Day 30

            It’s our last full day in Germany!  We are ready to come home, but we’ve had a fantastic time.  Left Dresden this morning and it started raining again, and has been raining on and off all day.  The GPS came through again, getting us directly to our hotel in Berlin.  We arrived at noon, and the staff was gracious enough to give us a room that we could use right away.  We unloaded all our stuff from the car (we have not consolidated stuff yet, and the hotel staff was pretty wide-eyed as we kept bring more and more in from the car.)

            We headed for the airport to return the car – all of that went well also.  We tried to check in to our flights, but they were in the middle of boarding another flight, so we went and did our snacky lunch, then came back, and the Air France-KLM-Delta group was kind enough to check us in and give us our boarding passes.  We may not get to sit together on the way home, but we won’t worry about that until tomorrow.

            Took the bus back to the hotel.  We really debated going back downtown for one last bit of sightseeing, but with the rain and our energy level being a bit low, we decided to stay here, rest a bit, have a bite to eat nearby, and pack/consolidate our stuff for the morning.

            That means that this will likely be the last blog until we get home.  For those who have been following, thanks!  It’s been fun to share with you.  See you at home!

Day 29

            It was a wet and wonderful day in Dresden!  As we were getting ready for breakfast, we heard thunder, and looked outside and realized we would need our umbrellas for sure!  This was our last pure tourist day, so we wanted to make the most of it.

            After breakfast, we caught the bus for the zentrum of Dresden – picked it up just across the street from the hotel, rode for about 15 minutes, and we were there.  On the walk into town, we passed the Kreutzkirche (more on that later) and the Frauenkirche (later again) and headed for the Zwinger.  This was a kind of palace begun by August the Strong, elector of Saxony, in the late 1500’s.  He had intended for it to be like a park and museum, and really made something out of it.  When we were here five years ago, we were in Dresden on a Monday, and museums in Germany are closed on Mondays, so I made sure we could be in Dresden during the week.

            We were early!  The Zwinger opens at 10, and we were downtown by 9:15.  And it was raining.  I mean RAINING!  We found a covered area in the Elector’s Rezidence, which is also a museum, but it was sheltered so we could sit and wait in the dry about a block from the Zwinger.  It is covered by a plexiglass dome, that acted like the metrodome – it amplified the sound of rain on the roof until we could hardly talk!

            We finally deserted the dry spot in favor of walking to the Zwinger and getting in line for our tickets.  There are actually three museums there – a porcelain museum, an art museum, and an arms and armor museum.  We got an admission ticket that let us in to all three.  The down side was that pictures are not allowed inside at all, and we couldn’t find a book that showed or discussed the contents.

            First we went into the porcelain museum.  Lots and lots of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, plus a lot of Meissen porcelain made just a few miles away from here.  Beautiful stuff, but by the time we worked through the whole wing, we had seen enough to last for…

            Next we went into the arms and armor museum.  Hardly any English labels in the whole place.  Very interesting stuff – swords, guns, suits of armor, so much that we saw enough to last for…..          

            Then came the art museum.  Paintings.  Millions, possibly even billions of dollars worth of original art.  We really enjoyed the stuff by Lucas Cranach, both the Elder and the Younger.  It tied in so well with all the things we saw and experienced in our trip up till now.  Also, many paintings by Peter Paul Reubens, Botticelli, Rembrandt, and a whole host of others. We saw enough paintings to last for…..

            You get the picture.  It was really overload, especially since there were no English explanations other than simple labels. 

            Once we left the Zwinger, we sat and had a little snack from the backpack, then headed for the Dresden Hofkappelle.  This is the Roman Catholic cathedral.  Dresden became Lutheran early on, but one of the Electors, August the Strong, wanted to also be crowned king of Poland, and he had to be Catholic to do that, so he converted.  And there was no Catholic church in town, so he had one built – primarily for him.  It is beautiful. It was bombed out like most of Dresden, but beautifully restored.  After wandering through it and taking pictures, the organ started playing some Buxtehude.  I have no idea who was playing, but it is a Gottfried Silbermann organ, by the same builder as the two we saw yesterday in Freiberg.  It’s a magnificent instrument, so we stayed and listened for a while.

            We did some window (and real!) shopping, especially when we saw a Meissen porcelain store.  We got just about the cheapest thing we could find, a beautiful porcelain medallion, and saw lots of very expensive other stuff.  As Dea had said in Munich, the whole street even smelled rich!

            We worked our way to the Frauenkirche, which is the huge Lutheran church in the center of town.  It was totally destroyed in 1945 by allied bombers who wiped out Dresden, but was rebuilt using as much original material as possible, using the original blueprints.  It was finished in 2004 or 2005, and we saw it just after it opened.  Had to stop in and see it again – it is magnificent.

            Then we headed to the Kreutzkirche.  This was – and is – the largest church in town, and was also severely bombed out at the end of WWII.  It was rebuilt rather quickly, and the inside of the church is finished in a very rough manner, designed to be a remembrance of the damage war can do. I am particularly partial to this church, because one of my musical heroes (second only to J.S. Bach) – Heinrich Schütz, did some work there while he was court composer to the Elector in Dresden.  They have a little memorial chapel for him in one corner of the church. 

            It was the end of the day – and raining again, so we decided to get our bodies ready to come home on Friday.  We stopped and had McDonalds for supper – it sure tasted good!  And in Germany, I could have beer with supper at McDonalds!

            Caught the bus back to the hotel, stopped next door at the restaurant so Dea could have dessert and I had a dark beer, and now we are back in our room, tired but satisfied that we made a real fine last tourist day out of it, rain and all!

