Jena Market Square at Night

Posted on January 7, 2018 by vanbraman

Today has been a rainy day so I have spent most of it inside.

However, in late afternoon I headed into the city center for an early dinner.

After my dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Restauration Stilbruch, I took a little walk over to the market square and took some more pictures.

Winter Scene, Market Place, Jena, GermanyThis first picture I took a couple nights ago after eating at the Kartoffel Haus. See: A Winter Evening in Jena

Jena Market Square, Jena, Germany, Winter Lights

I entered the market square from the northwest tonight. Here you can see the large tree that they had for the Christmas season. If I had been here in early December the square would have been filled with a Christmas market. However, it is really cool to see the square all lit up with the lights in the trees.

Hanfried, Jena, Germany, Market Square, Jena University, Elector of Saxony

The monument in the middle of the square is of the Elector of Saxony John Frederick the Magnanimous. He was a supporter of the Reformation Movement and was also the leader of the Schmalkaldic League. The monument is known as the Hanfried monument which is one of the names he was known by.

His main tie to Jena was that he planned the foundation of the University of Jena in 1547.


Hanfried, Jena, Germany, Elector of Saxony

Here is another view of the Hanfried monument. I was curious as to the date that is in the paving of the market square. I thought that maybe it was the date that the monument was dedicated, but it was constructed in 1858.

I will have to do some research as to what happened in Jena in 1896. I do know that 1896 was when the Carl Zeiss Foundation was created, but this is probably not the reason for the date in the square.

Jena, Germany, Market Square, Winter, culture

Here is the view from the southeast corner of the square. You can see the Stadtkirche rising up behind the buildings on the north side of the square. It is always nice to be in the market square when the bells of the church ring as they echo through the square.

I hope you enjoyed these night view of the market square. Perhaps I need to write another post someday with daytime views 🙂

Steven

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Wandering in Jena

Posted on January 6, 2018 by vanbraman

Today I did a little wandering in Jena. I went into the city center for one specific purpose and then just wandered around.

Glass Outlet Shop, Jena, Germany, TrendJena, Tea PotMy specific purpose was to visit the Trendglas Jena Werksverkauf. The shop is only open for a limited time on the weekend, so I needed to go there this morning. Werksverkauf means factory store or to most of us a factory outlet store. This is where I bought my teepot that I use quite a bit now. See my post A Wonderful Cup of Tea.

Today I bought a little bit bigger tea pot with some smaller tea cups. I am sure you will see more about these once I get back home. Especially as I try a couple of teas that I also bought today. I found a great tea shop in Jena that has a large variety of loose teas. I will probably make it back there before I leave after I have studied their catalog a little closer.

Ernst Abbe, Denkmal, Jena, Germany, History

I had asked about where to buy tea at the glass shop and on the way to the tea shop I stopped by the Ernst Abbe Denkmal. The glass in the entryway was in the sun so I had to block the light with my body to get a picture of the bust of Abbe. This made for an interesting picture with the inside of the memorial in my shadow and a reflection of my surroundings outside of the shadow.

Zeiss Grave, Jena, Germany, Carl Zeiss, graveyard

When I visit Jena I always try to visit the grave of Carl Zeiss. There have been some changes to the grave site over the years and recently it has been taken better care of with the 200th anniversary of his birth.

I also like to wander around the old cemetery where he is buried as there are a lot of interesting graves.

See also: Notable Jena Gravestones

Thuringian Bratwurst, Sempf, Mustard, Jena, GermanyFor lunch today I had a Thüringer Rostbratwurst. This sausage has PGI (Protected Geographic Indication) status. There are very specific laws for how this sausage is made so you can only get this sausage close to this region of Germany. In the Thuringer region this is the most popular street food.

The sausage is served on a small split bun. It is also traditional to serve it with senf (mustard).

I really enjoyed the delicious sausage as I stood and observed people out wandering around on their Saturday errands.

Jena, Germany, Museum, phyletisches museum

I was making my way back toward the street train when I decided that I needed to finally visit the Phyletisches Museum. I have almost visited this museum many times throughout my years of visiting Jena. The museum started with the collection of the naturalist Ernst Haeckel in 1908.

Unfortunately the displays were only in German so I was not able to understand all of the exhibits. However, the exhibits were well laid out and I got the general impression of the message of each of them. To me, I saw a great deal of genetic diversity that was programmed into the original DNA of different species.

I made it back to the hotel just before it started to rain so spent the afternoon napping and reading before heading back to the city center for dinner.

I had dinner at an Old Restaurant. You can click on the link to learn more. I had the same thing tonight as I did when I wrote the post 🙂

I am now up late watching football as they are showing the Chiefs game here in Germany.

Now, where to wander tomorrow?

Steven

 

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