Long ago I gave up looking for an untouristy, half-timbered medieval German town, but a few years back, I stumbled upon it in the sleepy town of Erfurt.
The capital of the German region of Thuringia, Erfurt has history swinging from its eaves. It’s most notable as the place where Martin Luther studied and became a monk, and (by translating the Bible from Latin into the people’s language, German) essentially planted the roots that set into motion the Protestant Reformation. It’s also the rare city in the center of Germany that emerged relatively unscathed from World War II, after which it became stuck in the strange cocoon of East German communism for half a century. Because of this, Erfurt has a surprising time-capsule quality.
