Wittenberg

We got up at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday in order to be at the breakfast buffet when it opened at 6:15. We needed to be all checked out of our room and have our luggage in the lobby by 6:45. We walked to the train station again and, once again, were thankful for the students’ help in lugging our stuff. We boarded the very crowded train for Wittenberg. Once there, we walked through town (with all of our luggage) and stopped at the Luther House. They agreed to let us put our luggage in lockers until we returned there later in the day. We then went to see the door where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses. We took several pictures and then went into Martin Luther’s church called the Castle church) for a 10 a.m. worship service. It was in German so I didn’t understand it but, once again, I could find familiar phrases in the order of worship. We also had a baptism but I couldn’t see from where I sat. We intended to sing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” after the service in the front of the church but the baptism family was taking pictures and we didn’t want to interrupt them. Also, we didn’t have a copy of the words. I worked at it during the sermon and thought I had remembered them but when the students sang it as we walked to the train station later I realized that I had bits and pieces of all the verses in my version. It’s probably good we didn’t try it then! We also saw MartinLuther’s “grave” in this church.

Next we went to look at the City church and learned more about Martin Luther and his work. We also learned some things that show the total depravity of humans in general. We tend to point fingers and say that the _______are bad. (Fill in the blank. Catholics, Germans, Russians, etc.) and we think that we are better than them. However, we do horrible things as well. After hearing how these Protestants treated the Jews we can see why they bought into Hitler’s lies so readily.

After this we split up to find some quick food for lunch. (“Quick” is a relative term!) We had soup and some bread and meat and the boys got ice cream cones. We are always excited to find free bathrooms and there were some here so we made sure we went (Most places you have to pay 20 – 40 cents to use the bathroom.) Next we returned to the Martin Luther museum. We also learned about Lucas Cranach, a famous artist from Wittenberg. We saw some of his work in the City church. The museum was interesting and I hope I retain some of what I learned. I never realized that Luther was such a social revolutionary in addition to being a spiritual revolutionary. He instituted many social programs for the poor and successfully left his possessions to his wife after his death even though women weren’t allowed that privilege.

At this point our adventure really began! We unlocked all of our belongings from the lockers but before we even had left the museum, the wheel on Leonard’s suitcase broke making it difficult to pull. It is our biggest suitcase so it was even more difficult to carry! Once again we had to troop out group through town back to the train station. The students were planning to take a train back to Bremen which left 10 minutes before our train to Arnhem, Netherlands. We said good-bye and split to our different tracks. After they left, Len got nervous because the signs did not correspond with the printouts we had. He stopped a conductor and asked for help. “Oh yes,” he said, “That train will be by shortly. Don’t get on this train. Wait for the next one.” We waited and waited but no other train came! We knew it was the last train that went to our final destination on Sunday. Finally, Len stopped a conductor who had just arrived by taxi to catch his next train. He looked at our printout and said, “You are at the wrong train station. The train that just went by without stopping was the train you should be on.” We didn’t know there were 2 train stations in Wittenberg! Now began a frantic attempt to figure out what to do. The conductor helped us quite a bit and then Len worked on it some more. We had to haul our luggage down and back up to another track. While we waited there, Len found a ticket office. (We had thought there was not a soul around manning this place.) He went in and she helped him plan a new route. It meant we had to go to yet another track. We were tired and cranky by the time we got on a train and then there was not much room. We have several transfers to make and we will be an hour and a half late arriving in the Netherlands but hopefully, Len’s dad will wait for us. I am typing this in windows while on the plane and will post it when we get a chance to have internet again.