Road trip through Europe: Weimar

In summer, we did a 10 day road trip through parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. Our itinerary was: Berlin – Weimar – Heidelburg – Freiburg – Lucerne – Lake Como – La-Spezia – Cinque Terre – Bussana Vecchia – Monaco – Éze – Gorges du Verdon – Moustiers-Ste-Marie – Valensole – Chamonix – Tübingen – Swäbisch Hall – Berlin.

Long ago in August (it feels like ages since we’ve seen the sun) we did a road trip from Berlin to France and back again, driving through Germany, Switzerland and Northern Italy to the south coast of France, then back again (you can see the original route we planned here). We saw so many things that it’s impossible to share it all in one post, so I thought I’d break it up into days. First stop: Weimar.

We left on a Friday evening after work and headed off to Weimar, where we would spend the night. We chose it mostly because it was at reasonable distance to drive on a Friday evening and was a town we hadn’t seen before. When we arrived it was dark, and we were starving but it was too late for restaurants to be open, so we ate a quick vegetable döner and then went for a walk around the town. Our impression was of lots of cobbled streets and beautiful buildings. we realized we weren’t in Berlin anymore though, as all the places were closing by 11 or 12. after a walk we headed off to bed.

The next morning we woke up and took a walk to the centre for breakfast. Weimar was even prettier in the daytime, and we enjoyed breakfast on the town square.

On the town square there are statues of Weimar’s most famous residents, Goethe and Schiller. Johann Goethe was a writer and statesman, while Friedrich Schiller was a write, philosopher, historian and physician. The two men were friends and their discussions led to a period known as Weimar classicism, which brought together ideas from Romanticism, Classicism and the Age of Enlightenment. Weimar also gives its name to the “Weimar Republic”, a historical name for the German state between 1919 and 1933, because this is the place where the new constitution for Germany was written after World War 1. The name only became popular after 1933.