March 31st, 2025
by Prudence O'Haire
by Prudence O'Haire
Apart of me and my husbands tour this Fall with a college was a day in Wittenberg, Germany. Home of the Protestant Reformation and also the home of the guy who started the ball rolling, Martin Luther. To start, our Germany portion the group was housed in Berlin in a nice comfy Hotel in downtown. Hurrah to a nice private room with a shower that has pressure and a mattress that isn't as old as the country.
Chris and I walked to get some coffee and breakfast and then got a lift from Uber to the train station. We found no one walking around that Monday morning and all the city streets felt car-less and quiet. 'Weird,' we thought. What a depressing, cold city. Turns out, Germany was having a holiday and no one was working that day except a few restaurants and whatever else needs to be open. So maybe it was just the holiday that blanketed the city with a depressed first impression.
The air was much cooler and windy than it had been in Italy. By about twenty five degrees.
The train ride to Wittenberg ( pronounced Vitten-burg) was not real long. Europe has it down with their high speed trains getting people from place to place.
Of course, I, never having been there, didn't know what to expect. Not expecting something leaves enormous room for pleasant surprises. Chris and I really enjoyed the little town.
We had a guide walk us through the house of the Luther's, ≥ and it was rather large. There were many things to see and my favorites was Luther's old wooden table still in the family room/kitchen and the first printed Bible.
We also toured the two famous churches and of course the doorway where he nailed the 95 Theses to the door. It wasn't the original door as that one had been burned at some point, but it was the right doorway.
We climbed the tower connected to the huge church Luther was buried in and had a nice look over the city and countryside. There were huge bells hanging in that tower and I'm pretty thankful those didn't ring while we were standing at the top, or I might be learning sign language right now due to deafness.
Finding a restaurant to eat at for lunch was interesting. This didn't happen to just us, but others from our group. We walked into a busy pub and the German waitress asked us how many. We said two. She says sorry no room and turned around and left us. No explanation, no wait list, no direction for another place, no come back in ten minutes, it was just sorry, no and goodbye!? How rude. How utterly rude. We left, joined forces with a few other guys and managed to weasel our way into another place that started with the same attitude. It felt a bit discriminatory.
We visited the church Luther was buried in later in the day and the highlight of that church visit was a concert organist was practicing for his concert in the high loft on the huge pipe organ. Thousands of pipes on the instrument. It really set the mood for the place and helped me imagine the time of long ago when history was in the process of changing a course. I really enjoyed hearing it.
Dinner was with everyone that night. The last meal together before we all split ways. We had to walk back to the train station in the dark which was probably a good mile or so from where we had dinner. Chris and I were the last to leave as I had some grand idea to order an apple strudel to go. Because, how could we come to Germany and not have apple strudel? Well, it was a dumb idea. The kitchen was taking forever and to boot, the waiters didn't speak much english if any. I stood there watching the clock on the wall tick down to twenty minutes till our train arrived at the station and we needed to be on it or we were going to be stuck. This wasn't a place that had Uber handy. So, I pointed at my fake watch on my wrist and said train! Luckily the woman knew what I was saying and hurried back to the kitchen and came back out with my order. Chris was on the phone for a business call and didn't need any prompting to get moving. We sprinted half the way back and I gave myself a nice wind burnt throat for the next two days. We did make the train by less than ten minutes. The dessert, which we ate later was really good, but not worth the stress of getting it and being late. There is not quite a way to describe the fear of being left in a foreign place, and the dumb part is that I created that fear by ordering a dessert.
We did not tour anything else in Germany. The next morning we were back at the airport, with me getting the extra bobby pin security screening and boarding another Easy Jet. Germany's people didn't seem overly friendly and the airport wasn't super great. We are sure we saw the same Asian girl that cut in line in front of us from two days before in Italy. And here she was again, in front of us again and acting as if she might not make it on the plane if she didn't stay real focused on the line. We let her go ahead to help ease her stress.
Chris and I walked to get some coffee and breakfast and then got a lift from Uber to the train station. We found no one walking around that Monday morning and all the city streets felt car-less and quiet. 'Weird,' we thought. What a depressing, cold city. Turns out, Germany was having a holiday and no one was working that day except a few restaurants and whatever else needs to be open. So maybe it was just the holiday that blanketed the city with a depressed first impression.
The air was much cooler and windy than it had been in Italy. By about twenty five degrees.
The train ride to Wittenberg ( pronounced Vitten-burg) was not real long. Europe has it down with their high speed trains getting people from place to place.
Of course, I, never having been there, didn't know what to expect. Not expecting something leaves enormous room for pleasant surprises. Chris and I really enjoyed the little town.
We had a guide walk us through the house of the Luther's, ≥ and it was rather large. There were many things to see and my favorites was Luther's old wooden table still in the family room/kitchen and the first printed Bible.
We also toured the two famous churches and of course the doorway where he nailed the 95 Theses to the door. It wasn't the original door as that one had been burned at some point, but it was the right doorway.
We climbed the tower connected to the huge church Luther was buried in and had a nice look over the city and countryside. There were huge bells hanging in that tower and I'm pretty thankful those didn't ring while we were standing at the top, or I might be learning sign language right now due to deafness.
Finding a restaurant to eat at for lunch was interesting. This didn't happen to just us, but others from our group. We walked into a busy pub and the German waitress asked us how many. We said two. She says sorry no room and turned around and left us. No explanation, no wait list, no direction for another place, no come back in ten minutes, it was just sorry, no and goodbye!? How rude. How utterly rude. We left, joined forces with a few other guys and managed to weasel our way into another place that started with the same attitude. It felt a bit discriminatory.
We visited the church Luther was buried in later in the day and the highlight of that church visit was a concert organist was practicing for his concert in the high loft on the huge pipe organ. Thousands of pipes on the instrument. It really set the mood for the place and helped me imagine the time of long ago when history was in the process of changing a course. I really enjoyed hearing it.
Dinner was with everyone that night. The last meal together before we all split ways. We had to walk back to the train station in the dark which was probably a good mile or so from where we had dinner. Chris and I were the last to leave as I had some grand idea to order an apple strudel to go. Because, how could we come to Germany and not have apple strudel? Well, it was a dumb idea. The kitchen was taking forever and to boot, the waiters didn't speak much english if any. I stood there watching the clock on the wall tick down to twenty minutes till our train arrived at the station and we needed to be on it or we were going to be stuck. This wasn't a place that had Uber handy. So, I pointed at my fake watch on my wrist and said train! Luckily the woman knew what I was saying and hurried back to the kitchen and came back out with my order. Chris was on the phone for a business call and didn't need any prompting to get moving. We sprinted half the way back and I gave myself a nice wind burnt throat for the next two days. We did make the train by less than ten minutes. The dessert, which we ate later was really good, but not worth the stress of getting it and being late. There is not quite a way to describe the fear of being left in a foreign place, and the dumb part is that I created that fear by ordering a dessert.
We did not tour anything else in Germany. The next morning we were back at the airport, with me getting the extra bobby pin security screening and boarding another Easy Jet. Germany's people didn't seem overly friendly and the airport wasn't super great. We are sure we saw the same Asian girl that cut in line in front of us from two days before in Italy. And here she was again, in front of us again and acting as if she might not make it on the plane if she didn't stay real focused on the line. We let her go ahead to help ease her stress.
Prudence O'Haire
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