Leipzig

We went to Leipzig for two nights after we left Quedlinburg. We found a great hotel that had easy driving access and good parking and a short walk to the amazing Leipzig tram system. We arrived on Saturday, 26 March, in plenty of time to get into the center and start meeting J. S. Bach in the place where he was for most of his career. His 25 years at the Thomaskirche has made that place a sacred place for music lovers from every part of the world.

There was a worship service on Saturday afternoon that they call “Motetten.” The choir was the Kammerkor Freiburg, and the setting for the service was an acappella passion (based on Luke) by an early 20th century composer, Rudolf Mauersberger. The choir was superb. The passion followed the style of Bach’s, with traditional chorales throughout, some of which the congregation also sang. And it was all acappella. It was wonderful to be in that building singing those chorales. And the first thing was the Thomaskirche organist playing Bach’s chorale prelude O Mensch, Bewein' dein' Sunde Gross, BWV 622 (O Man Bewail Thy Grievous Sin), which has always been a favorite of mine. There was a brief sermon, none of which we could understand, but it clearly matched the text, context, and mood. And we were sitting in north facing pews in the nave, and the windows clearest in our vision were those commemorating Bach and Luther. It was the perfect way to experience the place and I am very thankful for it.

Larry took lots of pictures before and after, and here’s one of the chancel and Bach’s grave:After the service we went across the street to the very excellent Bachhaus Museum. It is really a superb place. We wandered around with a gezillion other people, and finally had dinner at one of hte first Leipzig coffee places with lots of history, which we actually didn’t tumble to until the next day! We just picked it because the menu looked good. And indeed the food was very good!

The next morning we were a but confused about the time. England had changed to summer time on the first Sunday in March, and we blithely assumed that the rest of Europe had as well. Not so! Everyone else changed on the last Sunday in March. We finally got it all straight! We had already decided that we wouldn’t try to go to church, and it’s a good thing we did! I don’t think we would have made it. The breakfast at our hotel was splendid (love these German breakfasts) and we enjoyed it very much. We headed out to see more of Leipzig. We especially enjoyed seeing the Nikolaikirche, where Bach also played for festivals and other times. But the Nikolaikirche is noted now for being the place where what the call the “Quiet Revolution” began in 1989. People started gathering for prayer there on Monday nights, and out of that grew the movement that led to the fall of the GDR and the Berlin Wall. There is a very wonderful piece (in English!) about all of that on the Nikolaikirche’s website: http://www.nikolaikirche-leipzig.de/englisch-topmenu-100. It's the first thing - Events of 1989.

After seeing more of Leipzig (which is completely shut down on Sundays), we went Bach to our hotel for a quiet evening and a very good dinner in the restaurant there. We enjoyed Leipzig, and it was wonderful to be in that place where J. S. Bach was. He’s a very big deal there, and here is a picture of his statue outside the Thomaskirche. The fading flowers below were place there on his birthday on 21 March.

More Quedlinburg

I wanted to write some more about Quedlinburg. It is a wonderful town. We so enjoyed our time there, from our great flat to the interesting and beautiful half-timbered houses and the wonderful art, music, and drama culture of the place. (We didn't get in any music and drama, but saw how much was available there throughout the year.)

The local castle and its church - St. Sevarius - were most impressive. The church is a Romanesque (and earlier) building. It was run for centuries by an order of secular (yes, that's right, secular) abbesses as a refuge and school for the daughters of the local elite. A very impressive run - didn't stop until around 1830. The church itself is a very stark building of local stone. There used to be murals on the walls, but they have disappeared over time. We didn't go down to the crypt, but you can see it through gates under the high choir. There are buried Henry I, the first king of Germany, and his wife Mathilde, who was the first Abbess and really started the sisterhood. As in other places of German graves in churches, the two markers had simple bouquets of forsythia and tulips.

The crypt has murals that have survived from the high Middle Ages. They tell the story of Susannah, and of Solomon's wisdom over the dispute about the baby. Perfect for a community of women. The murals have a particular style that has been adapted on the simple local woven paraments and an exquisite linen contemporary tapestry on the wall of the high choir.

But here is the hard part. The place was taken over by the Nazis when the movement began. Hitler understood Henry I to be the beginning of the Third Reich. They changed it from a church to a Nazi assembly hall, and there are terrible pictures of their gatherings. It gives me a chill even to write about it. They also tried to block out the Gothic apse that had been added, to prove that it really was a Romanesque building without any "impurities." (For Hitler the First Reich was Rome.)