            I actually felt quite good all day long – I think I’ve shaken the cold pretty well.  Tomorrow we’ll take our time packing up, drive back to Berlin, check into our hotel, and drop off the rental car at the airport and confirm our Friday morning flights.  Home soon!

Day 28

            Another slow day.  Had breakfast in Freiberg, then headed for the Freiberger Dom (a Dom in Germany is a cathedral, whether it has a “dome” on it or not.)  This one is Lutheran.  When I was here 9 years ago with my brother and sister-in-law and nephew, we stopped to visit it.  The area was quite shabby, and they were doing some fix-up work in the Dom.

            Most of that is done.  The outside looks freshly painted, and the inside is cleaned up quite a bit, but still looks like “old stuff” – which it is.  We were early, so walked around town a bit, visiting the castle which is in the process of renovation.  We got tickets to visit the Dom, and one of the tour guides spoke some English and had some time since we were early, so she showed us around.  We got to go into a little chapel in a separate building attached to the former cloister.  The cloister was jammed full of gravestones from the family of the former Elector.  Some very impressive other things as well:  altar, statues, etc.  Then we went into the church.  It was just as impressive as I remember it.  For organists, there are two Gottfried Silbermann organs in this building – TWO!  - he was J.S. Bach’s favorite organ builder.  We couldn’t get close to them, unfortunately. 

            The former “choir” of the Dom has been converted into an electoral “cemetery.”  The ceiling is stunning – 3 dimensional angel musicians – over 30 of them – imbedded into the ceiling.  As they were refurbishing it a number of years ago, they discovered that many of the instruments the angels were playing were real renaissance musical instruments, and many of them were known only from renaissance books.  No one had ever seen a real instrument like that, and here the ceiling was full of them!  So they cleaned them up, made copies, and put the originals back into the ceiling!

            There are also two distinct pulpits in the Dom, a crucifix grouping that dates to the 12^th century, and much, much more.  It’s quite a place.

            We headed then for Dresden.  I still was feeling the effects of the cold I caught, and Dea wasn’t feeling too well either.  The GPS took us through some windey, narrow country roads again – didn’t know if we were ever going to find our way out of the country.  I was even afraid we’d run out of gas before we got to Dresden.  But we found gas, and the GPS led us right to the door of the hotel.

            Again, we were early, and the room was not ready, so we sat in the car for about two hours waiting to get in.  By that time, sitting in the sun, neither of us felt very good, so we did rest time again.  Went next door for a bite of supper, and tonight we are just laid back.

            Tomorrow we will head into the zentrum of the city, and visit the Zwinger palace museum, the Frauenkirche, and whatever else we can do in a day.  S

– Day 27

            Not much to report today, besides the fact that we have no internet access tonight.  So, I will jot down a few notes, and post them from Dresden tomorrow.

            Because of the cold I picked up, I didn’t sleep much last night.  So, we took it very easy this morning as we left Regensberg.  We really didn’t see anything of the old city, so we have to cross that one off our list just like we did for Augsburg the other day.

            It was a good 4-hour drive from Regensberg to Freiberg.  Most of it was on the autobahn, and that made for easy driving.  I don’t know who told Mrs. Garmin that we wanted to take the scenic route instead of the easiest route, so we ended up on less than 2-lane roads for most of the way.  And, of course, some of the roads were closed.  So we heard “recalculating” very often.  At one point, the Garmin didn’t even know what direction to go, so Dea acted as navigator.  Once we got through the last part of the construction zone, the Garmin announced “Turn right at the next corner, and arrive at destination.”  We were that close, and didn’t have a clue!

            That was not the end of the adventure, however.  We saw the hotel, and there was a parking ramp right next door.  A natural, right?  Wrong!  It was a shopping center ramp.  We decided to go check in first, then figure out where to park.  Of all things, there was not a single door unlocked at the Brauhof Hotel!  Signs on the doors said that the restaurant opens at 5:00 p.m. (17:00).  Well, we were there about 13:30 (1:30 p.m.).  No way in!  Finally we discovered the hotel parking lot, moved the car, and I bugged some delivery men until one of them called the hotel number, and someone let us in, but he didn’t speak any English, just gave us a key and a registration form and left us in our room!

         That was really OK, because I wanted to rest in hopes of shaking the cold, and to recover from the drive.  So we napped and read for about 4-5 hours.  Then it was time to eat.  So we went downstairs to the restaurant for supper.

            I must digress.  Nine years ago, Paul and Barb and their son Philip and I stayed in this hotel, ate supper in the restaurant, and I had pork hocks and sauerkraut – the best sauerkraut I’ve ever had.  Before we left the states, in planning this trip, the first hotel reservation I made outside of Wittenberg was for this hotel!  Besides the same menu, they also have the best German  beer of all, in my opinion.  So, pork hocks, sauerkraut, and dark beer made up supper.  It was more than we could eat, however.  The pork hock had to be at least 6-8” in diameter, way more than I could handle.  But it was worth the trip!
            Tomorrow morning after breakfast, we will start being tourists again.  We have directions from the waiter on how to find the local cathedral.  Organ fans will be interested to know that there are two Gottfried Silbermann organs in the cathedral, plus a whole lot of really neat stuff.  We will go there first, then head towards Dresden.  Time permitting, we will stop at Meissen to see the porcelain works there, then check in to Dresden. 

          I must say that I am starting to feel human again – not totally, but much better than last night, and ready to be tourist again for a few days before we head home on Friday.

           In case some of you haven’t heard, we are grandparents again!  John and Jill are in the process of adopting a little Somalian baby, named him Micah Youssef.  He was  born on Sunday, and we think they will be able to take him home in a day or two.  Please pray for this growing family!

– Day 27

            Not much to report today, besides the fact that we have no internet access tonight.  So, I will jot down a few notes, and post them from Dresden tomorrow.

