October 8th... Wittenberg 

What a beautiful and quaint town!  This is where Mr. Luther was a parish priest. After making a year long pilgrimage to Rome he was appalled by what he found there.  In order to collect enough money to build St, Peter's, the church would forgive sins for money. You could pay off sins you have made and sins you are going to make in the future!  You can even pay off Grandma's sins although she been dead for some time. At least that would get her out of purgatory  and off on her way to heaven. Martin Luther protests to some priests, but they pretty much told him to bug off.

After coming home he wrote his 95 Thesis and had it delivered to the church.  He wanted the people in charge of the church to debate.  Instead they'd some how got it to the Pope and the stuff hit the fan. They excommunicated him, and gave him some time to get outta Dodge.  They missed their chance though because he was able to get many people on board to start new churches (Reformation, next year is the 500th anniversary) and died much later from natural causes.

We visited the Castle Church and St Mary's which had been his church.  

We looked in a lot of little shops. They had cute stuff but I had to spend my euro on a netty pot and anti cough tea. It will pay off in time... no fun being sick. 

We got back to the boat to play games  and visit and wait for dinner... that's what we do best here in Germany.

Afterwards we watched and Michael and Jerold participated in a beer tasting and we took our tired bodies to the room to finish this and get some pictures out.  I hope they got sent as the wi-fi was pretty weak tonight. 

Tomorrow is going to be a good day... netty pot, no-cough tea and cough drops to suck are making a difference.

Love,

Grove and gang

 

Here I am in Wittenberg tempted to lick a giant gelato. 

 

 

October  8th 

We have returned from breakfast, me not so dignified like in a coughing fit.  Here in the room I have a little time before we are off on another discovery.

As I told you yesterday, this place is ALL about Martin Luther.  After he told everyone about the way the Pope abused his powers selling indulgences with his 95 Thesis, he was persona non grata with the Catholic Church.  The Reformation spread rapidly while Luther hid in Wartburg Castle translating the bible from Latin to German.  A curious fact is that Luther spoke a dialect which had minor importance in the German language but after the Bible was published his dialect suppressed the others and soon evolved in what is modern day German.  So Luther was able to bring the Bible to people other than the four percent who could read Latin, and he established unknowingly the United language for Germany... pretty special!  No wonder it took off.  If you are planning to be here for the 500 year anniversary and don't have reservations, forget it. Everything is booked up for at least 40 miles.

We all went out to board the bus and I got into another of one of my horrible coughing fits.  I hate to be in such close proximities coughing like that so at the last minute I decided to come back to the bus.  Today is the day they go through a very special garden... 500 acres of them.  I would love to see them, but to be out in the elements hacking my guts out is crazy.   

Soooo... I sit in my warm clean room (Suresh has been here already) and watch TV.  I know it doesn't seem like a European cruise. But I want to be A-OK  this afternoon when we visit the family for a coffee klatch.

I'll send this  and a bunch of photos while I can and maybe write another entry when I meet with the family. 

Grove

...Afternoon hosting

I got a coughing fit and missed the morning trip to the Woerlitz Oark palace and English-style gardens known as the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Woerlitz.  Michael took some nice pictures. I didn't mind that much as I wanted to be fit for the home visit in the afternoon.

 

These five pictures are in Worlitz

As it turned out, Michael and Jerold bowed and it from the visit leaving poor Vic with Leona, Janet, Linda and me. He was a great sport about it though.  We visited a lady who was single.  She had a nice house with her parents living upstairs.  Her mother is a bookkeeper and she works, but her father is a retired mechanic and is responsible for their huge garden.  She apologized that it is already late and much of he flowers and vegetables are gone but her garden was quite impressive.  She made an apple kuchen, a German cheesecake... kind of a cheesy pound cake and some cute little raspberry treats from her garden.  Her parents don't speak English but she did very well.  She sings gospel music for her Lutheran church and she had the opportunity to sing with her choir in Philadelphia.  

She had us show her where we live on a map of the U.S. and write in her guest book and we were off.

This is a picture of her in her garden, her parents, and us sitting at the table.  

Grove 

 

Later that evening:

 

 

 

October 9th

When we were in Wittenberg, Michael took a picture of the visiting royals from Sweden. The king is wearing a hat. The queen has a purple and pink scarf.  The  lady with glasses is the interpreter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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