Wittenberg (Our Lutheran Pilgrimage)

Sadly, we realized that we would not be able to visit the town of ‘Roggow’ in Germany (actually there are two of them) as we originally intended. If we had rented a car maybe we could have done it, but we didn’t have those kinds of funds. That will have to wait for another trip another time I guess.

Instead we took a day trip to Wittenberg. I know not everyone is as excited about Martin Luther as I may be, but we thought it was definitely worth the trip and hopefully we’ll get to take a trip back someday. Our first accomplishment was making sure we went to Wittenberg instead of Wittenberge. Not quite the same. The town isn’t too big and the first thing we stumbled upon was the Wittenberg Christmas market. It was quaint and cute, and was in the center square of the city. We had lunch here, Gluwein once again, and , to get the awesome Wittenberg mugs which we took home as sweet souvenirs. Then we headed down to the Castle Church in Wittenberg where Luther nailed the 95 thesis (supposedly). While walking there I thought I saw someone I knew ahead. But wait, who would I know in Wittenberg? Well, we found our friends Jon and Julie Rusnak there (fellow Westfield Housers). They just happened to be visiting Wittenberg the same day as we were. We hung around with them for a while and visited the church. This is also where Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon (the guy who wrote much of the Book of Concord [which contains the confessions of the Lutheran Church]) were buried. It was a pretty cool church. Outside they also have the 95 theses written on the door in Bronze. After visiting the gift shop across the street from the church (actually pretty classy) we walked back to the city center. We passed through the Christmas market again and got some cheap cotton candy. It was huge and really good. At that point I loved Wittenberg even more.

Our next Lutheran hotspot to visit was Luther’s former house, which has now been turned into a museum. Before he owned it the place was a convent, so it was pretty good sized. At any time there would be 30-40 people living there with his family. The museum was 4 large floors of historical items, information, artwork and other things. We spent about 3 hours there (and I think I could have spent 3 more but Mandy and Natalie pushed me through). It got dark by this time so we went back to the Christmas market again and met up with Jon and Julie again for some gluwein and Brats before catching the train back to Berlin. Our Lutheran pilgrimage was great and we hope to make one again (maybe October 31, 2017 – the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation).