Glimpses of Mom and Dad's Favorite City

Mom and Dad in front of the Luther statue in the town square.

We had donuts and they were very good. And mine had raspberry jelly inside which was a plus.

The doors of the Schlosskirche, where Luther nailed his 95 Thesis

The tower of the Schlosskirche (which means Castle Church)

Inside St. Mary's Church with my dad's favorite altarpiece inside

Martin Luther's grave which is underneath the pulpit in the Schlosskirche

Another view of the Castle Church

Wittenberg is Mom and Dad's favorite city.  Whereas I say I'll move to the mountains in New Zealand, they say they'll move here someday.  Everyday we walked down the same street and went to both the Schlosskirche and the Stadtkirche (St. Mary's church). We had donuts and strawberries and tea here and mom and dad had Wittenberg beer. We took lots of pictures and we each bought some article of clothing (the boys bought German soccer jerseys, Abby bought shirts and a skirt (the one in these pictures, in fact), I got a shirt and Ellie got a shirt. And we had nice, relaxing days which was good because we didn't exactly have nice, relaxing nights.  Suffice it to say there was a large group staying in the same hostel and us and they weren't particularly quiet.  Nevertheless, we all very much enjoyed the city of the Reformation and I would definitely love to go again.  Though, I'm probably not as anxious as my parents. Seriously. 

-Hannah

Follow the Leader

This was the way we walked around all the towns.

This is in Eisenach.  That house is the Cotta house where Luther lived while attending the Latin school in town.

Is it any wonder why so many people stared at us?  We all became very adept at following David  through the crowds (it helps he is tall!) and staying together.  We were frequently heard saying to the children, "Don't forget to look up," or, "Stop always looking at your feet, you're missing the scenery," or, "Come on, keep up."

The Fastest Car In The World

While riding the bus in Berlin on Saturday, David spotted the VW showcase (? - museum?).  I'm not sure what to call the place but we made sure not to miss going inside and seeing this beauty:

We first saw this car on our favorite show, Top Gear.

It is so pretty in person.

I just wish I could hear the sound of the engine in person.  If I did, I think I would melt.

We saw all sorts of wonderful cars while driving on the Autobahn.  Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and more Porsche's than you can shake a stick at.  Not to mention all the Audis and VW's everyone was driving, even the taxis were Mercedes.  But this one surpasses them all.  What a treat.  What a car.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We arrived home on Tuesday in the early evening. It was nice to be greeted by Matt and Michele and their girls. Michele was kind enough to bring us supper. We ate and then went to greet Grandpa and Grandma for a short time. By 7:30 or 8:00 pm we were all in bed and most were sound asleep.

It was quite refreshing to sleep in our own beds. And still a bit on German time, plus going to bed so early, we were all awake by 6am. Today we will spend getting back into the swing of daily life tasks.

We are sorry we haven't posted in several days. When we arrived in Berlin we were without Internet access. We do plan on continuing to post about our trip as we sort through the all the pictures and remember our wonderful time.

Not a Mundane Monday

We had planned to spend the day in Eisenach touring the Bach house, the Luther house, and the Wartburg castle. We did those things but first, at the invitation from Pr. Kallensee, we drove to Gotha.

Pr. Kallansee you may remember serves three parishes. Gotha is one of them and also the city in which he lives. He invited us to see his church and also a quick walking tour of the town.

Here are some pictures of his church:

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of Gotha:

The kids looking at the city view.

 

Pr. Kallensee explaining the meaning on the door of the chapel of the castle we were walking around:

 

 

Lucas Cranach the Elder's wife came from this city. This building is where she was born.

After about an hour Pr. Kallensee had to teach a class but first invited us into his home, a parsonage right across the street. We were able to meet his wife who served us coffe, water, or juice, plus a little snack. We visited for a bit and discovered they too have five children. Three girls and two boys. Their two youngest are the same ages as ou Hannan and Nathan. Unfortunately we couldn't stay very long and said good bye to our new friends.

We drove on to Eisenach and decided to tour the Wartburg first. But when we bought our tickets we realized we first had time for lunch. We ate at the restaurant at the top of the castle. Who would want to climb down all those stairs and back up again? Just for lunch? Not us!

After lunch, we had a nice tour of the Wartburg. It was a small English group and our guide did a very nice job. After the tour, we quickly went through the museum rooms and ended at the Luther room, our whole purpose for visiting.

Oops, that picture is on Hannah's camera and she is in bed already. I will post it another day!

It was here that Luther was taken after he was kidnapped and lived for ten months as Junker Georg. In about eleven of those weeks he translates the New Testament into German.

 

 

We then toured the Luther house and the Bach house before calling it a day. More about those visits in another post.

 

Organs

Just some pictures of my favorite instrument so you can see how its appearance matches the beauty of its voice.

The organs in St. Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Yes, There are two. Yes, I am jealous.

The organ in the chapel of the Augustinian Monastary in Erfurt

The organ in St Peter and St Paul's church in Eisleben

The organ in St. Mary's dome in Erfurt

At the Weißkirche

At the church in the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt

At a church either in Gotha or in Eisenach, my memory fails me

At the church where Bach was baptized

At St. Andrew's in Eisleben

At the Schlosskirche

 

Please forgive any mistakes I made in trying to name all the churches and please also overlook the sometimes horrible pictures. It's hard to take pictures in churches.

Hannah

Bach in Black

Yes, I totally did just combine Bach and ACDC... What is this world coming to?

Bach has been my favorite composer for as long as I can remember. So it has been extremely fun to see the Bach sites here in Eisenach, Mühlhausen, and Leipzig.

 

In Eisenach we toured his birth house. When mom and dad came to Germany five years ago they didn't get to see the museum. But this time we did and it was well worth our time.

This is a plaque in the church where he was baptized, only a few blocks away from the Birth house.

One room was dedicated to Bach's settings and variations of Luther hymns. You could listen to an orchestra and/or choir perform the piece while reading about the hymn, a backstory on why Luther wrote it, and how Bach wrote his setting. Interesting fact 1: Bach and Luther went to the same Latin school in Eisenach.

At the birth house there was also a live music performance every hour which we got to attend. The man played on two organs and three harpsichords, and explained something to the group which we couldn't understand because everything he said was in German. I picked up a little, but not enough to really tell you anything. :) Interesting fact 3: services in Bach's day started at 7:00 and went on for three to four hours.

When we were in Mühlhausen we got to see a church were Bach was organist for a year. Like there is often is here, there was a statue outside of Bach that we posed with. Interesting fact 2: Bach was put in jail for four weeks for, and I quote, "Obstinacy"

 

In Leipzig we went to another Bach museum, once again one that mom and dad had never been to. It was also very good, we got to see a bunch of instruments from his day and the organ console from the church in Leipzig where he held the position of organist for over 20 years. Interesting fact 4: Bach wrote a new cantata every week for the upcoming Sunday. Feast days got especially elaborate ones and his St. Matthew's Passion has over 60 pieces, all of which would have been played on Good Friday.

At both museums we got to see books from his huge theological library. We got to see a few of his bibles and even some Luther books that he owned. It was also neat to read that one of his bibles, called the Cavlov bible, is owned by the St. Louis Seminary.

Stained glass windows in St. Thomaskirche of Bach and Luther respectively.

We also got to see St. Thomaskirche, where he was cantor. The organ he played on no longer exists and the console is in the museum, but it was still very neat to see the church where he played organ and where some of his most famous pieces were first played. It is also where he was buried.

 

And in case you're wondering, there weren't pictures allowed in the museums so that's why there aren't any from the museums in this post.

Hannah