Leica pilgrim

[Hans Pahlen <hans.pahlen@mark.komvux.se>]

Three years ago, I and my family rented a caravan for a month, and went for
our usual holiday in Italy. But this time, on the way home we decided to
visit Wetzlar, the city that I had been reading so much about. It is a small
town, and the old center below the dome, was closed for cars. It was not
hard to find the small square "Eisenmarkt" a few blocks below the dome,
where Oskar Barnack had taken his famous photograph with the UR-Leica in
1914. It was another short walk from the dome down to the river Lahn, and on
the other side of it were the old Leitz factory buildings. I went in, hoping
to see something about Leica Cameras, but I was told that everything but
microscope production had moved to Solms. On the way back to my parking I
went into the photo shops that I passed, but to my great disappointment,
everyone only sold P&S and cheap japanese SLR cameras. The only Leica in
sight was the M6 that I carried around my neck. 
More rewarding were the different book stores I visited. Here I found some
Leica books on german, that I never had seen before. I guess, that books
that not are translated to English are hard to find outside of Germany.
So, I met up with the rest of my family, and they all had enjoyed shopping
in this "cute little town".
We went on to Solms, that is a small village, not far from Wetzlar. It was
easy to find the way to the Leica factory, as there were signs everywhere in
the street corners. From the outside, the factory building looks
surprisingly small. I went in, and asked for permission to see the
production. But, as the chief if production told me, they could not accept
visitors that had not made an appointment in advance. Well, I was not too
sorry about that, as I was able to see all the "Leica Stammbaum" cameras
live behind glass. There were also an exhibition of Leica photographs and
some M6 and different R-cameras in pieces, so you could see all the parts
that are put together into a camera. It was also possible to buy the
different souvenirs, that I think you all are familiar with.

What do we learn from this?
1) I am sad to say, even in Wetzlar the camera market is dominated by
japanese P&S...
2) If you ever go to Solms, be sure to make an appointment!

Regards, Hans