My last night in Weimar was totally mad. I walked out of the cafe and into the Market square. There was a band playing on the far side of the square. I There were also two cirlces of dancers, one inside the other, moving in opposite directions. The band was composed of keyboard, clarinets, ukele, some deep bass horn I couldn't see, a violin, and a saxaphone. A crowd had gathered to watch the band and the dancers. The dancers, some who knew the dance steps and many who improvised, shuffled laft and right and then forward to the middle of the cirlce and back again. At each side of the square were tables where people ate and drank and talked. Suddenly a great wind began blowing. Then it started to gust and soon, while the music swelled, gusts of wind tipped over umbrellas which upset some tables. The band (pardon the cliche) played on and the dancers danced as waiters chased table cloths across the square. Glass broke and people squealed and the music kept going. Then the rain started. It was not much rain but it had that velocity that made you know it had travelled far and fast. The wind picked up water from the fountain and spayed people watching the dancers. I stood near the middle of the square and grinned at the madness. But within ten minutes the wind had died down and the rain was gone. Some people had retreated but the night generally went merrily on. I watched a while longer and then grew tired. It was a cool night I went to my room to read until I was sleepy. It was cool in my room for the first time in weeks and I slept very well. In the morning I packed up and thought about the day ahead. First I had a crucial decision to make. I had to decide if I was gouing to steal this old smurf figurine that was in an odd assortment of knic-knacs in my room. It was great. It was bike touring smurf but it was still pretty good. It was a smurf I had never seen before. It was Native American Smurf. I don't know his name. Maybe Lives-in-Shroom- House is a good guess. But he was complete with feather and stoic look on his face. He was offering a cob of corn. I looked at him a long while. But I couldn't come up with any other rationale for taking him other than because I wanted him. So I put him back in the case and took his picture. I planned to ride to Erfurt and see the few things that Erfurt had to offer. Then take an evening train to Bamberg- my first stop in Bavaria. But Erfurt was another of my great surprises. The town is immensely charming. It's a maze of streets and alleys. I can walk for several minutes and pop out onto a street where I know I've been before but from a different angle. There are houses that straddle the Gera River where it narrows and is shallow. People gather and sit on steps that lead down to the water's edge. Erfurt suffered much less than other places during the war and there are many great old buildings to see. There is also a sprawling citadel on a hill at the edge of town. Tonight, in an old bombed out church is a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in German. The walls of the church are still standing but the roof is gone. Shakespeare in German hmmm.... I'm staying at a hostel that is very very nice. Erfurt is another place that has a curious mix in the streets of bikes, peds, street cars, and autos. You'd never see this in the US. Somebody would get sued for sure. But here the people and bikes are in the street and then when the streetcars come (they move pretty slow) everyone steps aside and the train passes and then it all goes back the way it was. It's nice and charming and it works. Well I plan to leave tomorrow on the early train to Bamberg. From Bamberg I can pick up a bike path to Nürmberg and then to Regensburg. The Danube flows through Regensburg and from there I can begin the long trek towards Vienna. It's tough though. Seven weeks has taken its toll and beginning to have thoughts of skipping to the end and coming home. Some days are up and some are down and that's just like life not on the road. So we'll see. The weather is better though. It's cooler- 75 maybe. I have pictures of course but none of these cafes have a system for me to upload them. Alright everybody- take care. Talk to you all soon.