Sign in with Facebook"No effort to like Erfurt" Top 5 Page for this destination Erfurt by iandsmith
Erfurt Travel Guide: 351 reviews and 816 photos
To be honest, I was looking for a place to stop between Gorlitz and Brugge that had a rail connection.
Erfurt was that place. I had no idea really what to expect as I had concentrated on the other places I was going to visit but, I always have a rule that you must stay at least two nights in a place.
I knew there was a castle somewhere nearby but held little expectation for the town itself.
The train approached and I was even less enthused. Erfurt plainly was going to have little to offer.
I alighted and walked to the tram stop following the instructions to my accommodation. I boarded the indicated tram.
The next 3 km blew me away. Had I been misplaced and delivered into Disneyland's History World?
Here a mediaeval building, there a Normandy (Tudor) style, around the corner a wonderful baroque.
I figured this was going to be a thoroughly enjoyable two days. This time I was right.
This is a city of over 210,000 people with a history as colourful as you could hope for and is the capital of Thuringia, a centrally located state of Germany.
It's history very much parallels Gorlitz', the city I had just left to come here. Both were built on the woad trade and the fact that the road between Paris and Novgorod ran straight through the towns.
Tragically, even as recently as 2002, Erfurt was on the world stage though in general I found the place unthreatening, the people welcoming and tourism, though going well, undervalued by other western countries which makes it great if you seek some authenticity.
Since I first came here, one thing has become abundant. Unfortunately, that one thing is graffiti. It has reached plague proportions in the city and really puts a dampener on many of the areas.
Though it's noteable in the old city where tourists go it is absolutely appalling the amount of it out in the suburbs. Hopefully the good burghers of Erfurt will read this and start doing something about it.
I won't gratify the exponents by giving them even greater exposure here, which is why there is no picture.
- Pros:Easy to get around, heaps to see, lack of foreign tourists
- Cons:Graffiti
- In a nutshell:An undersold delight
Reviews (58)
A funny thing happened on the way to the...
Favorites
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The Fischmarkt is such and interesting place. Some of Erfurt's finest architecture abounds in this small plaza and, for... more travel advice
Zum Breiten Herd - one of Europe's...
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When I was there in 2007, this building was suffering from the scaffold disease. Blanked out from the rest of the world,... more travel advice
One good turm deserves another
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Erfurt is in a strange position of having at least three turm (towers) with nothing attached. At least two of them (see... more travel advice
The wonder of Anger
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From the Bismark memorial (pic 3) to the modern bas reliefs (pic 2) there is so much to see while strolling along the... more travel advice
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National/State Park
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Comments (8)
Hello Ian, Wow, great tips and photos of Erfurt. Erfurt sounds like a town not to be missed. I'm looking forward to my visit to this beautiful part of the country. All the best.
This is a fabulous page Ian. Erfurt is on my wish list for 2011. I will now try some more of your pages to see what other places you can tempt me with. Thank you.
I'll back in Erfurt in a few weeks! Did you find out anything about the shoe with the arrow?
Fantastic page!! I hope to see it soon!
Unfortunately I only had a few hours to kill in this delightful city, whilst waiting to meet another VTer for lunch.
Me again - I'm stuck on this corner of Europe now :)))
Me again, coming back to see the rest of your tips and photos. I was near Erfurt (in Nordhausen, just up the road) on the day of that massacre, and the next morning we started my teachers' workshop with a minute of silence for the victims.
your pages give excellent testimony that it repays to get off the beaten tourist track in Germany!!!
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