just adds to the fun.

After this pleasant interlude, I'll be heading off to the University of Michigan early tomorrow morning, which will require me to re-enter academic mode and see how well I actually tolerate cold environments (I'm hoping well, but lake-effect snow scares me).  Starting my MPH is exciting, and I'm looking forward to the new curriculum and opportunities.

In a somewhat more intellectual vein, I recently had a paper published - it's not accessible online yet (unless you're luck enough to have a subscription through a university) but you can find the abstract here.  Needless to say, I'm very excited and will share the paper here if possible (i.e. if it ever becomes open-access).