Day 14

            We’ve been in Wittenberg a week now.  By the way, Wittenberg literally means “white mountain.”  There obviously are no mountains around.  When the city was founded in 1150 A.D. in the territory of August the Bear, it was built at the ford of the Elbe River, where there were a number of sand hills visible (white hills).  There’s your Trivial Pursuit information for the day!

            We had a leisurely start to the day with breakfast as usual (yum yum).  I discovered how friendly and helpful the hotel staff is here.  I had forgotten to print out my devotional material for this week.  Those who know how I work know that if it isn’t in the “script” it doesn’t happen.  I was preparing the script for this week, and no devotion.  I had it all done and saved on my flash drive, which I had along.  I asked at the desk if it might be possible to have someone print out a two-page document, and with a smile the gal behind the desk took me to the “guest computer” equipped with a printer and USB port.  1 minute, and all was done.  Nice people here!

We walked past the Stadtkirche to take some pictures of the north side, which we didn’t even look at until last night.  Then we headed for the Schlosskirche (Castle Church).  We walked around and looked at the excavations going on.  There were some interesting things – archaeologists were sketching and measuring on the south side, and we think some were using an underground camera of some kind on the north side.  Watching them work was a good excuse to delay the major plan for the morning.  I wanted to climb the tower of the Castle church.  Dea wanted to do it too, but made it only to the second or third level.  289 steps – circular staircase – to the top.  I was actually proud of myself for making it to the top.  I saw the three bells at the top (all fitted with mechanical ringers, although some of the old hand-ringing mechanism was still visible).  The view of Wittenberg is astounding from the top!  The roof of the Schlosskirche is extraordinarily beautiful, made from colored tiles with patterns.  You really can’t see this from anywhere but the tower.  The view of St. Mary’s Church, the bridge over the Elbe, even of our hotel, all of these things were amazing from way up there.  I was the only one up there.

            After picking Dea up on the way down, we walked through a part of the old city that we hadn’t visited before – along the north edge.  We saw a park, a playground, a zoo, and the Catholic Church.  The Catholic church is quite small, 20^th century, and locked up tight.  Apparently not too many people come to Wittenberg to visit the Catholic church! 

            We stopped at the Stadtkirche (= town church = St. Mary’s Church.  I know, I am not consistent in my references.  Sorry, but I suppose that is to keep you thinking!) and bought a little guide sheet to help me identify some of the pictures I took, then came back to the hotel for a snack and maybe a siesta (In Germany?!?!?  Something isn’t right here!)

I also took time to download the owners manual for the GPS system I bought yesterday, and figured out how to get it to talk to us in English instead of German!  That should help a lot as we travel around.

Later is the organ concert at the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) and “organ crawl.”  That promises to be the highlight of my day.

            It was!  For those who are interested, the organist played the Bach a minor Prelude and Fugue, some Reger, Boellman, and Langlais.  What I don’t quite understand, from an American perspective, is why most of the German organists I’ve heard in the past two weeks play Bach with 16’ foundations on in the manuals.  Sounds quite muddy, to use Dea’s words.  Anyway, after the recital we were invited up for a tour of the organ – inside and out!  It was build in the 1860’s, and rebuilt in the 1980’s, when they added a fourth manual to allow for a wider variety of literature.  Mechanical action throughout.  Beautiful.  Then, after Thomas did the explanation, he invited me to play!  Of course I didn’t have music along and made a fool of myself, but what a thrill!  Thomas knew that I was an organist, so he explained the workings of the organ to a number of others in German, then would look at me and say “I just told them how a reed pipe works” or “I just explained 16’, 8’, etc. stops).  It was really great!

            We’re going to wait a bit, then head to the Brauhaus for supper – think I’m going to have pork hocks and sauerkraut!  I’m salivating already!