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As we continued to follow the Weser River, we started the day by visiting Hannoversch Münden, a town about the size of our hometown, Stevens Point, Wisconsin (pop. 25,000). Like Hameln's Pied Piper legend, Hannoversch Münden has Dr. Eisenbarth. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, Dr. Eisenbarth seems to have been a controversial figure. Technically, Dr. Eisenbarth wasn’t a doctor, but the practice of medicine was pretty loose back then.
As a traveling surgeon, although some would say he was a charlatan, he traveled around the country with an entourage of 120 entertainers, presumably to make lots of noise and draw attention away from his patients’ screams. Remember, there wasn't anesthesia in his day. He also sold cure-all elixirs. However, others point out that he developed many innovative surgical techniques including the treatment of cataracts and bone fractures. He also invented useful surgical instruments.
The town's city hall has a great glockenspiel that depicts Dr. Eisenbarth getting ready to pull a tooth from a patient. The glockenspiel also shows an "anesthesiologist" with a sledgehammer knocking the patient out along with a couple of entertainers performing. The glockenspiel performs on the hour.
We ate grilled sausages from the butcher shop, Ritter der Rotwurst. This particular style of “wurst” won a prize as Europe’s best in category. They were amazingly good. German sausages put American sausages to shame – tasty, moist, and no grease. But the name “Rotwurst”, no matter how it translates, just doesn’t do it justice.
Next, we went to the Wartburg Castle overlooking the town of Eisenach, where Martin Luther hid out after he broke from the Catholic Church. The building of the castle started in 1067 on a small 1350-foot mountain top. It does command a brilliant view of the area.
Lastly, we ventured into the old East German territory. There we found an RV park at the ultralight grass strip airport in Dolmar. We met Jurgen Schlutter, owner and operator of the airport and the airport’s resident ultralight flight instructor. He gave both Wanda and I spectacular rides in his Delta Wing ultralight, a fine craft that I wouldn’t mind owning. Later we sat down with Jurgen and some of the other RV’ers (mostly ultralight pilots) for beer and hanger flying. They got very excited when we told them that we lived a mere one hour drive from Oshkosh, the site of the famous EAA Fly-in. Jurgen sponsors his own version of the fly-in he calls DeutchKosh (or GermanKosh).
And they were impressed with Wanda’s flight school and accelerated flight training. We exchanged cards and email addresses. Maybe we will get a visitor for EAA one of these years. In case anyone wants to check out the airport, get Delta Wing flight lessons in Germany, or purchase a Delta Wing, check out his website: www.flugschule-dolmar.de or contact him via email: info@flugschule-dolmar.de
Unfortunately, much of the day was drab, cloudy, and hazy with only an occasional bout of sunshine. This didn’t make very good lighting for photos.
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