Cinque Terre, Italy

We stopped at Pisa for about an hour on our way to the coast from Florence. Here is the tower. It stands 23 feet off vertical. It began listing even as they were building it, yet they kept building. The did try to fix it, but it still leans and requires a vertical cable to keep it from squashing someone.

This is the Ligurian Sea, which is an inlet to the Mediterranean Sea. Here begins the Italian Riviera.

Manarola, Cinque Terre. This was the last stop on our tour. We had a free day. It was absolutely beautiful. The sun shone giving us a nearly 70 degree day. No sweatshirt or coat was necessary! It was wonderful! Five main villages line the coast and make up the Cinque Terre. The hills behind the villages offer remarkable hiking (or so I heard). We all split up to do our own thing. Heather and I walked along the cliffside path that went between our village and the next. We climbed 365 steps to the village, got a snack, then hopped on the train to be able to get to the next village in good time. We found a little local restaurant for some lunch. I had their local pasta with pesto. It was pretty good. Then we got some gelato. One scoop is just the right amount of dairy for me, so I was able to experience this Italian treat. It was delicious!

We found this arch on our way down to the beach from our hostel.

This is the beginning of the path we followed.

We waited for an hour in the warm sun for the train. In the distance you can see where our village is on the peninsula.

Vernazza, Cinque Terre. This is where we ate lunch.


The sun going down as we were leaving the last town. Good day.

Academia Gallery

The city of Florence is not the way that I imagined it when we talked briefly about it in World Thought and Culture. It is not the way I pictured it during the time of the Mediccis. It is a city whose dirt and grime is thousands of years older than dirty cities in the U.S. and I was not impressed by the city itself.
We did go to the Academia Gallery in Florence. From this academy were born the greatest artists of the Renaissance all the way through the 16th or 17th century. It also houses Michaelangelo's famous David. During our brief couple of days in World Thought and Culture, we learned about this statue, and I thought to myself, This is a piece of art I wouldn't mind spending money to see. I didn't realize until yesterday that we were actually going to see it. The statue of David represents Florence as the underdog Italian city that it once was, and how it would rise up and slay its enemies (the other Italian cities). It is a beautiful sculpture, with every muscle, vein, eyelid, and hair created in perfect detail. His stance and the expression on his face gives the resounding message of confidence, almost cockiness.
The David was carved from a single, massive block of marble that was rejected by artists long before Michaelangelo was born, simply because of its sheer size. The danger that it offered to those whose job it was to move it was enormous.
There were other great works there, such as the The Rape of the Sabine Women and numerous paintings and sculptures. We are touring Italy as a part of our Art History class, so our professor lectures on significant works of art and styles of art so that we understood the significance of what we were seeing. The coolest thing is that we are learning about all of these things on sight. So cool!

Salzburg and Venice!

I really didn't want to write a whole lot. We've done so much it seems like it would take forever and be rather tedious to read. In the last few days we have been to Salzburg, Austria; Padova, Venice, and are now in Florence. These days were very full. So, I decided to illustrate if for you and narrate as I go.

This is in Salzburg as we were wandering around looking for lunch.

Salzburg is the home"town" of Mozart. We walked by his house and took a picture of it, but neither of us (Heather or myself) had any desire to go in and pay money for it.

Heather's boyfriend told us that we had to try the torte at the Hotel Cafe Sacher. They gave us a really pretty box and very nice bag that are gingerly folded up in order to come home safely. The torte was good...

...but the Hazelnut cake was delicious.

Heather almost lost me for a moment here.

This is the entrance to the Salzburg Cathedral. Apparently it's the cathedral...we didn't know that and walked right by. Oops.

We hiked up to the Salzburg castle fortress and walked along the wall. It had snowed the night before and everything was crisp and white.


Lady Lisa defending the fort!

The view of the city from somewhere along the wall.


I used the top stair as a tripod and ran down the steps in ten seconds. I tried really hard not to lay on the cold, wet ground, but as you can see if you look closely, I failed.

Venice!