            Because of the cold I picked up, I didn’t sleep much last night.  So, we took it very easy this morning as we left Regensberg.  We really didn’t see anything of the old city, so we have to cross that one off our list just like we did for Augsburg the other day.

            It was a good 4-hour drive from Regensberg to Freiberg.  Most of it was on the autobahn, and that made for easy driving.  I don’t know who told Mrs. Garmin that we wanted to take the scenic route instead of the easiest route, so we ended up on less than 2-lane roads for most of the way.  And, of course, some of the roads were closed.  So we heard “recalculating” very often.  At one point, the Garmin didn’t even know what direction to go, so Dea acted as navigator.  Once we got through the last part of the construction zone, the Garmin announced “Turn right at the next corner, and arrive at destination.”  We were that close, and didn’t have a clue!

            That was not the end of the adventure, however.  We saw the hotel, and there was a parking ramp right next door.  A natural, right?  Wrong!  It was a shopping center ramp.  We decided to go check in first, then figure out where to park.  Of all things, there was not a single door unlocked at the Brauhof Hotel!  Signs on the doors said that the restaurant opens at 5:00 p.m. (17:00).  Well, we were there about 13:30 (1:30 p.m.).  No way in!  Finally we discovered the hotel parking lot, moved the car, and I bugged some delivery men until one of them called the hotel number, and someone let us in, but he didn’t speak any English, just gave us a key and a registration form and left us in our room!

         That was really OK, because I wanted to rest in hopes of shaking the cold, and to recover from the drive.  So we napped and read for about 4-5 hours.  Then it was time to eat.  So we went downstairs to the restaurant for supper.

            I must digress.  Nine years ago, Paul and Barb and their son Philip and I stayed in this hotel, ate supper in the restaurant, and I had pork hocks and sauerkraut – the best sauerkraut I’ve ever had.  Before we left the states, in planning this trip, the first hotel reservation I made outside of Wittenberg was for this hotel!  Besides the same menu, they also have the best German  beer of all, in my opinion.  So, pork hocks, sauerkraut, and dark beer made up supper.  It was more than we could eat, however.  The pork hock had to be at least 6-8” in diameter, way more than I could handle.  But it was worth the trip!
            Tomorrow morning after breakfast, we will start being tourists again.  We have directions from the waiter on how to find the local cathedral.  Organ fans will be interested to know that there are two Gottfried Silbermann organs in the cathedral, plus a whole lot of really neat stuff.  We will go there first, then head towards Dresden.  Time permitting, we will stop at Meissen to see the porcelain works there, then check in to Dresden. 

          I must say that I am starting to feel human again – not totally, but much better than last night, and ready to be tourist again for a few days before we head home on Friday.

           In case some of you haven’t heard, we are grandparents again!  John and Jill are in the process of adopting a little Somalian baby, named him Micah Youssef.  He was  born on Sunday, and we think they will be able to take him home in a day or two.  Please pray for this growing family!

Day 26

       Almost made it with both of us staying healthy for a month. Not quite.  Last night after we got in, I had a big sneeze and told Dea “I think I’m getting a cold.”  This morning I knew it!

        We got a good start out of Munich after breakfast and headed for Dachau.  We arrived there a bit after 9 a.m., just after it opened.  I thought we might spend an hour or two there, but we were there almost 6 hours!  It is really horrible.  Lots of displays, but lots of horror at how people can be so cruel to other people.  Some of the displays are very graphic, and they have recreated one of the barracks and one of the crematories. 

            We stayed so long that we don’t really have time to see much if anything here in Regensberg.  We’ll see how it goes in the morning, but we also have the longest drive tomorrow. 

            This is a short blog, but I’ve probably run on too long on some of the other days.   The hotel restaurant is closed (Sunday) but there’s a restaurant close by, and we will probably walk over there for a bite to eat, then just take it easy tonight.  Might even watch the U.S. and Japan in the women’s world cup tonight!

Day 25

            It was quite an interesting day!  We took our time getting going, had breakfast in the hotel (we decided we really miss the breakfasts at the Luther Hotel in Wittenberg!), then headed out for the Residenze Museum in the old city of Munich. 

It was certainly an interesting walk.  We walked along the Maximillianstrasse, which is the equivalent of

Rodeo Drive

in California or the KuDamm in Berlin.  EXPENSIVE!!!  We window-shopped at Cartier, and saw watches priced at €135,000+, and other jewelry that went way up from there.  Dea said the sidewalk in front even smelled rich! 

It was only about a 20 minute leisurely walk to the museum, but do you think we could find the entrance? We almost crashed a wedding party, but were quickly chased out.  Finally someone told us where to look for the entrance.  We chose to visit two parts of the museum, the “treasure house” and the “residence.”  Words cannot describe what we saw:  opulent, overdone, overwhelming, over-the-top, overabundance…   you sort of get the picture.  The Treasury included the crown jewels of Bavaria, all kinds of church stuff, jewels, gold, silver – I can’t even begin to describe it.  We spent at least an hour and a half in there.

Then we did the Residence Museum.  There are 90 rooms open in the palace, out of I think 130 total rooms.  Most are decorated and furnished the way they were 200-500 years ago.  There was significant bomb damage from WWII, but the 90 rooms have mostly been restored to their original appearance, and have been furnished with either the original furniture from the rooms, or copies, or equivalent pieces from other castles.  We thought we were overwhelmed with the Charlottenburg and Sansoucci in Berlin and Potsdam, but they were nothing compared to this.  Really, words just don’t do it!  Besides being overwhelmed, trying to follow the procession of Electors, Kings, and Holy Roman Emperors from the Wittlsbach family (rulers of Bavaria) is pretty nigh impossible without a fat book or a computer!  We spent more than 4 hours working through it, but we saw it all – some parts in detail, some parts just an overview.  They did have the English audio guides, which were both helpful and long-winded.  Had we listened to all the available material, we were told that there is at least five hours worth of commentary.  One can stand only so much description of tapestries, painters, etc.

