Finding Bach

This idea for this trip came about during our winter break in 2023, which we spent mostly in Austria. By coincidence, the cities we went to were places the composer Mozart had spent time in so we went along with it and went to every Mozart house and museum that were around. Even our day trip to a small village called St. Gilgen, by mere coincidence, had some connection to Mozart. Though he never visited, his mother was born there and his sister moved there as well. We liked this accidental theme that we ended up with, so we decided, what if we did the same next year?

Johann Sebastian Bach was an obvious choice. I knew absolutely nothing about classical music before I met Bobby, and even now, I probably know 5% of all there is to know about it. Bobby tells me Bach is the best. And I’m inclined to believe him because he knows his shit. He would want to explain why and he’s very good at it (he’s a great and engaging teacher, in general), but as I’ve established, I don’t know nearly as much as he does so I’m not going to try. You probably know more than I do!

As we started planning this Bach pilgrimage, we asked Bridget, Bobby’s mom, to come with us. As the last childless couple in the family, we’ve traveled and hung out with Bridget a lot in the last few years and we enjoy the hell out of it. She’s kind of a “down for whatever” type of gal. She’s also really active and in fact LOVES to get physical and active in trips. So she’s kind of a perfect travel companion for us. So once our trio had settled on our dates, I got down to researching. I shamelessly looked up all the existing and expensive Bach tours, of which there are many. I started mapping it out in our shared travel note:

We gave ourselves almost two weeks to get through this itinerary, which began by flying right before Christmas eve to Frankfurt. This was not a good move and I highly discourage this. The initial logic behind this was to catch the last of the Christmas markets. But I failed to learn in my research that they close on Christmas eve and Christmas day. Not only that, almost every shop, restaurant, and cafe were also closed. So that first night at Frankfurt was pretty uneventful, except for that excellent cup of coffee at at The Espresso Bar, a no nonsense little shop where people come in, put in their order, sip their coffee, and then get on with their day.

We continued on to Eisenach, a medieval town in central Germany where Bach was born. It was a little over two hours of driving from the center of Frankfurt, right on the autobahn, for which we had built up some anxiety/fear due to the myth around it. But it was actually perfectly fine. Just a fine example of German efficiency, in fact. It made us wish drivers back home were as good.

Reaching the gorgeous town sign really set the mood of this stop for us. We stayed at a beautiful hotel on the top of the hill called Berghotel Eisenach. In pictures, this property looks so green and magical. In the wintertime, it's perfectly misty, dark, and wet. We walked down the hill to the town center a couple times, which was a nice workout for all of us with all the hills and steps. But for dinner and an evening show at the Bachhaus, we opted to do the short drive down the hill instead.

Most things in the town square has some sort of nod to Bach, from the Bach Restaurant to the Bach graffiti. The main attraction, however, is the Bachhaus. Johann Sebastian Bach was born here on March 21, 1685. This is the house where he spent the first ten years of his life and learned about music. Presently, it serves as a museum that also hosts concerts with musicians playing Baroque-era keyboard instruments. We were lucky to attend a concert the day after Christmas.

It's really fun to explore a town that has preserved its history so well, from the architecture to the typefaces used. It feels like what theme parks aim to give its visitors—a truly immersive experience where you can almost imagine what it was like back in the day when Bach's family roamed those streets. Or maybe I'm being too dramatic about this. I just love old medieval towns.

I didn't have luck finding coffee I like here, but that's not Eisenach's fault. However, during our stop at Arnstadt on the way to Weimar, I got an incredible cup of coffee from Bohnenstolz, as well as a bag of light roast beans that I enjoyed very much at home. This little town is where Bachkirche is located. The Protestant church is where Bach first got hired as an organist at the age of 18.

After that little stop where Bobby got to practice his German, we continued on to Weimar, which is now one of my favorite cities in Europe. Bach lived here for a long time, but the main reason we stayed here for three days is because of the Bauhaus Museum. If I were to rank my favorite design movements, I would rank Bauhaus as number one, followed by Impressionism and Arts and Crafts. (Memphis is an honorable mention, but honestly Corporate Memphis really tired me of it.) Bobby and I have spent the last couple years decorating our home in a very Bauhaus-inspired manner, and I was excited to see some of the original furniture in person, especially the cradle by Peter Keler.

Our final Bach stop of this long trip was Leipzig, where Bach spent the last years of his life as the musical director of the Thomanerchor or St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig. St. Thomas Church is also where Bach is buried and if there's no mass or concert going on, you can walk in, pay three euros (if I'm remembering this correctly), and see it for yourself. There's also a small exhibit of Bach-related things like sheet music and manuscripts.

We very fortunately got to attend the Thomanerchor's new year's eve concert, which we all agreed was a once in a lifetime experience. If angels were real, they would sound like those boys. It's hard to fathom what it must've been like back in Bach's day, attending mass in this church and hearing all this beautiful music for the first time. Once the concert was over, the boys' choir went outside to Bach's monument and performed a few songs for the crowd who weren't able to come inside.

The concert was such a nice way to end our Bach pilgrimage. It got me thinking about all the other people we're inspired by that we want to plan trips around. Bobby suggested Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. He also has a few Russian composers he loves like Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Dmitri Shostakovich. But... y'know. I mentioned Henri Matisse and maybe a deeper dive into Claude Monet's life.

I'd personally love to do a trip centered around Greek mythology next.

Anyway, after all this talk, we just looked at each other and acknowledged just how insanely privileged we both are to be able to see the world in this way. To be able to travel at all. And I really feel fortunate to be with someone who would walk around a medieval town for hours with me.