The San Marco Basilica. Venice has a very interesting history. The Italians were fleeing from the Germans and ended up on the little island of Venezia. Unfortunately, the population grew too large for the island. So, the people stripped the forest and plunged tree trunks into the swamp, then laid wood over the top and then concrete over that. The petrified wood provided added landscape. However, as the trees expanded or condensed differently, the ground and even the floors of building became uneven. The tiled floor inside the Basilica is ridiculously uneven. One would think that there is no foundation. There is. It's just 25 feet under water.
The walls of the Basilica are painted in gold (real gold). There is so much thought and talent that went into the design and building and decoration of church that one can't help but be impressed. It's heartbreaking though, that thousands went hungry in the competition of the clergy and nobles to have the most beautiful church.

So, you know those movies where the girl in the cute fifties dress is walking through the Italian piazza and there's a bunch of birds. Actually real! A bunch of our group were feeding the birds. It was very entertaining! See facebook for more pictures!

This little girl was trying to kick the birds as hard as she could!

This is the Duke's Palace.

Until next time.

Tomorrow...Italy

We have concluded our second class of the semester. Reformation History proved to be a challenge for students, professor, and academic coordinators alike. The first week we were traveling and trying to juggle a class here and there when we could. Even so, it was quite interesting. I've already told you about our runs which were definitely a highlight, and I look forward to more runs in more foreign cities as we set off on another academic tour. But I am getting ahead of myself.
In Wittenberg we saw the necessary sights: the Wittenberg doors, and the stadtkirche. We also met and had coffee with a German couple. They didn't really speak English...at all. The lady barely spoke any English and her husband didn't speak any at all. It was such a blessing to meet them. He was a local photographer and gladly shared his pictures with all of us.

As you can probably imagine, being in the places where Luther was seeing places that were there five hundred years ago made it easier to imagine what he and others went through. I was looking through my text book today, looking for some information for my paper, when I came across some copies of paintings that I got to see in person or places that I have been! It was exciting.
By the time we reached, Heidelberg, though, we were all exhausted. We were given Saturday afternoon to do whatever we wanted. I chose to walk along the Neckar River, through a couple of parks, and into downtown. It was a beautiful day and I felt delightfully refreshed.
Tomorrow morning we leave for Italy. The next two weeks promise to stretch our brains and our endurance. We have textbooks to read for two classes in the next fourteen days. We will also be traveling, in itself exhausting. When we get back we are going to have two classes at once (meaning that we'll be in class until around 5:00 every day). So, if you don't hear from me for awhile, that is where I am! See you in a couple weeks (hopefully sooner)!

Following Luther

Disclaimer: This is an assignment. It's still rather interesting, because we went to significant places to the Reformation. The entries are not in any particular order.

Schloss Kirche
The Schlosskirche was built by Frederick the Wise of Saxony who was a strong supporter of Luther, and provided him with good political help, as Frederick was a prince. The church took nearly twenty years to build, being finished in 1509 in time for Martin Luther to arrive in Wittemburg. It is adjacent to the Frederick’s schloss or castle. Remarkably, our hostel was right next to it, practically touching the wall of the castle. As soon as we walked out of the door we looked up to see the crowned tower of the brick castle.

To put a little perspective on the importance of the Schlosskirche to our tour during our study of Reformation history – this is the church possessing the Wittenburg Doors where Luther nailed his 95 Theses. Luther himself is buried in the church, as well as Philip Melanchthon, another famous reformer and one of Luther’s closest followers.

Of all the churches we’ve visited so far (and we’ve visited a lot) this was my favorite. It is not so gaudy and ritzy as the others. It is attached to a home of a prince, so my expectation was that it would be ornamented as extravagantly as the rest of the churches. It is not. Pastel colors painted the roof and the walls in creative designs, but there was no gold and very few statues. It was also smaller than all of them. Coats-of-arms ran the length of the siding halfway up the wall and along back wall of the choir stalls.





