Leipzig and Luther Sites

May 9-12, 2017

Leipzig and Luther Sites

Tomorrow we head to Prague, so I want to get caught up on the blog tonight. This will be about all things Leipzig and surroundings.

The last few days we have taken day trips via train to some towns associated with Luther, namely, Erfurt, Eisleben and Eisenach. We enjoy traveling by train in Europe because they are much nicer than the trains in the USA, and most of the population gets around by train. The towns we wanted to travel to aren’t huge so we took the regional trains which take longer due to stopping at every little burg. We thought that we might want to see about taking a faster train but when finding out the cost, €190 vs €32, we stuck with our initial plan. As a side note, we have seen numerous plots of ground along the train tracks that families have turned into gardens with small dwellings of various types. From what we have gathered they are usually people from the city who live in apartments and aren’t privileged to have a garden but are happy to have their own piece of paradise.

Erfurt is a charming medieval town where Luther was ordained as a priest, and was a monk for a time at the Augustinian Monastery and studied at the University of Erfurt. After climbing many steps we visited the Cathedral where Luther was ordained, and St. Severus church which is right next door. We then found the monastery and were treated to seeing some beautiful stain-glass windows dating back to the 1300s, and to the organist practicing on the pipe organ.

We then had to hurry and catch our next train to Eisleben, where Luther was born and baptized, and died. When we arrived, we walked quite a distance downhill (what goes down, must come up) to the museum. After touring the museum and checking on the nearby church, we started our trek up the hill to the station. It was a lot of work for a short visit.

Yesterday it was another day of being outside of Leipzig. We traveled to Eisenach to see Wartburg Castle, where Luther was hidden for about 10 months. While there he worked on translating the New Testament from Greek into German. This town also has some medieval buildings and is quite picturesque, with beautiful homes situated on the hills overlooking the town.

The crown jewel, of course, is the castle, which we walked to, climbing some very steep hills. It took all my will-power to make it up to the top, but I managed with Roger’s encouragement. We toured the castle and a Luther exhibition that is being presented there this summer, both interesting. We then walked down and took the train back to Leipzig.

Today, as well as our first day here, we spent walking around and visiting the tourist sights of Leipzig. This city is located in what was East Germany, so architecturally Leipzig is not as interesting as some other German cities, but this past generation has put a lot of effort into refurbishing it and bringing it back to its former life. One thing it has going for it is its strong history of music, art and culture. The University of Leipzig has played a major part in the cultural life of this city to this day.

 

We visited St. Thomas Church, where Bach was the choirmaster and the Bach Museum where we learned about all things Bach.

We made visits to the Stasi Museum, which dealt with the activities of the Security Police in what was East Germany and the methods they used to spy on people. That museum is located in the headquarters of what was the Security Police. Creepy.

We also visited the Contemporary History Forum which tells the story of East and West Germany, 1945-1990. It focused mainly on the East but there were some displays of the West to provide contrast. Interesting.

Today we walked through part of the U. of Leipzig and saw one of the largest classrooms that I have ever seen. It must have seated 500. Roger was impressed and thought of all the papers that came with that. I told him that the Prof probably has more than one TA to help with the grading. Just saying. Anyway, what we saw of the school, was very contemporary and impressive.

Tonight, we found a sushi restaurant, and enjoyed some great Japanese food. We aren’t huge fans of German food and have kind of reached our limit of brats, wieners and pretzels, so it was good to have something different.

Tomorrow we are taking a new form of travel, the Flixbus, to Prague. We’ll see how this goes to see if we do it again.














 

Hamburg to Wittenberg

May 3-8, 2017

Hamburg to Wittenberg

 

Other than a few pictures on Facebook, I’m going to try and get the blog going again. I might play a little catch-up, so we will see how this works.

We left the Fort and drove to Bensenville, IL, right near O’Hare, and parked our car at our friend, June Harrison’s, retirement home. We visited with her and reminisced about our time in Chicago when she was our neighbor. She has become a dear friend over the years and we treasure any time we can spend with her. We then “Ubered” over to O’Hare.

 We arrived in Amsterdam only 30 minutes later than our originally scheduled time, even though we flew through Minneapolis instead of Detroit. We then caught our train to Hamburg and arrived at our Airbnb around 8:30 pm on Thursday and went straight to bed . . . tired travelers.

We spent the next few days, despite the cold and rain, seeing the sights of Hamburg and Lubeck, a town a train ride away, which has well-preserved old buildings. In Hamburg, we walked around the harbor area on the Elbe River which can accommodate ocean-going ships. The area of the old warehouses has been rehabbed and it has become a gentrified part of the city.

We also spent some time at the Miniatur Wunderland, which had huge displays of miniature trains, planes and displays of various parts of the world, including America. Of course, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon area were the USA representations. It is a marvel that families of all ages would enjoy.

On Saturday, we took the train to Berlin and have spent the days walking around the city, seeing many of the famous sights, such as the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and several memorials to Jewish and Gypsy Holocaust victims and to those who tried to escape from East Berlin.

 Sunday we spent several hours walking along a preserved section of the Berlin Wall with numerous well-done explanations of life in Berlin at that time in its history. This has all been a very sobering time for us. The evil that has existed in human hearts continues to this day.

We also met up with a former Taylor student, Kate Doiron, and attended church with her at the Berlin Cathedral, which is a Lutheran church. It is a very ornate building with the Reformers looking onto the congregation from above during the service. The organ was majestic. We sat in the English translation area, which helps with understanding, obviously. A mother and her child from Mongolia were baptized. After church we went with Kate to Barcomi’s Deli for lunch.

Later, we took the train to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was bombed during the war but was partially preserved including the front and steeple, minus the very top. A very simple and contemporary church has been erected right next door to it and is a stark contrast to the old church.

A highlight of our day was the ability to Facetime with all our children who were at our house celebrating Braden’s first communion and Max’s confirmation. Oh, the hazards of travelling in May. We might have to rethink this time of the year if we plan to do spring traveling again. We are missing too much.

Today, in honor of the 500^th year of the Reformation, we headed to Wittenberg to check out Luther sites. It is a just few hours train/bus ride from Berlin. We visited the Castle Church, where Luther and his buddy, Melanchthon, are buried and where tradition says he posted his 95 theses.

We then headed over to St. Mary’s church where Luther was married, where his children were baptized and where he preached over 2,000 sermons. His hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” was also first sung there. Sadly, we left without hearing an organ concert since none was scheduled for today.

We also made a quick visit to the Luther House, which is now a museum, formerly a monastery where he lived as a monk, and then as a married man.

The town is gearing up for this summer tourist season in celebration of the Reformation. There was

construction and rehabbing everywhere.

Tomorrow, we head to Leipzig.