A German magazine wrote that in Thuringia live the fattest people of Germany. I cannot confirm that and I do not know how this magazine came to this headline. However, it is true that Thuringia still suffers high unemployment and that people must watch how they spend their money. Higher taxes and inflating prices, especially for energy reduced the money available for free spending.
If you are homesick ti chicken wings or spare ribs look or ask for an American styled restaurant. We found one even with live entertainment in the evening hours. We missed the entertainment, but we tried the food and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Naturally, we also went dining with friends. Everything was fine but the beer was too warm. After living for over 20 years in Canada I am used now to ice cold beer.
Water is not automatically served in Germany. Please be aware of that. People became addicted to mineral water which is normally not cheap. Try also local pop - not only the well known US brand names. You may be surprised. They are not as sweet and they do not come with ice. You must ask for ice if you like it only that way.

When you travel through Thuringia you need accommodation. With the strong Euro you may have to watch your budget. Especially if you want to save some money for sightseeing, shopping or the great spas.
Bed and breakfast is an excellent alternative to the well known International hotels. Also small local places, with the words "Gasthof" or "Gasthaus" in their names offer reasonable accommodation. A real continental breakfast or a breakfast buffet is normally included.
Sometimes you can skip lunch after such a breakfast!
However, if you are used to places which offer all day long breakfast for little money, you will be disappointed. They do not exist - at least I never saw one. One time I tried to get a breakfast on a Sunday morning in a small town. I has to wait until 11:00 AM for lunch.

Shame on those people who serve gluey Danish for breakfast nd call it "continental". They never have been in Europe and they also do not lick your sticky fingers or provide a wash cloth after you have finished.
You will have also a bad time when you are used to mash mallow like bread. Get used to a great variety of good tasting and healthy bread. I( believe that Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and some other countries offer the best bread you can find worldwide.
Even Elizabeth, who stays away from bread, potatoes and other good things only to stay slim became addicted to some of it.
One of her favorites became rye bread rolls covered with pumpkin seed. Enjoy this with sweet butter!
Consumers in most European countries prefer sweet fresh butter. Try Irish butter it is the best according to my judgement. When Elizabeth tried it for the first time she eat it without anything. Now she is back to salted margarine and I cannot blame her. I also use hardly ny butter in Canada for eating because of the poor taste.

Have you ever tasted pumpkin seed oil? Don't heat it! Use it on a salad or make a delicious dip. Finally, we can buy it in Welland - naturally imported! Nobody is interested in producing it here in our country. The same applies unfortunately also for a variety of good fruit juices without artificial flavoring.
Try a real gyros or a kebab in one of the numerous Döner restaurants. Many of them offer also other food such as pizza or even Schnitzel.
Döner restaurant became very popular in all of Germany. Their origin is Turkish. The meat is barbecued on a vertically rotating spit and thin slices are carved off with a sharp knife. No processed meat and they taste delicious. The meat was carved i a pita with fresh salad and some kind of good tasting cheese. (feta?)

Thuringia was part of the GDR before the unification of Germany. We traveled through Thuringia immediately after the wall came down. It is unbelievable how much has been changed since that. The environment has been cleaned up and the infrastructure seems to be sometimes better than in former West Germany.
All this does not hinder stupid people on both side to wish the wall back. Certainly some East Germans believed that they can achieve the western living standard in total social security and without stress at work. West germans wanted to keep the money instead of "wasting it for the lazy East Germans". Radical groups, especially Neo Nazis became relatively strong in former East Germany. Most of them are misguided and brainwashed young people.
Similar things happened after lost WWII, when the black market was mandatory for survival and people had to give valuables away for food to survive. You could find ads like: "Looking for Hitler offer military government". The no fraternization policy which was in place supported these feelings. Fortunately, all the American I met were friendly to us kids and did not believe that we were werewolves going to kill them. All we wanted was food and finally peace.
It is up to the German government not to suppress a healthy national thinking but also not to tolerate any extremism. Neither from the left no the right wing.
Please do not scared when you read about demonstration from Neo Nazis and beating up foreigners. There are millions of foreigners most of them living in peace in Germany. Others are criminals and should be treated a such. Finding excuses for the wrong doing will not solve any problems - it will create new ones because many people are getting fed up with that.
I never met any body who gave us problems as foreigners. Elizabeth is Canadian and everybody liked her and was friendly and helpful. We were invited by people which we never met before and had a good time.
My son recommended a Russian restaurant and we enjoyed it very much. Unfortunately, Elizabeth was already back in Canada. She is a nurse and had to work in a nursing home.

Because we stayed at my sons house in Suhl we did not need accommodation and we had many meals there. We loved to barbecue and enjoyed the clean air for which the Thuringian forest is known.

We will show you more after our next trip. There are excellent Vietnamese restaurants and naturally you can enjoy Indian cuisine and Italian cooking. You must live only on pork!