Back at the Uncle’s... still without Internet

Time: 10:20 PM CEST

So after Magdeburg turned to complete shite and many, many hours of driving, through the rain, I return to where I started but with even less Internet than before. Apparently the region also befell a violent storm and the Uncle’s satellite and Internet have been out. I played around with the DSL router settings but it’s still crapped out. Luckily he has a spare router, so tomorrow... maybe.

Right now, I’ll settle for my dog, a pizza and a dial-up connection.

So, Madgeburg, the town really intent on not making money. We had planned a full day: the Madgeburger Dom (old church... wait for it!), the Jahrtausendturm and the Kultur Museum and then onto Eisleben (birthplace and deathplace of Luther) and finally Kyfferhauser, the birthplace of Kiefer Sutherland. Are you paying attention? Okay, good.

So a bright and early start. Up at 6am, breakfast at 7am and oot and aboot at 8am.Yeah. Unfortunately, Magdeburg doesn’t open until 10am. We’d wanted to go to a shopping center to get us both another memory card since Mom’s was on the last few shots and I was O-U-T out of cards (3 Gigs in 6 1/4 days). Well luckily enough, a hotel waiter, told us about the mall in the center of the city.

We parked the car at 8:30am and went in. The stores were closed, 9 out of 10 at least. “Saturn” the electronics store didn’t open until 9:30am. So we walked, and walked, to the Dom, passing by the Cloister museum which looked closed for renovation. We reach the Dom at 9am, they’re open at 10am. Scratch that. We head back to the shopping center. The Cloister museum isn’t open on Mondays at all. We head to the Tourist Information center at 9:20am, closed until 10am. Back the shopping center right at 9:30am Saturn opens. We find the cards and... they don’t except any credit cards. This after a week of Mom attempting to and failing to get American Express Travelers checks exchange into euros at local banks.

And that was that for Magdeburg. It was a comedy of errors without the funny. Screw the sites, we got out of there.

An hour and half later we arrive at Eisleben, like I said where Martin Luther was born and later died. Crowded little town of cobblestones and narrow streets, again none perpendicular to one another. Parking is as organized as in other places. I find a spot and we walk, and walk, to the house. It’s closed for renovation until March of 2007.

And that was that for Eisleben. On to Kyfferhaus, site of what exactly, I didn’t know until I got there. Way, way up on a mountain is a monument to Kaiser Wilhem. The height was impressive. You get a 270 to 300 degree view of the countryside. The monument was impressive for a big-ass sculpture/tower. But that was it. At least it was open. At least the weather of cool, although threatening to rain. The walk up to the monument wasn’t arduous. So that was it. Last site of the vacation. It didn’t suck like the beginning of the day. Unfortunately I have to rely on Mom’s pictures. God damn Magdeburg.

The only thing worth noting after that and now was during the drive back we hit so many detours, “Umleitungs,” it was almost as if were on a moebius strip of spacetime. There was one incident where the first road was detoured for construction and then 20 minutes later the alternate route led through a town where the entire main road had been scraped off leaving pitted yellow sand. It wasn’t marked “closed” so we risked it and trudged our way through the muddy path. Poor little Audi. I missed my truck then and there.