Wittenberg

On Sunday I got up early and took a train to Martin Luther's city of Wittenberg. It was a very nice day. My plan was to arrive in time to go to church there. Which worked well enough. I was there in plenty of time and walked slowly down the quiet, peaceful Sunday morning streets. The old town is very beautiful and picturesque. I made my way to the center and recognized the church there from pictures in learning about Luther. I figured this must be the one where he had hung his 95 theses and that was where I would go to church. Well I realized once I got there that it in fact was not that church but rather the church in which he had preached for many years as a pastor. Now I had a dilemma. What should I do? Should I go to the church where he preached? Or do I go to the one where he posted the 95 theses and is buried? I kept waffling back and forth, going in and out of the church, changing my mind back and forth. Then the church bells started ringing, calling their people to church. Both of the churches at the same time. It was overwhelming. Beautiful but overwhelming as I was torn about what to do. I ended up asking the man who seemed to be in charge at the church what I should do. I told him I didn't know which church to go to. Well, instead of trying to convince me that I should come to his church because it's great, he instead told me about what would be going on at the other, so I went to the other. Though I very well could have missed something good since there was a guest speaker speaking about Paul Gerhardt hymns.

It was neat to be there but it was also a little bit disappointing. There was nothing that really seemed to give it much life I thought. I think most of the people in the congregation were tourists. I found it interesting that there were three children who went up for Sunday School and they took a candle from the altar with them, just like we started at St George's Lutheran. Except they didn't sing Twende Sote/Come go with me.

I spent the rest of the day walking around town, enjoying the beautiful weather, had something to eat at a Hofrestaurant. And visited the Martin Luther museum. That was very interesting. Close to evening I decided to take in a concert at the church I ended up NOT going to. So I got both in after all. And the concert was amazing. A marimba band from Capetown, South Africa. In Martin Luther's church. They were so much fun. So full of life and energy as they played and sang and waved and danced while playing. There were 7 of them all between the ages of 17 and 19, one of them a young woman, the others men. It was fun to watch them get the stiff Germans moving and clapping and cheering.

It was a great day. To end it off I got the most perfect train connections back to Berlin.