Happy Birthday!

My youngest is now 18 years old. The time has flown by. But couldn't be prouder. A beautiful, faithful, caring, loving person. Happy birthday!

Wartburg

I'm finally going to finish this up!

The final stop on our trip was to Eisenach to visit the Wartburg Castle, where Luther lived for protection for a bit after the Diet of Worms condemned him as an outlaw.

The view of the castle as we began our hike up.

This view is cool as you can see how the castle has been added onto several limes through the years.

Below is the room where Luther stayed:

After our visit to the Wartburg, we drove back to Berlin and stayed by a hotel close to the airport so we'd be ready for our flight back to the US. :-)  All-in-all it was a wonderful trip and we had a very good time. Our most hearty thanks to the congregation for their generosity and love in providing this for us!

Coburg - Eisenach - Frankfurt

Today we left Nuremberg and drove to Eisenach. On the way, we stopped at the Coburg Castle. Most folks know about Wartburg, but fewer about Coburg. We'll get to the Wartburg, but Coburg is the Castle where Luther stayed in 1530 as the Diet of Augsburg was happening. He was still an outlaw and so couldn't be in Augsburg for the Diet (i.e., assembly, congress), so he stayed nearby at Coburg while Melanchthon accompanied the princes.

The Luther Chapel

A Luther rose on the wall

After this, it was off to Eisenach for the night. Eisenach is quite the sleepy little town. We found some interesting accomodations there. (Sorry, no picture! But it did have a Croatian restaurant with it!) We ate at a place called the Augustiner, a little old place buried in the midst of the town. 

This is called The Augustiner Teller, So I had to try it. And yup, that's pork!

The next day was Sunday, so off to church. We had checked with our missionaries in Germany and there were no good English services to go to in Eisenach or the nearby area, so we decided to drive over to Frankfurt am Main (about 2 hours) to go to the church one of our missionaries is at, who is also a friend of mine. After the service, we took him to lunch and then he took us on a walking tour of the old part of the city. 

An interesting mix of old buildings in the foreground and a modern skyscraper in the background.

With our missionary and tour guide, Rev. Gary Schuschke.

Took this picture not only because of the old buildings, but because of the flags flying in the front: The EU, German, Frankfurt, and Ukranian flags together. You may not see that ever again.

The Market Square in the heart of the Old City, where the Christmas Market is every year.

Locks attached to an old walking bridge over the Main river. I saw this some other places in Germany (but not this many!) - and wondered about it. The story is that when someone gets married, they put a lock on the bridge and throw the keys in the water, so their marriage will never be "unlocked." Some of these locks were quite elaborately made for the occasion, too! However, there are so many on this bridge, it is now against the law for people to put any more on - they are getting too heavy for the structure! But we saw a few very recent ones anyway.

So after a nice day in Frankfurt we bid farewell for the drive back to Eisenach. Only one more day in Germany!

Nuremberg

After our tour of Dachau, we traveled up to Nuremberg. This city has both Reformation and historical significance. There is the old city which is still surrounded by walls, and that's where we spent most of our time. 

First, however, we went to the Ministry of Justice and toured where the Nuremberg trials took place - the trials of the top-most Nazi officials after World War II. It was a very interesting display

Courtroom 600, where the trials took place.

It has been altered and is a bit smaller from when the trials took place, for it is still an active courtroom, used by the Ministry of Justice still today! But what's still there is pretty much as it look for those trials.

After that, we went into the old city and spent the rest of the day there. Highlights were the Albrecht Durer house (important Reformation artist), St. Lorenz church, where an important Reformation figure, Andrew Osiander, was pastor, the famous town fountain, and the Nuremberg castle at the top of the hill, from which were some awesome views.

The famous town fountain. Quite ornate (though you can't tell from the picture!) But you can get an idea of the size with the people at the bottom of the picture.

St. Lorenz

In the castle at the top of Nuremberg

The view from the castle. The nearer steeples on the right are of St. Sebald's Roman church. The steeples farther in the distance on the left are of St. Lorenz.

Finally, one other picture, with explanation . . .

This is from the inside of St. Lorenz church. You can see the pulpit on the left of the picture, in the midst of the congregation, and a crucifix of our Lord on a pillar directly opposite it. I saw this arrangement more than once, which got me to thinking . . . there is a famous picture of Luther preaching and pointing to Christ crucified (see below). I have always thought of that picture not in realistic terms, but stylistic and representing an important truth. But maybe it actually is more realistic than not! With this kind of arrangement, the pulpit facing a crucifix and both in the midst of the congregation . . . the congregation's not in the right place, but still . . . hmmm.