The church has been restored and redeemed. It has a lively congregation (except during deep winter - this is a big stone building!) and it is a wonderful worship space. (Upon seeing it I exclaimed, "I want this church!") A baroque crucifix has been replaced by an amazing cross. You can see through it, so that from front or back you know that the cross comes and restores all that has happened there. When everything is seen through the cross, all the evil disappears into a gather community of grace. Here is a picture of the room and the cross:
(The entrance to the crypt is behind the altar.)

All in all Quedlinburg was a terrific place. We changed our initial plans of it just being a place to sleepy and spent the last two days of our week there exploring the town. We found good food as well, including a great little place just around the corner from our flat enticingly named Himmel und Holle (umlaut over that "o") - Heaven and Hell. They specialized in flammekuchen, a kind of German pizza on a very thin and crispy crust. Delicious! We ate there twice.

It was fascinating and interesting to be in all these places that had been part of East Germany - the GDR. Our flat owner was my age, and I realized that all her formative years - two-thirds of her life - had been shaped in that culture. We learned that the family are fifth generation booksellers in Quedlinburg. She's invited me to email her, and I look forward to a possible opportunity to learn some more about those years.

The good side of spending all this time in the former GDR is that Germany has clearly put a lot into the infrastructure there, and the roads are great!

And one more item about Quedlinburg: it is impossible to figure out how to get into it with a car! I mentioned "circling the drain" as our method of finding things. Julie Lightfoot commented that we'd best be careful not to "drill the sewer!" Well,, we almost did that in Quedlinburg the night we came back from Wittenburg. It took us a full 45 minutes to get back to our parking place! We just kept going round and round, even being just a block away but finding it impossible to get t to the spot! We figured out that you have to go to the outside of the town and make your way in, kind of like a snail shell, or one of those annoying puzzles where you have to get the little metal ball from the outside to the center, Phew!

But, if you are ever heading into that part of Germany, be sure and stop in Queldinburg. You'll be happy for the visit, even if you drill the sewer!

Eisleben and Wittenburg

I'm backing up to report on territory already covered. Last week, while staying in Quedlinburg, we made trips to Eisleben (Luther's birth and death place) and Wittenburg.

Eisleben was, in many ways, disappointing. Although the museum was good (especially whoever did the Luther quotes that went with various displays), the people at the information desk and the museum front desks were really rather indifferent to anyone who showed up. Not only there, but in other places, we've had some trouble asking questions, even with people who speak English. No one seems to care very much about the wonderful museums in which they work. This isn't universally true, but it has often been thus in our experience these last two weeks.

Eisleben was really that way. The town itself seemed kind of depressed as well. Then the Luther death house was closed for renovation, as was the church there. This is another thing we're running into. They are really gearing up for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. There is advertising for it everywhere. So lots of things are being fixed, which is nice, but it also means many things are closed. And they don't tell you about that when you get the tourist map and all.

But it was wonderful to see all this history. Here's a picture of the font where Luther was baptized, now in the Geburtshaus Museum:Wittenburg was a different experience. We enjoyed the very good English booklet walking us through the streets and to all the sites. It was very moving to go into the Castle Church where Luther had posted the 95 Theses and stand at his and Melanchthon's graves. (The Germans are very good about keeping their graves with fresh spring flowers - very simple and lovely.) I think Luther would like the fact that this church, where the first "protestant" worship service was held, is still a Roman Catholic Church. And "Ein' Feste Burg" is painted in huge letters around the tower.

It was also terrific to visit the Town Church where Luther preached more that 1000 sermons! Here's a picture of the pulpit with a painting of Luther:

The museum in Luther's house is excellent, and it has the best collection regarding Luther. It was amazing to see the library with all the books that are still extant from Luther's period and since. (You view the Library through sealed, thick windows from a hallway.) The descriptions of Luther's day-to-day life, and of his relative wealth (I really didn't know that) were very interesting. Here's a picture of Luther's house from the courtyard:
Melanchthon's House was closed for renovations(!), but it was cool to see how close together they were. In Wittenburg we really got a sense of all these people moving about their small city for work and food and conversation, and in it all shaping this great movement that changed the western world.

