Wittenberg by Night

It just happened that one of our nights in Wittenberg was the night of the town’s Erlebnis Nacht - kind of a street festival with lots of activity and special entertainment.

The view looking down the street.

The Feuervogel (firebird), the symbol of Erlebnis Nacht.

The Melanchthon statue in the town square casting a cool shadow.

Can’t remember what the light up guy was called, but he was cool.

Sand sculpture

Juggler on roller skates

Town square all lit up.

Wittenberg by Day

Our full day in Wittenberg began with a visit to the Lutherhaus. I was pleasantly surprised. I did not expect the explanations and especially the theological interpretations to be great - but they actually did a good job of explaining the issues and how the Reformation progressed. They also had a lot of old documents from that time, which were cool to look at.

Lutherhaus.

Disputation Dais.

With Katie Luther.

After Lutherhaus was Melanchthonhaus. It was interesting, but not as good as Lutherhaus. Melanchthonhaus was better preserved, but Lutherhaus had better stuff in it.

Those two sites took us most of the morning. So then it was down the street to the Castle Church to climb the tower!

The Castle Church tower.

Part way up . . .

The view from the top!

The bells in the tower.

Next we went in to check out the Castle Church. It is no longer called that, actually. When it was repaired and restored after bombings, war, and destruction, they renamed it “The Memorial Church of the Lutheran Reformation.” Lots of statues of reformers now grace its pillars . . . 

Luther

Melanchthon

Bugenhagen

Spalatin

Jonas

Brenz 

Rhegius

Amsdorf

Cruciger

Then if was off to see St. Mary’s Church, where Luther did much of his preaching. After the Castle Church, it is the next tallest structure in the town.

Outside the church.

This is the BACK of the tryptich on the altar! The front is pretty famous, but I had never seen the back before. It has Jesus rising from the dead in the middle, flanked by Abraham ready to slay Isaac and Moses pointing the the bronze serpent on the pole in the wilderness. 

Right next to St. Mary’s is the Old Latin School, the LCMS presence in Wittenberg. This is where we will attend church on Sunday.

Finally, here’s the Luther statue in the town square.

Next, Wittenberg at night . . .

Arriving in Wittenberg

We left Berlin this morning after we decided not to see anything more there right now. We were having some trouble with our rental car, though. It kept telling us our tire pressure was low, so we stopped to fill it. But the light wouldn’t go out. So we had to go back to the rental car place at the Berlin airport so they could check and recalibrate everything. That set us back time-wise. But after that, it was off to Wittenberg!

We arrived mid-afternoon and walked through the town, getting a feel for where everything is. It is a small, quaint place, especially compared to Berlin! Here’s a picture looking down the main street in Lutherstadt, with the tower of the Castle Church in the background . . .

Here’s a closer-up picture of the Castle Church along with the door Luther posted the Theses on. It has the Theses permanently on them. (We hope to climb up the tower tomorrow!)

After seeing the town, we went to Luther’s Marienkirche for an organ recital at 6. Nice organ! We’ll go back and take a closer look at everything tomorrow. Then we went to dinner at the Witten Burger restaurant, followed by a walk down to the Elbe River. 

Here’s a cool picture - we could see both the Castle Church and St. Mary’s Church walking to the Elbe! (The Castle Church tower is on the left; St. Mary’s on the right.)

Finally, as we looked across the Elbe, looky who we saw! (Tap on the picture to blow up and take a closer look.)

Tomorrow, we’ll do the touristy stuff. :-)

Berlin

Our vacation begins in Berlin. We flew from Dulles to Munich and then to Berlin, arriving about 3 pm local time. By the time we got our rental car and navigated our way through Berlin, checked into our hotel, and got to our room, it was getting close to 6!

First thing to say: driving in Berlin in nuts! Between new street signs, construction, and just as many bikes on the road as cars, it was harrowing getting through town! So it took us a while, but we got here. 

No time to rest, though, as we had a reservation to see the Bundestag building at 7. So we dropped off our stuff and hoofed it downtown. 

At the top of the building is a dome to climb up and get views of the city.

After that, we began walking back to the hotel. On the way we stopped and saw the Brandenburg Gate and stopped for dinner at the Alt Berliner restaurant.

We got back to the hotel about 10 - exhausted! And fell asleep pretty quick. I didn’t post last night because I was just too tired.

This morning we had a very nice breakfast at the hotel and headed out to “Museum Island.” And yup, it is! Right in the middle of Berlin. We went to the Pergamon Museum first, which has lots of artifacts from BC Assyria! I took some pictures to use in Bible Class. Then we went to the Pergamon Diorama, which shows what life was like in Pergamum in the first century AD. Again, Bible Class fodder!

This is the gate to one of the old pagan temples in Pergamum! This is what Paul had to deal with in bringing the Gospel to the people there. We then also stopped at the Bode Museum, which had a lot of Medieval artifacts from Germany and France. 

Side note: street performers here are really talented! When we were driving to the hotel, there was a man who was juggling in the street for donations! Then today, we saw a man doing another really talented thing. Fun to watch!

OK, so after “Museum Island” we started back to the hotel for a little rest. But along the way we stopped to see Marienkirche - an old Roman church. Some cool stuff inside, but also Luther on the outside!

After a brief rest, it was off to see the Berlin Wall memorial. That was very interesting, to see the pieces that are still there, how it changed over the years, and the big security zone. 

After seeing that it was time to walk back to the hotel, and on the way we stopped for dinner at the Berlin Hofbrauhaus. Really good food, and live music!

Wiener schnitzel!

Tomorrow it’s off to Wittenberg. We may try to see a little more of Berlin in the morning. We’ll see. But a very full day and a little in Berlin! We’re off to a good start. 

Vacation!

Yes, the time has finally arrived! Two weeks of R&R. Taking the trip to Germany my congregation gave me for the 25th anniversary of my ordination (three years ago!). We had to wait out Covid, but now we're finally going. Two weeks to unplug. But I'll try to post some pictures and updates here each day so my most generous folks can keep up with how we're doing. ;-)

We are so grateful!