The Luther House
Martin Luther lived in this Augustinian monastery as a monk when he first arrived in Wittenberg. When the Reformation began the monastery was dissolved. After clerical marriage was allowed and Luther joined other monks in marriage, he and his wife were given the building for their home where they hosted students in Wittenberg.
The house has been turned into a museum, but there are a couple of rooms remaining how it was. Below the house is a brick cellar that housed the still that Luther’s wife, Katie, made beer. The cellar had several short tunnels that made it seem like a cool place to grow up, running around on a rainy day, playing hide and seek.
The Luthers possessed the greatest amount of livestock in the front yard in all of Wittenberg. At any given time, Martin and Katie had 35 to 50 people under their roof. They had five of their own children and adopted a couple of relatives’ children. The other residents in their home were students and an elderly relative.
The living room in the Luther house is still the same. Luther’s reading chair is on one wall and it does not look the least bit comfortable! It is not a chair that I would enjoy sitting in front of the fire with a good book. A table, a window seat, and a fire place are the only other remaining furniture in the room. Not a very comfortable room
The museum part of the Luther House displayed Reformation manuscripts and paintings of people of note in during the Reformation.

Wartburg Castle


After the Diet of Worms, Prince Elector Frederick the Wise, worried for the safety of Luther on his way back to Wittemberg, had Luther abducted and taken to his castle in Eisenach where Luther stayed for awhile. While he was there he translated the Bible into German. It sits atop a hill (as any well-protected castle would be) overlooking Eisenach. We drove up most of the way and then enjoyed hike up to the top. There were so many delightful views from the castle as the sun cast light over the forests.
We wandered through the museum, and then a few of us girls snuck down some steps and across a cold, enclosed bridge from the main part of the castle to a little room on the castle wall. It was small and made completely of wood with no carpet, only a tiny stove, and a desk where Luther worked to produce the German Bible; like so many other places we’ve been to, it was cold. (Disclaimer: we didn’t do anything illegal. There were no signs and there were museum workers standing there watching our every move, and we later found out that everyone else found their way there too, but it was fun to believe we were sneaky).
I had imagined that the castle room where Luther spent his time between Worms and his return to Wittemberg was spent in a spacious room (extra cold) with a massive canopied bed and ornamented furniture. Not exactly comfortable, but certainly not as stark as the room where he truly spent his time in hiding.

Augustinian Monastery in Erhfurt

I’ve never been anywhere so cold. Regardless of the fact that people were unused to the heating systems that we now have, the living conditions of the Augustinian were miserable to say the least. The church was at least ten degrees colder inside than the frigid temperatures outside. The monks in the Augustinian monastery stayed in very, very small.
The Augustinian monks believed that they needed to deprive themselves of every comfort in order to gain their salvation and entrance into heaven. Martin Luther was among the most devout monks. He anquished over his soul and went to every extreme to see that he would get into heaven. He slept outside in the snow, whipped himself, confessed for hours on end, and yet he could not find peace.
One of the sacrifices of the monks was their silence. They could only speak while they were in the courtyard. The rest of the time they had to be utterly silent. Seven times a day the monks joined together in the church to pray. The first time was at 2 a.m.. Once they were in the order, there was no getting out of it.
In a courtyard of the monastery all of the monks who died in the monastery were buried in the courtyard. The monastery was disbanded and an orphanage put in its place. There are a few nuns who live in the monastery now, and they run the little café beside the monastery.


Cathedral at Speyer
When we think about Luther, we only think about the Diet of Worms, which was the first trial or disputation where Luther was asked to recant. As it happened there were several diets. Three of them were at the Cathedral in Speyer. It took three times to decide how willing the emperor was to allow Luther’s ideas. At the first Diet, Luther’s works were outlawed. By the third diet, Charles V’s authority over the various princes in Germany was shaky and he needed them to fight a war. The conclusion was that the government would not formally attack Lutherans.
The Cathedral at Speyer is huge, but unlike other cathedrals it has very little decoration and this added to the massiveness of the building. The architecture is Romanesque with high arches and a long, tunnel-like sanctuary.
Below the sanctuary is the original crypt, and it was open. It was the most interesting part of the church and down we went. In the crypt are altars to Mary, St. Michael, 10 of the Apostles, and the martyrs St. Felicianus and Justina. There’s a little chapel at the back of the crypt that houses a Romanesque baptismal fountain.
On the other side of the crypt from the chapel is where the tombs were. The 11th and 12th centuries buried eight of their emperors, two of their empresses, and one princess in the crypt. It was pretty cool to be in the original room where emperors were buried a thousand years ago.

