18 May 2010

This morning we were off to Eisenach, both a Luther and Bach city. On the way into town, we stopped at the Wartburg Castle, perched on top of a hill just out of town. Here it was that Luther hid for ten months as “Junker Jörg” after the Diet of Worms.

It is an interesting medieval castle, with all the sorts of rooms one would expect. The castle was begun in the 8^th Century, and is fairly typical of medieval castles. It has also seen many additions and revisions over the years, something else common with such buildings. And the remaining Luther connection is mainly one fairly small room. It was here that he translated the New Testament into German. (Truth in history: there is no ink spot on the wall from his throwing an inkwell at the Devil.) It was very good to see and experience this important piece of Luther/Reformation history.

We then drove into the town of Eisenach for lunch and a walking tour. The tour started in front of the house in which Johann Sebastian Bach was born. There is, of course, a large statue of him in the park near the house. We saw the house where Bach lived as a young boy.

We then walked through town to the house where Martin Luther boarded as a student. At the town square is the church in which Bach was baptized.

Erfurt was our destination for the night. After dinner at the hotel we embarked on self-guided walking tour of the town. This is where Luther attended university, studying to become a lawyer. The Augustinian monastery where Luther became a monk was our final destination before returning the to hotel.

17 May 2010

It was a very early morning for us. We needed to be at the Frankfurt airport by 7AM to meet the rest of our group flying in from Portland. However, they were delayed in Chicago (big surprise, there!) and were therefore two hours late. Seven of us were there waiting, as was Otto, our driver. If that’s our worst hitch, we’ll be fine.

From Frankfurt we drove to Rüdesheim, a town on the Rhine River. There we boarded a tour boat for a cruse down the river to St Goarhausen. This section of the Rhine is lined with villages, castles, and vineyards. Most of the castles date from the Middle Ages and were built to tax the river traffic and offer “protection.” Apparently, it was a lucrative business. The vineyards are spectacular because of their setting on the very steep hillsides along the river. This makes for some creative farming methods, including remote control tractors to go through the rows of grapes down and up the steep hillsides. Just south of St Goar is the Loreley Rock, an outcropping about 130 meters high where the legend of the Loreley seducing sailors with their beautiful singing to their deaths on the rocks in the river, took place. We did not hear them singing.

The bus met us at St Goarhausen and brought us back to Rüdesheim, our home for the night.

There were a couple of hours of free time before dinner, so we wandered the town. It is a fairly typical medieval town, either preserved or rebuilt. Its main industry appears to be tourism, with many shops, restaurants, and hotels. After a tour of mostly window-shopping, we stopped to have a caffé. Then it was back to the hotel and a delicious braised pork dinner. We also introduced ourselves to the group and did some procedural things. The tour is off to a good start.

16 May 2010

This was our first full day in Europe. And it was a lovely day in Frankfurt. By the time we walked to the Dom for church, the clouds were breaking up and the sun was shining. The walk to church along the Main River was punctuated by the sound of many church bells ringing. It was a wonderful sonic sensation to go along with the visuals of the river, city, and several church steeples standing in the skyline.

When we reached Römerberg, Frankfurt's central square, we saw St Paul's Lutheran Church on the platz where we could hear the service in progress--the congregation singing a hymn. After looking around the mostly deserted square a bit, we made our way to St Bartholomew's Cathedral (The Kaiser Dom) for church. The air continued to be punctuated by the pealing of church bells!

We had read that the 10 o'clock service was in English. Alas, it was in German. Even so, I was able to recognize and follow the Epistle Lesson from Revelation, a familiar passage. And we could sing most of the hymns and liturgy from the missal. But didn't get anything from the sermon. The organist played Bach for the Voluntary, and a lively more contemporary piece for the Postlude. The church was rebuilt after the War, but still retains some interesting older altar pieces and the Sleeping Mary Chapel.

After church, we looked around the platz some more, and had lunch and an outdoor food stand. We, of course, had frankfurters—the authentic thing. It came with a kaiser roll and potato salad. A good lunch, especially accompanied by Apfelwein.

From there, we continued our walking tour of Frankfurt, passing several churches along with all the businesses. We stopped at Paulskirke, a former Lutheran church. It was the meeting place for the original unification of German as a state in the 19th century. It was mostly destroyed in WWII and rebuilt. It is now a meeting place rather than a church. From there we went to the Zeil shopping street/district, with many fancy stores. We continued along Fressgass with many eating places for all the office workers. Pretty quiet on a Sunday afternoon!

At the end of Fressgass, we saw the Alte Oper, actually the new opera house/concert hall rebuilt in the old style after the War. The next stop on our walking tour was the Goetehaus. Here, too, we only saw the outside. Then it was back to the hotel for a little rest.

On the way to dinner, we returned to the Dom in hopes of photographing some of the ancient artwork and alter pieces. We were not able to take to time to do that in the morning after the service, because there was another service starting soon. When we reached the Dom, the was a service going on. So I didn't get the pictures of the inside I had hoped, only a couple in the morning.

We then headed across the river and up Sweitzer Strasse for dinner at Adolf Wagner. The pork schnitzel and potatoes were very good. As was the apple strudel we finished with. A good finish to good day.

15 May 2010

First day in Europe! The flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt was smooth and uneventful--just like we like plane rides to be. Landed in Frankfurt with overcast skies. (Looked a lot like home.) Found our hotel (the Paris Hotel), settled in and rested, then explored a bit. Saw a series of scull races on the Main River. (This is Frankfurt am Main.) Had dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant specializing in ramen noodle dishes. Very good! And no [other] tourists. Hope it continues to clear up and we avoid rain.

14 May 2010

Here we sit in the Vancouver, BC airport. It's still a couple hours till our Frankfurt flight leaves. Nice leisurely layover, good lunch, fairly quiet in the airport. Then a long flight to Germany. See you in Europe. :)

13 May 2010

Everything is packed (except what we need in the morning). Our ride to the airport is arranged. The house is essentially ready for us to leave it for three weeks. So in the morning, we are off to our next adventure, three weeks in Europe. Stay tuned.

Europe 2010--preparations

One week from today we will fly to Frankfurt to begin a three-week trip to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The first 10 days will be with a tour from Concordia Portland to Oberammergau (Passion Play) and Luther & Bach sites, plus Salzburg and Prague. After the tour, we will stay for another 11 days and visit more of Austria and Germany, including Vienna, Berlin, and Bielefeld.