We finished a bit after 4:00 p.m. and made our way to the square in front of the Neu Rathouse.  While we were waiting, we discovered that the same accordion players were in the square that we heard last night.  They played the same music, but I’m still in awe – they were very good!  Then we just hung around until 5:00, and then listened to the glockenspiel and watched the figures dance in the tower of the Rathaus, celebrating the triumph and independence of the Bavarians.  We had seen this before, and I even have a video of it at home, but it was fun to see it again.

Dea gave in to my desires and agreed to go back to the Hofbrauhaus for supper.  We didn’t go up for the show, but sat in the open-air biergarten.  She had something different from the menu from what she had last night, and said it was very good.  Me?  I have no imagination at all:  bratwurst, sauerkraut, and beer.  Oh, yes, I also had a huge pretzel.

We decided that Munich has a whole different flavor than Berlin or Wittenberg.  Very busy, bustling, active.  It appears to be a much younger city, and the Bavarian tradition is different from generic German.  It has been very interesting to watch the people.  There were quite a few people dressed obviously as Muslims – the women in particular.  Very multi-cultural, and so many bicycles!

Then we walked back to the hotel, and are going to do a little research for tomorrow’s trip, and then just crash for the evening.  It was an overwhelming day!

Day 24

            We got up a bit earlier this morning – breakfast was at 7:00 a.m.  Paul and Barb had to catch a train to Passau.  The organ in the cathedral there is one of the largest in Europe, and they will meet the organist, listen to a recital, and perhaps get a chance to play it.  Those who might want to look at this monster can Google Passau Dom Orgel.

            Dea and I left shortly after they did.  We had talked about stopping in Augsburg, since it is on the way to Munich.  We had been in Augsburg five years ago and enjoyed it.  The GPS got us to the edge of the Zentrum (center city) but didn’t help us find a parking place or tell us how to get to the wonderful places we wanted to see.  Plus, the GPS doesn’t know about all the road construction going in on Augsburg.  After driving around for nearly an hour, we gave up and headed for Munich.

            The GPS got us to our hotel in good shape.  It’s an expensive hotel, and certainly not the highest quality (a bit shabby and noisy, but it is very close to the main attractions we want to see.  We are told that it is an easy walk to the Hofbrauhaus, where we want to go for supper tonight, and tomorrow we can see ”old stuff” to our hearts content.

            We took a bit of rest time in the afternoon, and then headed off to explore the “zentrum” of Munich.  Our goal was the Hofbrauhaus.  We had been there for supper and the show five years ago, and really enjoyed it.  When we found it, we were told that reservations were full for both tonight and tomorrow night, but we could show up at 6 and see if they could squeeze us in.  We went exploring again.

            We stopped at the Dom St. Peter, and were effectively shut out – told we couldn’t walk around the church, couldn’t take any pictures, etc.  So we left.  We discovered that we were only a block from the Rathaus, where there is a marvelous glockenspiel.  We had seen this five years ago, and have video of the “show” that goes along with the playing of the glockenspiel.  We weren’t there in time to see the whole show, but we heard church bells ringing so stopped to enjoy that.  I also thought I heard an organ playing.

            Dea said “No, that’s an accordion” and I replied “I know what an organ sounds like, and I know what an accordion sounds like.  This was an organ.”  It was an accordion – actually, two accordion buskars.  As a duet, the two players were playing the Bach d minor Toccata, one of the most famous organ pieces of all time.  They were marvelous!  Didn’t miss a note, and it was an exciting performance.  Then they went into a movement from one of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos, and then Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  We stood with our mouths open.  They were SO GOOD!  I still can’t believe it!

            Then we had to head back to the Hofbrauhaus.  We were admitted right away, had supper, and stayed for the show.  In all honesty, the show was better five years ago, but we enjoyed the band anyway, playing German “oompa” music.  Such fun!  It was nice to be just the two of us in the room crowded with people from around the world.

            After 3 hours, we had had enough, so we headed back to the hotel.  After 2 Hofbrauhaus dunkel (dark) beers, we managed to find our way back to the hotel with no problem.  We are both tired, and will not set an alarm in the morning. 

            We plan to explore completely the zentrum, which includes a number of churches and the palace of the Bavarian King with all the royal treasures.  Should be fun!  Hope all is well with all of you.

– Day 23

            We slept in a little longer this morning, then had a nice breakfast and headed for the train station to go back into Nürnberg.  We started with the Nazi’s.  Literally.  Nürnberg was considered the headquarters of the Nazi party and the Third Reich.  Hitler wanted it this way because he thought it would build on the fact that the city was the headquarters for centuries for the First Reich – the Holy Roman Empire.

            We took the train to the southeast part of town, where the Nazi’s had huge plans to build a party center for their big rallies.  They didn’t finish all the building they wanted to do, but we did see the Zepplin Park where the large rallies were held.  If you’ve ever seen movies of Hitler addressing hundreds of thousands of people at one time, it was at Zepplin Park.  Some of the buildings have started to fall down, but you can still recognize it.  It’s very eerie to stand on the platform where Hitler addressed all those people!  We also saw the Grosse Strasse, a road as wide as a football field and about 1 ½ miles long.  This is where the German troops would march in lockstep formation to portray the glory and power of the Third Reich.  You may have seen pictures of these parades also.

            Then we went to the Document Center, which is really a historical exhibition with pictures and movies about the Nazi part, its origins and goals, and ends with the Nürnberg war crimes trials.  We spent several hours going through this.  It’s very sobering. You realize what a genius and madman Hitler was.