Stadt Kirche
Here is the church where Luther preached while in Wittenberg. It is also called the city church, St. Mary’s Church. Another name for it is the “Mother Church of the Reformation” because The painting hanging above the altar, as well as the other paintings in the church are the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder. The painting above the altar depicts the Lord’s Supper given among the people by the congregation in Wittenberg. It is also the cover of our textbook (just a fun fact).

The Stadtkirche is very plain in a different sense than the Schlosskirche. The Schlosskirche has ornate carvings on the pews, statues, and paintings. The coats of arms add some color to the building. It is not ritzy, but it is rich. The stadtkirche is not rich. It is common. The only color is in the paintings above the altar and behind the altar.
On one of the outside corners of the roof is a sculpture of a pig being chased. The symbolism of this is a message of anti-Semitism. In the medieval times, Jews were considered to be pigs.
Martin Luther is buried in the Schlosskirche, but the stadtkirche is where he spent most of his ministry while he was in Wittenberg. He was married in this church, preached in the church, and his children were baptized in the church.
Luther was not the only one to preach in the stadtkirche. His reformer colleague, Philip Melanchthon also preached there. With two of the Reformations biggest characters it is easy to see why it is called the “Mother church of the Reformation.”

German Running Spots

Hello All!
I just wanted to check in. A week of touring has just been completed and I will post pictures and stories soon. Today, however, I just wanted to brag a little to my readers who enjoy running or walking for exercise. Much of the beauty of Germany and many of the best times that Heather and I have found in Germany have been during our semi-daily run.
Here in Regensburg we've run around the cathedral and across the Danube. Dresden was the most beautiful of our runs. It took us to the river where we could see the sun begin to rise over water. For our step workout we raced up the palace steps of August I. Wittenburg gave us a charming run through a still-sleeping town, which was delightful.
These runs, as in the states, give Heather and I a time to talk and get to know each other more and more.
Okay, that's the end of my bragging session.
Where is your favorite running/walking spot?

Oberammergau

Our trip to Oberammergau began with a brisk walk to the train station. We bought our ticket and walked onto the train just in time. Bavaria has a very convenient transportation pass called the Bayern Ticket. For 28 euros up to five people can ride any transportation for one day. Even for one person it generally comes out cheaper than just buying a train ticket.
Starving by the time we made it to Munich we divided and conquered the Starbucks/bakery mission (we only had 15 minutes to make our connection). We took note of our next transfer and then entered into a good conversation. So good in fact that we nearly missed our transfer. We had been stopped for a couple of minutes already (trains don't stop for very long) when there was a pause in our conversation and I looked out the window at the train stop sign. "This is our stop!" I exclaimed. We grabbed our stuff and ran off the train onto a platform that barely had a train station. As we stepped onto the train, the doors began to close and we barely made it on with our backpacks.
The third and final train was tiny, taking us who-knows-where in southern Bavaria. After the allotted 40 minutes we heard - in the midst of other German words - Oberammergau.
"I think this is it," I said.
"This isn't it," Heather denied, laughing. "If this is it we're going back." The train station was surrounded by a trees, a river, a couple of houses and these two closed buildings.


We laughed for awhile, wondering why this was such a big deal and why anyone would suggest it to us (it had been recommended). At last, we decided to wander down what seemed to be the main road and, wha-la! We came to a cute little touristy village. Still starving, we asked someone where to eat. She seemed very anxious as she informed us that, "In Germany we eat at 12:00, so places close at 2:00 until dinner." (Daddy, take note). We did find a place where we had something between a pita sandwich and a quesadilla.
Oberammergau is known for its painted buildings...

It's woodcarvings...


...and its production of the Passion Play every ten years.

Wandering around, Heather and I came upon a pottery shop where they make what they are selling right there. While we were there he was making tiles to a woodstove. We were the only customers at the time and we were friendly so he let us see the storage room, too. Each of us bought a mug. Everything is so unique, even pieces of the same set are slightly different. They also gave us a map of Oberammergau and told us good things to see and do. Unfortunately, we didn't have time before our train left. So...I guess we'll just have to go back! It was definitely one of the best days so far.