After leaving Luther's house (at the opposite end of the city from the Castle Church) we walked to an oak tree that marks the spot where Luther burned his excommunication order. Walking back toward the city, we stopped at the place where the Esler gate had been. Here, right by his house, Catherine and all the city came and met Luther's body when it was brought here from Eisleben. As they led it through the gates the church bells began to ring and they all rang as the entire community walked with Dr. Luther one last time to his funeral in the Castle Church where it all began. Here's a picture of that place (the gate no longer exists):
On our way back to Quedlinburg there was a glorious sunset with lots of contrails from jets flyinging in and out of Berlin, all set behind the ubiquitous windmills:

Quedlinburg

We arrived in Quedlinburg, Germany on Monday afternoon, March 21. We’ve rented an apartment here for week. What a good find this was! This town is beautiful. It is full of old half-timbered houses, and in fact the German half-timbered house museum is located here. It managed to escape both the ravages of World War II and East Germany, so has maintained its historical character. It seems to be an arts town - lots of visual arts and music - and our apartment is up above an antiquarian bookstore. Perfect. Here are pictures of the bookshop and the upstairs area:
Downstairs is the kitchen, bathroom, and eating area. Here’s a picture of the stairs:

We’re careful.

From here we’ve driven to Eisleben and Wittenburg and have seen much of the countryside around this area. Quedlinburg is on the north edge of the Harz Mountains, and so is a favorite stopping place for people going hiking and camping there. We drove down from a high mountain ridge the other day, and it was a beautiful, forested road. Although Spring has officially begun, the trees around here have not really begun to leaf out. But you can see it coming. Everywhere we go people comment on the effects of the very hard cold winter they all had and how late the springtime blooms are. But everyone is getting ready, and we see gardeners hard at work in the home plots as well as their amazing pea patches! Those have little houses with satellite dishes and all - quite amazing! It looks like people come to garden and really settle in!

On our first night in Quedlinburg we ate at a local Italian restaurant. The young women at the table next to us heard our English and talked to us a bit. They had been on a two-day holiday from their homes in Hannover. They gave us a couple hints for the area, which was nice. But they also commented on how unusual it was to have American tourists around this region, or in Germany at all. We have discovered that not many people speak English, but everyone is game to try with us, and my little dictionary comes in handy! (My German is non-existent.) It just all adds to the adventure.

Our apartment does not have internet, but a nearby hotel graciously allowed us to get hooked to their wi-fi. So we’ll go over there and have another cup of coffee and get this posted. I’ll write about Eisleben and Wittenburg later.

Lüneburg and Starup

On Friday, March 18, we headed north in Germany on our way to Denmark for the weekend. We stayed Friday night in Lüneburg on the recommendation of one of our neighbors. What a wonderful town! We had a terrific German meal at Das Alte Brauhaus Friday night, and then spent some of Saturday morning exploring the town. It was market day, and Larry had lots of fun taking market pictures. Here’s one of them:
There was a little shop with lots of sheep stuff (!) called Nanu Nana, so we bought a couple things and Larry took a picture of this Nana:There was a museum about salt mining there, and we walked over to see if we could manage it before we had to leave, but it was too much time. The whole history of salt throughout Europe is very interesting and we may get to one museum/exhibit about it before the trip is done.

On Saturday afternoon we arrived in Starup, Denmark to visit our friends Pastors Margaret Hammer and Jørgen Kappel-Hansen. Starup is in Jutland not too far north of the German border. Jørgen is the pastor the Starup Kirke, which is 1000 years old. It sits out on the shore of an inlet coming in from the Baltic Sea, and is a beautiful location. Here is a picture of Margaret and Jørgen inside the church after worship on Sunday:
Worship was lovely, even though we couldn’t understand any of it! I could sing along from the hymn book (words only) with Norwegian pronunciation. Two tunes (including A Mighty Fortress at the end) were recognizable, but as every hymn had about 9 verses, I picked the tunes up eventually. (It’s a good thing Grundtvig wrote long hymns!) The church was full, and there were two baptisms: an infant and a confirmation student. We sat behind the group of confirmation students, who are required to attend worship in the last couple months before they are confirmed in May. That was fun - not much different than home at that point!

On Sunday afternoon they drove us into the nearby large town, Hardeslev. (Mysteriously pronounced “Hest-lay-oo”) Margaret is on the staff of the Domkirke (cathedral) there. It is an ancient building (12th century) and a beautiful room. The paraments and paired chasubles are all made by the queen of Denmark. She is a textile artist who does this work for cathedrals throughout the country. Often she uses her old ball gowns for fabric. Here is a picture of the red chasuble:
We had wonderful meals with great conversation in the Starup Praestegaard house. The house is also quite old, although the church has done a great job of upkeep. All the roofs are thatch, which is it’s own headache, but it seems to do well. I found it amusing a delightful that our accommodation there were two very comfortable portable cots in the Confirmation Room! Made me think of all the visiting groups (and Faith’s own youth) that have slept in the Confirmation rooms at Faith! Here is one more picture from Starup - the church:

Denmark and Onward

We have a had wonderful two days with pastor friends in Starup, Denmark. Google the Starup Kirke to see beautiful pictures of this thousand year-old church.

