Day 13

            We got a leisurely start this morning.  Without even thinking about it, I grabbed a red shirt this morning.  It has a tiny American flag embroidered on the front.  Actually, that’s the closest thing I’ve seen to any observance of the 4^th of July all day. 

After breakfast, I hoofed it over to the travel store where I bought my hat and tried to buy a GPS last week.  I am so directionally impaired and scared that I had to ask them once more, and again at the front desk, how to get to the place they thought might have one.

            So, we got the car out of the garage for the first time since Tuesday and headed for the E-Center, a strip mall a couple miles away.  Indeed there was an electronics store much like Best Buy, and they had a wide variety of GPS models.  What they didn’t have were salespeople to help!  We waited for two salespeople, and each of them took well over half an hour helping other customers before we were finally helped.  When we picked out the unit I wanted, the salesman said “No cards, only cash.”  So I had to go find an ATM to get enough cash to buy it.  But buy it we did, and it works!  I’m much more relaxed now.  It seems like it would be good throughout Europe, and perhaps even in the USA!

            We tried it out by going to Grafenhainchen, a little town about 20 miles south of Wittenberg, the birthplace of hymnwriter Paul Gerhard.  His birthhaus is not really his birthhouse – that no longer exists, and the church where he was baptized was locked up tight.  But we did talk to a man at the birthhouse who was preparing for Christenlehre this afternoon – which I believe is equivalent to confirmation instruction and Christian instruction for younger kids.  He said school lets out for the summer tomorrow, and the kids are excited.  He also showed us – inside the Paul Gerhardt “birthhouse” the “winter church.”  The old church is not heated, so in the winter when it gets cold, they have church in a large room in the house.

            We’re having our noon snack and bit of a rest, and then we’ll try to figure out what to do with the rest of the afternoon.  Whatever it is, we will carry our umbrellas.  It’s been raining off and on all day, with likely more tomorrow. Many things are closed on Mondays, but most of the shops are open. 

            Slow afternoon also.  We walked towards the Marktplatz.  I went on ahead to check in at the WEM office – nothing special this week.  Actually, it looks like a very slow week.  Chatted with LeRoy for a bit, then Dea and I toured the Lucas Cranach haus.  Lucas Cranach was a famous painter.  He painted many portraits of Luther, and was best man at Luther’s wedding.  It was a fairly expensive ticket, and we both decided it wasn’t worth the price. Most of the things were reproductions, and very few explanations in English, which made it not so interesting for us.  We worked our way back along some of the shopping streets, and picked up a few souveniers (bell and angels, what else!).  Came back to the room for some down time, then went to the brat stand for supper.  The rest of the evening is just relaxing, I guess.  Too bad the TV only carries programs in German! 

            Lovely sound outside – they do change ringing of the bells from the Stadtkirche at 6:00 p.m. each day.

            Tomorrow there’s an organ recital and an opportunity to tour the organloft at the Schlosskirche.