Germany by rail. Destination #12 - Erfurt
ERFURT
Location of photos
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1. A couple hours after we left Bamberg we arrived at Erfurt. At last, we were in the former East Germany! They were building a new train station.
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This and the next 3 cities we were to visit were all very close to one another, so we decided to rent a car here and drive to the next 3 destinations rather than take the train to each.
2. Like all the other cities, Erfurt had a quaint and glorious downtown, though to be sure this one wasn't as quaint and well-preserved as Bamberg. We went to our hotel in a quaint building downtown and picked up our car rental nearby.
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3. It was Sunday, so we went to a late mass at the chuch.
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4. There was an old military fort, pretty well preserved.
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5. In the north end of downtown there was a stream running through some apartments.
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6. Even farther north, the housing patterns became more geometric.
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7. We headed north in our car to go sightseeing, passing by some sort of college.
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8. Across the street from that was some sort of medical facility.
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9. Finally, as we approached the far northern parts of the city, we arrived in . . . COMMIEBLOCK HEAVEN!!
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10. More!
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11. But not everything up here was commieblocks
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12. As we headed to the east several blocks, we came across an area where it appeared they had been tearing down old stuff and building new stuff.
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13. It was starting to get late so we headed south again. On the way we passed some flats which had solar panels on their roofs, and plenty of Shrebergarten around.
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14. There was also some industrial areas here. Already I had been struck by how much underutilized land there was here in the former East Germany compared to most of the cities we had seen in the west.
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15. In fact, there was so much extra land available, they had more than ample room for vast areas of Shrebergarten.
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16. The next morning we decided to continue our trek out toward the eastern parts of the city. We drove past some new subdivisions being built.
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17. And father east, a quaint outlying town. We had breakfast here.
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18. Afterwards, we decided to turn around and head back toward the city. Farther east was just farms. We passed an industrial/commerical area.
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19. And then headed south, passing through another quaint town. With more Shrebergarten.
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20. We continued south, passing through some farms, and then still another quaint town.
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21. And headed east, passing through yet another cute town. We stayed here for a short while, walking around and enjoying the nice weather.
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22. Hans had noticed on our map some more outlying towns and neighborhoods to the southeast of the city, so we decided to continue in this direction. Here was one we passed through.
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23. And another.
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24. We also passed by another (I think) hospital.
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25. Some boring average stuff.
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26. Some highrises and lowrises.
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27. And as we got toward the center of town again, we finally got back to some nice, old stuff.
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28. To the west of that were some nice neighborhoods with fancy, expensive houses.
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29. And even farther to the west was another neighborhood center. We had dinner at a small restaurant here. The food wan't really very good. 
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30. After a night at a downtown pub and a near-score on an attractive but slightly chunky German blonde, late the next morning we headed to the far south to check out a certain village where this woman said she worked. We went to the restaurant where she said she worked, but alas, she was not there that day. Oh well, we had bruch there anyway.
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31. Afterwards, we headed north to check out yet another quaint little town.
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32. In contrast, just south of the airport was a modern new development going up. It looked rather odd seeing this relatively dense, central-city style office park right out in the middle of nowhere.
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33. But just to the west of that we got back to old quaintness.
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34. And another.
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35. Some more Shrebergarten.
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36. Typical fields
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37. And a neighborhood center which featured newer housing mixing harmoniously with the old.
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38. At the western edge of Erfurt proper there was a large grain silo.
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39. And back into the city itself. We got gas here.
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40. And then drove north, passing through some residential areas.
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41. And some industrial areas.
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42. On the other side of the outer loop freeway was an outlying town which had a large flower nursery. We stopped here and walked around for a bit, checking out all the pretty flowers. 
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43. Afterwards we drove north some more, until we reached this town.
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44. Then we turned around and headed back toward town, passing by a new industrial park.
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45. It was late in the afternoon, but we passed by the zoo and just couldn't resist! We spent almost 2 hours here.
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I especially liked the elephants. 
http://www.zooelefant.de/zoos_…rfurt/csami_seronga_t.jpg
46. Afterwards, we drove through an area just south of the zoo which had some houses and commieblocks.
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47. To the east was some new industrial thingy being built.
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48. Just to the south, as we headed back downtown, more industry.
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49. And still more.
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50. Near the industrial area there was a huge area of Shrebergaren.
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51. But it was now time to go. We stopped by our hotel to pick up our stuff, checked out, and drove east toward Weimar.
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