Today we are off to Luther/Bach land, and I am uncertain what internet access we have in the flat we've booked, but will find it somewhere!

More Bruges

This is about driving. Great between cities, difficult within. In Bruges, there was a convenient, secure underground parking lot with the entrance right in front of our hotel. (By the way, our hotel was 't Zand - eurostark inside (lots of white and steel) but very comfortable with a great location.) We left the car in the garage for three days! When we were leaving today, we had to get ourselves turned around right after we left the parking garage. Now Bruges has these cool bicycle-only lanes all over the place, including having there own stoplights with little bicycles on the lights! Our illustrious bike-riding Seattle mayor would love it.

So when we went got turned around and ready to head back on the road in the right direction, we thought we were getting into a right-turn lane, but it was the bicycle lane! There were two women on the street who spoke no English - only Flemish - who thought this was hilarious! The other car drivers on the road were very understanding and let Larry back up and get into the car lane.

Germany... and Larry's Restaurants!

We have found a wonderful hotel in the little town of Nümbrecht, Germany. The town is in the area from whence Larry's maternal grandfather's family came. We actually found it, following the process we have dubbed "circling the drain." (The same process was applied in Coventry, Coleshill, Portsmouth, and Coventry.) And we had a wonderful dinner in a little old place that is the local pfannkuchen haus - pancake house. Beautiful savory pancakes with various toppings and fillings. Larry had smoked trout with horseradish and cranberries, and I had the local Bergische special - minced beef with herbs, mushrooms. Both were delicious, and we shared a wonderful corn saladwith it. Perfect in every regard. Here is Larry at the Pfannkuchen Haus in Nümbrecht:
Bruges was truly wonderful. We enjoyed walking the city along the canals, and seeing museums and all the sights. The cathedral (well, one of them) had an amazing Stations of the Cross - all photographs of contemporary subjects. Very moving.

We also found a restaurant we liked very much indeed. Excellent cooking, small, quiet, more than pleasant! We ate there twice! It's called De Peppermölen (The Peppermill). If you are ever in Bruges, don't miss it! Here is Larry in front of the De Peppermölen:
We leave from here tomorrow to head north, probably to Hamburg. Then on Saturday we go to Denmark to see friends who are pastors in the little Jutland town of Starup. Well, one is there - the other on the cathedral staff in Hadeslev. In closing, here is one of Larry's night pictures from Bruges:

Bruges and Onward!

We've had some internet access limits over the last couple days. We just spent three nights in Bruges, which is wonderful. If you ever have opportunity to come here, do it! I can post some pictures another day. It is a wonderful small city with great sights, friendly, hospitable people, and terrific food! We used it as a base, traveling by train to Brussels yesterday to see the Comic Strip Museum - and a lot of Tin Tin!d

Today we're headed east into Germany to find Stranzenbach, the home origin of Larry's maternal grandfather who was named - ta-da!- Stranzenback! That was Larry's mom's maiden name.

So - more to follow, with pictures! Hope I can get online tonight.

Whizzing through England

The morning we left Ilmington was beautiful. We went for a walk after breakfast, and enjoyed seeing the church and having a lovely conversation with a man out walking dogs. He told us details about The Apple Tapestry in the church that had been made by people in the parish about 10 years ago to highlight how the area had once been full of apple orchards. The man with whom we spoke, David Greenwood, is a calligrapher. He was responsible for putting the names of the 89 apple varieties around the edge. Here's Larry's picture of The Apple Tapestry:

From Ilmighton we drove to Gloucester and thoroughly enjoyed visiting that beautiful cathedral. We were especially enjoyed the tile work in the chancel, or presbytery. You can see good pictures of the biblical scenes therein on the Gloucester Cathedral website: www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk. Click on the Virtual Tour link on the left side and look for "Presbytery."

From Gloucester we went to Portsmouth. On the way we stopped in the little Village of Down Ampney. This is the birthplace of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and he named his beautiful hymn tune to "Come Down, O Love Divine" after this village of his birth. That is my favorite hymn, and it was lovely to visit this simple church.

