Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Luther and Beyond

The little winter that Oberursel experienced this year is already over.  Snow never remained on the ground for more than a few days, and we only had to endure a couple weeks of below zero weather.  These last few days the sun has been shining, birds chirping, and the temperature keeps inching it's way up the thermometer (- tomorrow is supposed to get to 60!)

A lot of exciting things are going to be happening very soon - and I don't mean the twitterpation of the robins and rabbits.  I'm talking about big travel plans.  The first semester came to an end on Feb. 17 and the second semester doesn't commence until April 17!  For me that means a 12-day tour of the northern half of Germany, a week in England and Ireland, and a week in the Bavarian Alps, Italy, and Austria.  My friend Jeremy and I bought Eurail Passes and are going to be doing these 3 trips together.  Our buddy Mathias is coming along for part of the trip as well.

The amount of time we have spent planning these trips is rather ridiculous.  There's so many places to go and see in Europe, it's been hard to narrow it down.   Then there's planning the route, knowing where to stay, for how long, what the cost will be, etc., etc.  The first leg of the trip, which I will name, on the spot, as... "Luther and Beyond," begins early tomorrow morning (March 1st).  I'm all packed and ready to go, but before going to bed, I want to quickly share our itinerary with you.

Day 1 - Oberursel (A) to Leipzig (D) via Wartburg Castle/Eisenach (B) and a tiny little village where my Eckardt ancestors stem from (C).
• The Wartburg Castle is where Martin Luther went into hiding when he was excommunicated by the pope and declared an outlaw by the Emperor because of his refusal to recant his teachings.  Here, under guise of Junker Jörg (the Knight George,) Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German.

Weekend in Leipzig (Days 2, 3, 4) - We will spend 4 nights here at the Schmidts (my old host family).  It's always a pleasure for me to go back to Leipzig and visit the Schmidts.  It's sort of my German home away from home.  And aside from that the city itself has lots of sights to offer (the famous St. Thomas Church where Bach was cantor and is buried and the Völkerschlachtdenkmal to name just two favorites.)

Day 5 - Leipzig to Erfurt (E) to Wittenberg (F) to Berlin (G).
• In Erfurt there is a cathedral to see and the monastery where Luther was a Augustinian monk.  Wittenberg, officially "Lutherstadt Wittenberg" (Luther-city Wittenberg) was the center of the Reformation.  Here Luther posted the 95 Theses on the church door; here he lived and preached for many years; and here is buried in the Castle Church.

Days 6 and 7 in Berlin.
• We'll be staying with German friends - a current vicar and his wife (Benjamin and Naemi).  This should be a great couple of days.  There's lots and lots to see and do in Berlin, and it'll be fun to spend with Benjamin and Naemi as well!

Most everything from this point on will be new Germany territory for me.  I've been lots of places in Germany before but never up in these northern parts.
Day 8 - sightseeing in Lübeck (H) on the way to Hamburg (I)

Day 9 (and 10) in Hamburg
• Among other things, we're going to visit the "Miniatur Wunderland," the largest model railway in the world.
• Overnighting at the home of a SELK pastor.

Day (10 and) 11 in Bremen (J) and Verden (K)
• We're spending two nights in the quaint north German town of Verden (incidentally the birthplace of Friedrich Wyneken) with friends of a sem prof and his wife.

Day 12 - Back to Oberursel via Köln (L) and Aachen (M).
• This will be a full final day of the trip.  We've allotted about 3 hours each in Cologne ("Köln" in German) and Aachen, and our priority in each city is to visit the cathedral.  The Cologne Cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe.  (I've been here once before but I'm looking forward to climbing to the top of the insanely tall steeples again.)
The Aachen Cathedral, also massive, is often called the "Kaiserdom" ("Imperial Cathedral") because for 600 years it was the site of the coronation of the German kaiser.  It's also home of Charlemagne's tomb.

All right - that's all for now.  It'll be fun to share pictures of all these places when I'm back!

Peter

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

January Pics 2012

You: "What a nifty-looking old leather book, Peter!  What is it?"
Me: "Actually, it's no book at all.  It's a..."
"... stylish, protective case for my MacBook Air called BookBook that I bought for myself with X-mas money!"
 My first time hiking through the woods that are west of the seminary...

There's Jeremy (left) and Thomas (right, pronounced Toe-mahss)
These are trees.
And this is moss on logs.
More trees with the sun shining gloriously from behind.
The hiking group.  From right to left, that's Thomas and his wife Liesl (a very fun couple from South Africa), Liesl's friend Petra visiting from South Africa, Jeremy (Canadian), and I (USA). 
The trail kept going gradually higher and higher until we reached the lookout point... 
... with quite an amazing view.  It was much nicer than I expected it to be. 
 On the way back we came upon these logs.  These are my attempts at artistic photos of them...



Ask and you shall receive.  I asked the Fort Wayne Seminary if I could have free access to the LiveStream of the Symposia, and they gave it to me!  So during the week, there were a handful of us students who watched several of the lectures that were going on across the ocean in FW.  It was quite enjoyable.
Would you look at this?!  Dr. Scaer, right here in Oberursel on our common room wall!  Just look at it!

Enjoying Scaer's lecture on an early dating of the Gospels, from left to right, Roland (S. Afr.), Heinz (S. Afr.), Mathias (S. Afr. - he spent a year in FW), Jeremy (Canada), and Alex (orig. Ukraine, he spent a couple years in FW)
 This was only the second time it has snowed here so far.  And both times, the snow was mostly melted after a couple days.  But it was pretty while it lasted.

Don't worry, I've gotten my hair cut since this photo.


 Mathias, Jeremy, and I decided we wanted to have a(n) (North)American-style cheeseburger cookout.  

Are your mouths watering yet? 


 My niece Sarah and nephew David both just had their birthdays (4th and 2nd, respectively).  I skyped with them the day after their joint B-day party, and they were in an especially cheerly mood.  These are screen shots from my Skype session w/them.
Aren't they adorable?  I love these rug-rats.
I asked them if they could imitate my screeching, pterodactyl-type noise that I like to make, and they both started screaming really high and loud.  It was so funny.  They wouldn't stop.
Still screaming...

Soccer.  Unfortunately the lights at the public field that we play on are out, and the city is really dragging its on getting them fixed.  But we still find time to play during the daylight hours once a week or so.
I got some more battle wounds that day.  It was totally worth it, though.  As goalie, I sacrificed my body to save the ball from going in.

 I really loathe washing dishes by hand...
... but I love the feeling you get when they're all done.
These pics are from back in October.  I just got them from Claudia (Germany theology student, pronounced Clow(as in "now")-dee-uh), who had watched us play one day and took a bunch of pictures on her phone.  
From some of my other pictures, you might not think there are any Germans around here that I spend time with.  But there are.  The three guys on the left (Simon, Frederick, and Niklas) are all German.  That's Thomas and Liesl (S. Afr.) in back and me on the right. 
More Germans: brothers Michael and Sebastian (left and middle) 
The two girls on the right are also Germans.
Far right is Gennadij.  I don't think I've introduced him yet.  He's from Kazakhstan.
Well I hope you enjoyed this slide show.  My next post will be more words and fewer (not less) pictures.