A city of culture, a running race, and onions everywhere - 01.10.2006

At the beginning of this past October, I had one of my most important training camps skiing on the Dachstein glacier. While the camp allowed me to get on snow early, it is also was a chance to compare my shape against many of the top skiers in the world. I found my shape was pretty good, but I used every bit of energy I had getting in as much skiing as possible.

After the Dachstein camp I took advantage of the opportunity that I was in Europe to visit my girlfriend who works in Weimar, Germany. When I arrived, looking forward to a restful weekend, she welcomed me with a start number for the annual 10 kilometer Onion Market running race. I am not at all a runner and do very little of it (I mostly rollerski in the summer for training) so I was content that I achieved my baseline goal which I have for all competitions which is to beat the fastest girl (not always an easy task).

After the race, as a reward to myself, I said hello to the Onion Queen – she who rules over the Onion Festival and whose beauty brought a tear to my eye. Then my girlfriend and I walked around the city. The Onion Market (Zwiebelmarkt) is rather interesting festival which has been going on for a couple hundred years, I guess. The basic concept is the farmers bringing their goods to the market, and apparently the Weimarians only grow onions. The market is filled with hundreds of stands selling onions in about every way imaginable from normal onions to decorated onions to onion cake, which surprisingly tastes very good. Naturally there is music everywhere, and people, along with a lot of medieval themed stands which makes it feel like you are walking through a theater production. The air has a lively smell of wood smoke from the fresh baked breads and cakes made out of old fashioned ovens and dried plants and flowers, and of course the smell of onions.

The Onion market is a real highlight, but overall I think Weimar is just about a perfect city. The heart of the city is all walking streets with lots of cobble stones, well preserved older buildings, and pastry shops on every corner. Much of the charm comes from Weimar’s history, which is basically governed by the spirit of Goethe. For those unfamiliar with Goethe perhaps have scene Disney’s “Fantasia” and recall the Sorceress scene where Mickey Mouse got into the Wizard’s book of spells and the brooms began flooding the room with water. Before I get into too much detail, the story is by Goethe. If it still does not ring a bell go to your local library and ask for “The sorrows of young Werther”. Weimar itself is somewhat of a shrine to the man: Goethe’s house is in the city center, his garden house is in the park, the houses of his many women are scattered throughout the town, and his statue, along with poor Schiller living in the shadow, is in front of the theater. Goethe rules Weimar like a pagan god. Overall, being in Weimar is like breathing the climax of the 1800’s, even Napoleon made a chameo appearance in Weimar while on his way to conquer the world.

In the more modern world, Weimar is a university city, known for its Engineering, Architecture, and music programs. That also means the social scene is vibrant. When I first traveled to Europe I never thought of Germany as nice place for tourists, but cities like Weimar certainly changed my mind.




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