            We then caught a bus back into town and toured the Albrecht Dürer house and museum.  Very well done except that there are no original works in the whole place.  But there were nice displays of the work of some of his contemporaries, and part of the house is set up to show the lifestyle of the early 1500’s  Very enjoyable and educational

            We were pretty tired, but we had an hour left, so we went to the Germanicus Museum.  This is really huge, and could take a day or more to go through.  We had less than an hour, and Dea and Barb wanted to just sit.  So Paul and I went in and discovered that admission was free for the last hour.  We headed immediately for the musical instrument room – literally hundreds of harpsichords, pianos, organs, and other instruments.  That’s all we got to see, but it was worth it.

            Took the train back to Feucht, and we took Egon and Christa out for supper, then finished in the sunroom again.

            Tomorrow we leave here and head for Munich.  I think we’re going to stop at Augsburg – it’s on the way – even though we’ve been there before .  It’s a very interesting  place.  Only one week until we head home – time does go fast.

Day 22

            Nürnberg, here we come! We were having breakfast with Egon and Christa by 8:00 a.m., and they insisted we pack a lunch to take along.  They are such generous people, and extremely interesting to talk to.

            Egon walked us to the “new” train station – Feucht Ost (east) – a few blocks from the house, so we could catch the train into Nürnberg.  Dea and I had never ridden a German train before, so that was a fun experience all by itself.  Its only a short ride, and was a local train, which meant it stopped at every little station, but still only took us about 15 minutes.  We bought day tickets, which means we could ride home on the same ticket, and could have used the city bus system as well.  The ticket was 9, 8€ for both of us, and we could have taken our four kids along with us as well, if we had 4 kids, that is.

            We got off at the Hauptbahnhof, walked under the tracks to one of the gates in the still-existent wall around old Nürnberg, and our eyes bugged out in amazement.

            First we stopped at a little “handicraft mall” where all the shops have handwork.  We saw antique shops, pewter work, lace work, toys, etc.  We managed to avoid spending money there, but just looking was wonderful.

            Then we stopped at a little church that had been destroyed and rebuilt after the war.  Can’t even remember the name of it right now!

            From there we walked to the Church of St. Lorenz.   It is a Lutheran cathedral.  Nürnberg  as an independent city made a decision in 1525 to be a Lutheran city, so St. Lorenz is Lutheran.  It  is a magnificent building!  It was pretty seriously bomb damaged in 1945, but has been beautifully rebuilt.  Took lots of pictures.  There are really 3 organs in the building, all played from one console.  I have a hunch, which I’ll have to check out, that some of the early LCMS Loehe settlers in the USA who helped found the LCMS (Frankenmuth group) emigrated from this area.  The people in this part of Nürnberg are called the Franconians, as are the Michigan settlers, and the large church in Frankenmuth is called St. Lorenz Kirche.  I think there must be a connection.  We also discovered that there would be an organ recital at 12:15.!!!

            It was too early to wait, so we went to the Nürnberg information center to purchase our tickets for a 2.5 hour walking tour of the city, which started at 1, then did a bit more exploring after that. 

            Then we went into the Frauenkirche, which was originally the Imperial Church.  It is now Roman Catholic.  One of the important things about Nürrnberg is that it was the primary seat of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries.  Every time a new Holy Roman Emperor was elected, he had to hold the first Diet (Parliament) session in Nürrnberg.  This was the imperial church, and was originally designed to be a fortress church where the HRE crown jewels were to be stored.  While we were taking pictures and looking around, an organist and soloist were practicing in the church – it was beautiful!

            From there we headed back to St. Lorenz for the organ recital.  The recitalist played all three organs, sometimes one after the other, and at the end, all 3 together.  The whole room literally shook to the point where you could feel the music rather than hear it. 

            Then we headed for the tour, and made it on time. 

            Before we left, I asked Dea if there was anything she absolutely wanted to see while we were here.  She said “a castle.”  I promised her that we would, and we have seen several, but most of them have  been palaces rather than castles.  Today we saw an honest to goodness castle.   It’s built on a solid rock foundation on the highest point in town.  It was a lot of work to climb up the hill but it was worth it.  The view was outstanding.  We heard some great stories – ask us about the horse’s footprints in the castle wall sometime.  This was the Holy Roman Emperor’s castle, and he used it whenever he was in town.  There’s lots of artwork, living spaces, dining halls, chapel, and it goes on and on.  One of the impressive things was the deep well.  It is so deep that the tour guide poured water from a pitcher into the well.  Water falls at a rate of 10 meters/second, and it took 5 seconds for us to hear the splash.  Then she lowered some candles on a rope down to the bottom so we could see all the way down.  This castle had an ample supply of water for no matter what.

            We headed back down the hill from the castle (It’s much easier going downhill than going uphill!), went past Albrecht Dürer’s house and stopped at St. Sebalds church.  This is also a Lutheran church now (since 1525), and contains the remains of St. Sebald, one of the patron saints of Nürnberg.  It’s strange to see such a thing in a Lutheran church, but I suppose  the fact that it was once a Catholic church explains a lot.  It has the only original Albrecht Dürer painting in  Nürnberg. All the others in town are copies, even though this was his town.  There’s also a very nice organ in the cathedral, and some wonderful pictures of the bomb damage (the church was nearly destroyed) and reconstruction following WW II.  We did not sense a lot of hostility in this area towards Americans, even though we were part of virtually destroying the town with our bombs.  They have more bitterness towards the British than the Americans.