Dachau

Today we went to see the Nazi concentration camp memorial at Dachau. It was an interesting and sobering place. We got an English tour filled with lots of information from a tour guide who was German but spoke English, and had relatives that were both German and Jewish. So she had quite the interesting perspective. I didn't take too many pictures there - it didn't seem quite appropriate. But here are some:

The famous gate which says "Arbeit Macht Frei." Actually, this gate is a reproduction, for someone stole the original! But they found it later in Norway (I think it was) and now have it on display behind glass.

Memorial to "The Unknown Prisoner." What was interesting is that he has his hands in his pockets. This, our guide told us, represented freedom, since they weren't allowed to do this while in the camp!

Perimeter fencing. Where the person is standing is the "no go zone." Anyone on that grass would be immediately shot (from the guard tower in the background). If you made it through that area, you had to go down and up the ditch, then was the electrified barbed wire fence, and on the other side of that (not pictured) is a moat! Our guide said there was only one successful escape from Dachau. But even if you did, there was no place to go. The people didn't want to be caught around you and would probably turn you back in anyway.

Our guide told us that one thing guards would do it take a prisoner's hat, throw it into the "no go zone," and order them to retrieve it. If they did, they would be shot from the guard tower. If they did not, they would be shot for disobeying an order!

Memorial sculpture. Barbed wire and people all twisted together.

Bavarian Alps

So I not only got a little behind with my posting here, we had a couple nights in a hotel where I did not have internet access - which got me even farther behind! So I'll try to catch up a bit now . . . ;-)

We took another hike in the Bavarian Alps before we had to bid a sad farewell. We really liked being out in nature here. As I said in a post a couple of days ago, we had a bit of a rain storm and so the waterfalls were a lot bigger and faster. We hiked up to a place called Wimbachschloss. It was a long way up (easy coming down!) and not much of a "schloss" - it was now a lunch/snack place for hikers! But it was still a good hike. Pictures:

At the entrance to "NationalPark Berchtesgaden"

This is Joanna is a "wadi" - a dry stream bed farther up the hike. I think it is filled with water during the Spring rains and snow melt. But look how big!

Me with an Alpine Marmot at Wimbachschloss.

Wimbachschloss

After this hike, we drove to Hintersee and hiked around the lake there. (We wanted to go to Konigsee and see that larger lake, but it was quite crowded - so we decided to do this smaller one.)

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon and we still had a bit of a drive to our next stop, so off we went . . . to a little place not too far outside of Munich, which you may have heard of before . . .

Berchtesgaden

Our morning in the Bavarian Alps began with a hike up a gorge with some pretty good waterfalls. We went early and it’s a good thing we did because the trail got VERY crowded later! Turns out Tuesday was a big holiday here: August 15 is St. Mary’s Day and most places are closed for the day. Walking up we had the trial largely to ourselves. But coming back, there were hundreds of people of all ages walking up. I’m really glad we didn’t get stuck in all that traffic!

Some pictures . . .

In this picture there is a cross formed by some tree branches in the foreground. The picture didn’t come out great, but you can see it.

When we got to the top, there were not only some great views, but a little chapel that had been built in the 18th century. So while it was a long and often steep climb up, it was worth it.

In the afternoon, we went to see Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. We got an English tour which not only showed us that but also showed us a lot of the other buildings and places where there used to be buildings that were parts of Hitler’s community there. It was very interesting and the views were, again, great.

Hotel for which Hitler made the owner an offer he couldn’t refuse to house his SS troops. You can also see an old guard house on the right to stop folks from getting too close to Hitler’s house.

Entrance to the Eagle’s Nest. You have to go in the tunnel a ways and then take an elevator up to the building perched on the top. See below.

The Eagle’s Nest itself isn’t that impressive - just three rooms that are now a restaurant since they didn’t want it to be a memorial or place of pilgrimage. But where it’s built and the views are something.

Red circle: A modern hotel where the home of Herman Goering (head of the Luftwaffe) used to be.

Blue circle: Where more SS barracks used to be.

Green circle: Where Hitler’s house used to be.

The US had all these buildings torn down again, so they wouldn’t be made into memorials.

Looking down on the Eagle’s Nest.

Salzburg, Austria in the distance.

We found a bunch of these little Austrian flags painted at the top of the hike above the Eagle’s Nest.

Tomorrow: One last hike in the Alps and driving to our next destination.