Part B: Germany

(By Duchess)

Germany in three words: Reformation, old stuff, beautiful scenery. Well, and that big war, but I don't want to talk about those details.

Holy cow, this scroll is literally history, dating back to the SECOND century. It's a handwritten text of the Torah in hebrew. It was mind-boggling to think that someone, way gone, wrote this, touched it, and saw the exact same thing that we can, 1900 years later. It makes me happy that something so fragile can be preserved like this...especially something that was and still is so persecuted.  

In Eisenach we went to Wartburg castle where Martin Luther was in hiding for ten months. (Unfortunately, here in Germany, a lot of words tend to have either the word 'wart' or 'fahrt' in them.)  Martin (Oh, yes, we are to the first-name stage by now, Martin and I ) also happened to be translating the The New Testament into German, from Latin.

This was the view from the bathroom. How come Jackson doesn't have anything like this for our bathroom views? We have something to live up to, my friends.

No Historic value whatsoever...I love this picture.

One, if not the most memorable thing we saw was the big man himself's grave. Martin. I was sorta in awe when I saw this, because my life now, is shaped by him and what he did in some way. The stained glass windows sent down a filter of soft colors, making it even more awe-some.

Before my family takes a picture, there is an abundance of chaos and confusion. maybe a bit of mind wandering and blank faces.

In the end, we all look comparatively normal, but lets not focus on the fact that the object we are trying to see here is mostly covered up by a wonderful bald-headed theologian. ;)

Ah, that's  better. These are not the original doors, but it is the original church in which Martin nailed the 95 theses. The doors now depict the theses, engraved in metal. Martin's grave is inside the church. We got the chance just to sit in the pews and look around, seeing the same walls Martin would have seen and preached inside. The church simply goes by the name Castle Church, in Wittenberg.  It is part of a castle still there today.  Wittenberg was the city we lived in most of our stay in Germany. Here's the view from our 3rd story apartment (or flat, as they call it over here) :

and to the left at sunset...

My amazing brothers and I took a night walk around town and Daniel got this phenomenal photo of St. Mary's, or the mother church of the Reformation. Luther preached mostly here at St. Mary's. 

There was a special monument in the middle of the courtyard, and Dan got the brilliant shot of St. Mary's reflection on it.   

This is the original pulpit from which Martin preached his sermons.We were shocked and overjoyed at seeing it in one piece.

On closer inspection:

What a beard.

The 2 greatest theologians of all time: Martin Luther and Brad Green. (#dadandselfies)

I think my family should advertise for this card game. What do you think?

You get a little bit of everything: excitement, depression at getting creamed, and utter unbelief.

To end on a lovely note, we found a really cool park with a balance beam 10 ft up and a cool rope swing. We enjoyed both things.

Mom and I rockin' our cares away...

Auf wiedersehen!