After a difficult time finding our B and B in Portsmouth (it turned out we were one block away when we thought we were lost!) we had a great Indian meal. On Saturday we headed out into a beautiful day to go see the HMS Victory. It was really cool - much bigger than I had expected, although Larry was well acquainted with the dimensions. It is almost holy ground in England, with a brass plaque on the deck in the exact spot where Nelson died. Kind of reminded me of visiting the Alamo. Here's a picture of the Victory: We had a wonderful time walking all over Old Portsmouth - lots of walking! - and saw many interesting things. We ended the day with a great meal in a Turkish restaurant.

Today we went east from Portsmouth en route to Canterbury. We stopped at Sissinghurst Castle to see the famous gardens begun by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson in the 19030's. It was beautiful even in its winter-spring plainness. We would love to see it in full bloom.

Our day ended with our arrival in Canterbury, with the attendant difficulties of finding anything in a car in the these ancient towns! But we finally figured out how to get into the Cathedral Close where we are staying at the Canterbury Cathedral lodge. It is right next to the Cathedral in the Close, and tonight we have a beautiful view of the lit majesty of this awesome structure. We attended a rather tedious Evensong which included the installation ("collation" they say) for the Archdeacon of a new area of the Diocese. It was rather powerful to see a bishop sitting in his chair in that place that has seen bishops (and archbishops) come and go since the 6th century! We found Larry's putative ancestor, Archbishop of Canterbury John Moore, in the carved wall of the cathedral. And we joined our daughter-in-law Sarah Murdoch who arrived today in England to research Rick Steve's Great Britain. She arranged to begin her journey in Canterbury so we could all meet up. After a tour of the cathedral we had a very good dinner. It was a lot of fun to be together! Here we are in the cloisters of the cathedral:


Across the Channel tomorrow!

Ilmington and Coventry

There were a couple small internet glitches yesterday, so I post today. We arrived well in London and got our car, which seems to be just fine. We got ourselves to Ilmington without too many snags, and have a wonderful room at The Howard Arms. We've had good dinners both nights, and as I write we are finishing a bottle of wine in front of the fire!

Today we visited Coventry Cathedral, among other things. It was an amazing site to see. It was bombed in 1940, and they decided to leave the bombed-out shell and make it a sign of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is very powerful, especially paired with the new cathedral attached to it. There is truly beautiful and powerful art there, from the stained glass windows to the side pieces and gorgeous tapestry as a reredos curtain. Here are a couple pictures - the first is the bombed out old cathedral, the second is the high altar with the reredos tapestry and the nail cross made in silver. The nail cross was first done of burned timbers after the bombing by a cathedral worker, and it has become the symbol of the cathedral.
After Canterbury, we headed for Coleshill (pronounced Colezull) east of Birmingham. One set of Larry's ancestors came from there. We were very successful in our searches, especially with the help of the local librarians. Let's hear it for libraries! Woo-hoo!

On our way back to Ilmington, we tried again (one try in the morning) to find the little village of Winderton! We had seen it on the map, and found one road sign. But the village itself eluded us, although we think we drove through it once - three houses! But the name was good, and we did take a picture of the road sign!

Tomorrow we head for Gloucester on more Larry ancestor pursuits, and then to Portsmouth for two nights. It is lovely here in England. The climate is much like Seattle, but being farther north the days are longer. And their daffodils are already blooming!

Here's a picture of the Howard Arms:

Europe, 2011

I'm going to try and do this with some consistency. I've said it before, but you never know when it might actually take! We're at Sea-Tac Airport waiting for our flight to London to begin a two-month trip in Europe. It will take us from England to Belgium to Germany to Denmark, Hungary, Italy, France, and points in between all those.

I've been thinking the last few days about why people write about travel. The British and the Germans really started the trend in the 19th century and greatly increased the yen to travel in others. But, when you think of it, the main story of the Old Testament is a travel narrative, from Abraham's journey through the wilderness wanderings. And much of the rest of the OT is commentary on that travel. When we move into new territory we start seeing and thinking differently. It may that the travel narrative helps us focus that sight and those thoughts.

So here is a more back-at-home piece. I'm currently reading Driftless by David Rhodes and it is a wonderful novel. These people in Words, Wisconsin are like a new community of friends, making their way through hazard and hope and finding new ways of being from old Amish ways to the perils of modern farming. It's not just about the Amish - in fact, they are like a background piece in the story - but it is about how a small community finds its way in the 21st century. I can't recommend it more highly. Get the book and meet Winifred the pastor, and Grahm and July the farmers, Gail the aspiring country singer, the widower Jacob, the annoyingly real Maxine, and many more. It is a great read! I hope to finish it on the plan ride tonight.

Blessings for the day wherever you own travels take you, near and far.