            After the tour, we decided to try the Nürrnberg brats.  They are small and short – you can fit 3 of them in a bun, and a standard order is 6 on a plate.  We shared one plate.  They are so small because hundreds of years ago, one of the mayors said that all the restaurant doors had to be locked by 6:00, so they started making the brats small enough to push through a keyhole so they could keep selling them!  They are a bit milder than what we are used to.

            The rain started up again just about the time we finished the brats, so we headed back to catch the train to Feucht.  We had supper with our hosts, and then went to an outdoor concert by their church.  The Feucht Singverein (community choir) and the Feucht Posaunenchor (brass choir) had a joint concert.  It wasn’t professional , but was very enjoyable and was well attended.  The rain came back and washed out the last number.

            We came back and sat with Christa and Egon and their son Stephan in the sun room (even though it was night) and tried a little bit of just about anything you could think of:  Rauchbier (smoky beer from Bamberg), other beer, ice cream with several kinds of liqueur on it, then we had to sample the liqueur without the ice cream, and finished up with champagne.  Stumbled off to bed and slept VERY well!

Day 21

            It turned out to be a wonderful day.  We left Wittenberg just as we planned – leaving the hotel at 8:00 a.m. after another hearty breakfast.

            Thank goodness for GPS!  We had little or no trouble finding our way around. It took us about 4 hours to drive from Wittenberg to Bamberg.  It hadn’t been on my list, but Paul strongly recommended that we go there, and it was worth it.  It was quite difficult to find a parking place (the GPS doesn’t understand that need!) but once we found one, we started walking.  The down side of Bamberg is that it is built on very high and steep hills.  And it was warm.  First we found the old Rathaus (city hall).  It dates from the 1100’s, and is very well preserved.  It sits on a little island between a river and a canal, and is lavishly painted.  Only pictures can begin to describe it, so you’ll have to wait!  We stopped in a couple of shops, and found a Kätie Wolfahrt shop – with hundreds of little carved wooden musical angels.  We have already bought several, so we didn’t buy any here, but I sure was tempted!  Did buy Dea a Bamberg bell for her collection. 
            Then we climbed way up the hill to the Marienkirche, the cathedral that dates back also to the 1100-1200 period.  It is absolutely stunning.  Four steeples.  Several beautiful organs (wish we could have heard them), lots of statues, graves, and decorations.  Found some really funny carvings above one of the outside doors.

            Then we headed up the hill once more – a long, steep hike to see the monastery (St. Michaels)  When we got to the monastery church, we discovered that there was a prayer service going on, and we weren’t allowed to explore the church until it was over.  I understand that.  But it never ended!  They just kept on praying for over half an hour, so we finally bought a few postcards and went on.  There’s a beautiful little path and staircase that goes straight down the hill to the main part of town again – much easier than the climb up to the top.

            We decided it was time to head for Feucht (a suburb of Nuremberg) where we are staying with some of Paul’s friends for 3 nights.  They are delightful people.  But before we got there, we were afraid we would run out of gas, and didn’t see any stations from the autobahn.  The good old GPS came through again – you can tell it you need gas, and it will find a gas station and then get you back on your original destination route again.  Great gadget!

            We arrived at Paul’s friends close to 6:00, sat and got acquainted over a beer, were shown to our rooms, then went for an excursion.  Egon (our host, 73 years old) took us to the Feucht Little Grand Canyon.  It’s a large park.  Back in the 1800’s, the Germans dug a shipping canal to join the Main river with another river.  At Feucht, it had to cross another river.  So there is a bridge carrying the canal at the top of the canyon, and the existing river running below it.  We marveled at the ingenuity of it all.  Then Egon, Paul, and I took a hike into the “Little Grand Canyon” going for about a kilometer or so on a narrow, muddy trail.  It was beautiful.

            After the walk in the canyon, we went to an honest-to-goodness beer garden in the park.  It was crowded with people, many just drinking beer, which we also did, and then had supper.  Egon showed us a little more of the town, and now we are getting ready for bed, accompanied by a bit of thunder.

            Tomorrow the plan is to take the train into Nuremberg and play tourist.  Sounds like a fascinating place.

Day 20

            Pretty slow day today.  After a nice breakfast, we took Paul and Barb over to the Luther House and spent a couple hours with them there.  It was nice to see some of those things again. Then we headed down to the Information Center, WEM office, and Castle church.

            We stopped on the way to pick up a brat for lunch at our favorite brat stand.  We stood in the shade to eat the brat and drink some water.  I then headed across the street back to the stand to put trash in their trash container.  There were four people standing around a little table, blocking the way to the trash can.  I stood there for a moment trying to figure out how to get to the trash, then decided I had to ask them to move.  I said “Enschuldigen sie, bitte” (German for “excuse me.”)  One of the ladies jumped a bit and said “Oh, I’m sorry.  Pardon me.” (in English.)  I smiled and said “I should just have tried it in English first, shouldn’t I?”  We all laughed about it, and then started chatting.  It was two sisters and their husbands who were in town for the day.  One couple was from Medford, MN (just south of Faribault), and the other couple was from Rochester, MN.  Our eyes just bugged out at that discovery.   I explained what we were doing for the past two weeks, and they had seen the sign in shop windows about our services.  The couple from Rochester asked what church I was pastor of there, and I said “Trinity Lutheran, right downtown on 2^nd.”  They looked like they were having trouble placing the church, so I followed up with “Just across the street from Just Rite Foods” and they began to nod.  Everyone knows where Just Rite Foods is, even if they don’t know that Trinity is right across the street!  Nice to chat with people from home.

            We went to the Information Office and watched the English version of the movie about Luther and Wittenberg, then Dea and I came back to the hotel to pack.  Paul and Barb are still out wandering.  We’re going to have a farewell supper with LeRoy at the Kartoffelhaus and then get to bed early.

