Well, today probably could have gone a lot better. I’ll make this a short one.

I took a tram a ways east to a hilly foresty area to see an old WW2 bunker that was used by the German Army and civilians. Got there and found it closed off with a sign saying you have to register with a tour group online ahead of time. (Despite reading ahead of time that it’s open 24/7) Otherwise you can just sort of walk around the outside.

Was disappointed and got back into town to head to my next stop. My google maps stopped working so I spent some time trying to find the station that would take me to my next stop. Out of 9 buslines in the city only 1 went to my next stop. And it was also the only single line that doesn’t run on Saturdays and Sundays… I won’t say what it is, because I’ll try again tomorrow.

I had a lot of the afternoon left so I just spent sometime walking around the city and saw a few nice things. And to make this post longer, I’ll pad it with another German city with a goofy name. Today’s city is: Halle (Saale). I’ve never heard a city name with parenthesis, and during 1965-1995 it was called Halle/Saale.

“Halle’s early history is connected with the harvesting of salt. The name Halle reflects early Celtic settlement given that halen is the Brythonic (Welsh/Breton) word for salt (cf. salann in Irish). The name of the river Saale also contains the Germanic root for salt, and salt-harvesting has taken place in Halle since at least the Bronze Age (2300–600 BC).”

Today also marks exactly 3 years since I began my last trip to Germany!

Kind of random, but I made a cross section explaining the layout of the Saarbrücken Castle. I also added it to yesterday’s post.