Yesterday was the coldest so far during my trip (-9C; 15F), but we braved the cold and headed into Wiesbaden anyway. The sun was out so it was a nice drive, even though it was so cold.
As we drove through town, looking for a place to park we noticed a sign that the Chinese Terracotta Soldiers were on exhibit at the museum, what luck. I have always had a fascination with Anthropology and had actually considered an offer to go to Australia and work on a dig site back in the early80’s. As luck would have it I met my wife during that same time and the rest is history. Anyway back to the trip. I had heard about these since the late 70’s early 80’s and was finally able to view them. You cannot believe how majestic these statues are.
This is an entire army, including horses and wagons, created centuries ago by the emperor to protect him in the afterlife. They are true recreations of his actual army, including the unique facial feature details of each individual soldier.
It took several hundred artists to accomplish this. They were discovered by a couple of farmers digging a well. Since then archeologists have recovered slightly more than an acre of the tomb, but they believe that the army actually covers nearly 5 acre of space. Currently recovery work has ceased until new techniques are discovered that will allow the artifacts to be better preserved during the process.
We then headed into the main part of town to do some shopping, site seeing, and of course a little beer tasting. Der Andechser was a good place to stop. They offered some little sampler size servings (0.1L), and you keep the glass! We sampled the Hefeweizen and the Douple Bock. Both beers were excellent examples of the styles and the DB was decided to be the best. It was sweet and full of flavor, but had a very nice clean finish.Well, time to head back home for the day. The kids are planning to take me out “clubbing” this evening. It should be an unforgettable experience!
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