            In case you may not know German, Kartoffel is German for potatoes.  Virtually everything on the menu has potatoes in it.  And the food is very good.  Dea had potato soup with sausages, and I had a potato pancake with apples and whipped cream.  We split both dishes, and they were wonderful!  Had nice conversations with LeRoy, then strolled back to the hotel.  We’ve pretty much finished packing, and then we’ll compare notes with Paul and Barb for tomorrow.

            There are real mixed feelings about leaving Wittenberg.  The two weeks have gone fast, and have been very interesting, but it is certainly time to move on and move toward home.  We’re talking about stopping in Bamburg for a few hours on the way to Nuremberg.  I’ll let you know where we ended up when I can.

            There will probably not be fresh posts to the blog for a few days.  We are staying in a private home with friends of Paul and Barb until Friday morning, and they will likely not have WiFi in their home.  I’ll try to keep up with the blog, and post it when we check into our hotel in Munich on Friday.

– Day 19

            Whoo!  It’s a warm one today!  So it was nice to spend some time in the air conditioned car, since nothing else is air conditioned around here!

            After a nice breakfast in the hotel, we headed for Torgau.  It’s about an hour’s drive each way, southeast from Wittenberg.  One of the guide books says “Traditionally, Wittenberg is known as the `mother of the Reformation,’ while Torgau is dubbed the `wet nurse of the Reformation.’  It is really fascinating.

            The GPS got us to the town in good shape, but then we wandered around for a few minutes trying to find the “zentrum: of the town (center of the historic section).  We found a parking lot, bought a 1 euro parking permit, then discovered that parking is free on Sunday.  Oh well. 

            We walked past the Marienkirche (more on that later), but they were having a Gottesdienst (worship service).  There was a sand sculpture of Katie Luther out in front – they had a Katie Luther festival last weekend, and I suspect it was left over from that.

            From there we headed for the Hartenfels Palace, called the best preserved example of Renaissance architecture in Europe.  The castle is built right on the Elbe River.  As part of the palace, Luther was asked to design a chapel.  After the chapel was built according to his specifications, he came from Wittenberg to dedicate it.  It’s a wonderful little chapel – 3 stories high with a balcony on each level.  I have wanted to see this chapel for many years, since it is the first example of a worship space designed particularly for Lutheran worship.  As I had been told, one of the main features that Luther specified is a free-standing altar, and Luther expected that communion would be celebrated from behind the table.  I wish we could convince more Lutherans that this is indeed a proper Reformation design!  Also, the pulpit (mounted on the side wall as is usual here in Germany,) is in the middle of the nave.  This is to emphasize that the proclamation of the Word is the central element, along with the sacrament, in Lutheran worship.  It was truly a wonderful space.

            After the chapel, we began to explore some other parts of the castle.  To get to the inside, we had to cross the moat bridge, and they still keep brown bears in the moat to guard the castle.  Some guards – the bears were sleeping in the shade!

            We walked down  a ramp to the Elbe River level, and found that we could tour the foundation of the castle, which served as a prison and a dungeon.  Cool, dark, damp – it really felt medieval.  Got what I hope will be some good pictures down there. 

            From there, we went down by the river through one of the lower level castle gates.  It was beautiful.  Then back to the interior courtyard.  There is a really cool free-standing spiral staircase that goes up 3 stories – we climbed that.  Finished at the castle after that.

            Torgau is also known as the place where American and Russian soldiers met at the Elbe River near the end of WWII.  We found a little museum that had a photo exhibit of some of those times – very fascinating.

            The other claim to fame for Torgau is that Katie Luther is buried there.  We saw a “museum” that consisted of a memorial room for Katie in the house where she died.  After that, we went back to the Marienkirche, where she is buried.  So now we have visited Martin’s grave and Katie’s grave.  The grave is in the church where we stopped at the beginning.  It has been “refreshed” and is very beautiful.  We walked around the church for a while, then my brother asked if he might play the organ.  Much to everyone’s surprise, the answer was “Yes.  Just don’t forget to turn it off when you are done!”  So he played for about 20 minutes.  It is a very very nice instrument, and it was fun to hear him play.  Then we headed back to Wittenberg.  We tried to stop at a couple grocery stores, but they must all be closed on Sundays.

            This afternoon at 5 we went to Choral Evensong at the Schlosskirche.  It was really very nice, modeled after the Choral Evensong that you would hear at an Anglican cathedral in Britain.  Small choir – we all sat with them in the “choir” of the church.

            The brat stand was closed, so we went to another outdoor restaurant for a hamburger – my first one in almost 3 weeks.  The weather outside was gorgeous.  After supper we sat outside in front of the hotel and talked for an hour and a half.  Now it’s time to finish this and post it.  Tomorrow we’ll spend in Wittenberg, walking around one more time with Paul and Barb.

Day 18

            It’s late, but I don’t want to miss a day.  We got a leisurely start to the day.  After breakfast, we worked our way down to the castle, which as you may guess, is next to the castle church!  Brilliant!  It is now a museum, and there is nothing on the inside to suggest a castle.  It is a natural history and Wittenberg history museum.  It was rather interesting – the lady selling tickets explained what was in the museum, but then cautioned us “There is no Luther in the museum!”  She was pretty much right.  It was Wittenberg history, not Luther in Wittenberg history.  On the third level was a model of Wittenberg from the early 1800’s, which was really very interesting.  What was most interesting was that Luther’s house (the former Augustinian monastery) was not in the model.  “No Luther in the museum” was right!

            We also went back into the Castle Church for a bit, to take a few more pictures.  Besides, we could do it, so we did!  It is a wonderful place.

            We came back to the hotel for noon snacks and siesta, and mostly to wait for Paul and Barb to arrive.  They got here safely around 3:00, and we had a great chat.  They saw some very interesting things on their travels before arriving here.  It’s really nice to have them here.

            Then it was time for church.  I got dressed (well, I was dressed before, but put on my clerical shirt and grabbed my vestments) and we headed the two blocks to the Stadtkirche.  The assistant Kirchenmeister showed me the sacristy where I could vest.  Then I went to find the organist, because I had to explain how the sermon was going to work.  We sang all 10 verses of “Dear Christians, One and All Rejoice” for the sermon, and I had commentary/explanation of each stanza before we sang it.  Those readers from Trinity will remember that I did the same sermon “back home” a couple months ago.

            The organist was a student.  I don’t think she could have been 18 years old.  She had played in the recital yesterday, and did a very nice job.  Her English was quite broken, but between us, I explained to her what I was going to do, and gave her a script to follow.  She really did very well playing for the whole service.  I was impressed.

            There were not quite 20 people in church tonight. A lot less than the 103 we had last week in the Schlosskirche.  But I did get to preach this time from the pulpit.  Luther himself never preached from this pulpit.  It was put up many years after his death.  Yet I know the previous pulpit was in much the same place.  It may sound weird, but I had a very strong sense of history, and even Luther’s presence, as I led worship.  This was even stronger tonight than last week.  It’s hard to describe the feeling, but again, awesome comes close.

            After church, we came back to the hotel, dodging raindrops, to “dress down” a bit, then headed to Tanta Emma’s for supper (Paul, Barb, Dea, and me).  Good food, good company, a very good evening.  We visited for a while.  Paul and Barb left a few minutes ago, and I’m trying to fill in the blog.

            Tomorrow morning we’re headed for Torgau.  I’m really excited about this side trip – I know there are some really interesting things there.  Plus, we need to get back by 5, since there is “evensong” in the Castle Church then, and I want to hear it.  More tomorrow.

            P.S.   Dea’s arm is really doing quite well,  It twinges once in a while, but on the whole, it is much better than it was

– Day 17

            Well, it was an adventure! We got up early this morning, intending to visit Eisleben  (the town of both Luther’s birth and his death) and perhaps Halle. We actually made our target time – we were out of the hotel about 8:00 a.m.  We felt very confident, ready to try out our new GPS in English.  It got us exactly where we wanted to go, and pretty much in the time allotted.

            At the same time, Miss GPS sometimes gave confusing directions, meaning I would either turn too soon or too late.  Then we would hear the dreaded word “recalculating.”  Some of you may remember that I preached a sermon on “recalculating” within the past year.  The worst part of the trip over was in Halle – we didn’t intend to get into Halle on the way over, but got recalculated right into the city – narrow streets, unmarked lanes, etc.  Finally the GPS got us out of town and to Eisleben.  We found Luther’s birth house with no problem.  Parking was another problem.  We probably ended up parking a kilometer away, and then could only park for 2 hours on a “parkschein.”  The birth house was closed for renovation when we were here in 2006.  They did a really nice job of renovating and expanding.  We spent well over 2 hours going through the place.  Lots of exhibits about the copper mining industry that Luther’s father was involved in.  We also discovered that Luther’s “death house” was closed for renovation, but that was OK, since we spent quite a bit of time there 5 years ago.  We wanted to visit St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church, just a block from the birth house, where Luther was baptized,  but it too was closed for renovation.  One of the workmen allowed us to peek inside – its full of scaffolding and completely empty except for workmen.  We had also seen this five years ago, and the contrast was striking.

            By then we decided that we should start heading back, without stops in Halle or anywhere else.  Mrs. GPS recalculated a couple more times before we got out of Eisleben, and then did we get a tour!  Signs kept saying “Strasse Schade” – bad roads. I’ll bet no American tourist in 30 years has been on those roads – mostly one lane, many parts cobblestone, no shoulders, windy, perhaps you can get the picture.  At one point the GPS gave the direction:  “Get on ferry.  Get off ferry.”  We made it repeat itself four times before we discovered that we indeed had to get on the ferry across the river at the little village of Wettin (have no idea what river it was), ride across on the ferry, and get off again on the other side.  The trip across the river took five minutes  Once we were on the way again, we decided it was a pretty interesting trip, and we got home in plenty of time.

            It is interesting that the GPS took us from Wittenberg to Eisleben by one route, and returned us by a totally different route.  I haven’t quite figured that one out yet!

            But we are back, and in an hour we are supposed to be leading devotions.  Perhaps we will be 3 for 3 with no-shows this week! 

            By the way, we had to fill the car up with gas on the way back.  They sell gas for 1.61 euros per liter – the equivalent of about $90 to fill up a ¾ empty tank.  Hope we don’t have to do that real often!

             I am now officially 0-3.  Right – three devotion nights in a row with nobody showing up.  That’s almost not quite true – David Mahsmann, who used to be part of the International Center staff in St. Louis (LCMS), is now based in Germany, and he stopped in, mostly to say hello to us and to talk with LeRoy.  But nobody else.

              We walked down to the Information Center and watched a half hour video about Luther and Wittenberg.  It is very well done, and available in both English and German.  The problem is that European DVD’s use a different formatting system than American DVD’s, and they don’t play on any of our equipment.  Otherwise we’d buy one to bring home.

            Went to the organ recital at 6 at the Stadtkirche.  The head organist and two of his students played.  It is really a very nice sounding instrument, although the playing by the students was a bit uneven.

            Then went to the Asian outdoor café for supper.  I liked it a lot – Dea had her fill before her plate was empty.  Paul and Barb arrive tomorrow, and since we don’t know for sure when they will get here, we’re going to stay in town for the day.  Besides, there is church tomorrow night, and I keep hoping that it won’t turn into 0-4!