There's only two things in life that make it worth livin'

We got up early today and rode the train to Wittenberg. It is about an hour south of Berlin by train. It was a beautiful ride through the countryside. It was a double-decker and we sat on top so it was a good vantage point.

Wittenberg was made famous by the Reformer Martin Luther. (Madison thought he was black and had a dream. Markus said she would have to spend two more hours in the museum for that comment.) He was a priest and a professor there. Below is our picture made in front of the door (at least the opening) where in 1517 he posted his 95 Theses. His refusal to retract his writings caused the Pope and Roman Emperor to have a meeting in 1521 called the Diet of Worms. I thought that was just for birds.

I'm going to need a diet of worms after this trip; tape worms that is. We had another great meal in this Middle Age Village. The kids and I had schnitzel. We enjoyed the company of one another as well. Everyone was able to go, except Lina, who had a birthday party. I'm still amazed everyone is getting along as well as they are.

I had an epiphany today while in Wittenberg. My sister and I used to get up early EVERY Sunday morning to watch "Davy and Goliath" before we went to church, before we went to Lubys, and I had fish with tartar sauce, my favorite vegetable, macaroni and cheese, and a strawberry shortcake. Well, the first realization was when Almut asked me if I knew a song, written by a guy from this village, and she was attempting to translate it to English, until I realized she was humming "A Mighty Fortress is our God." The second realization was at the printing press when the printer rolled out an image of a flower with a cross in the middle of it, and said it was the seal for Martin Luther. Then I realized that my favorite claymation from the early 70's was Lutheran and the theme song was A Might Fortress, and all this would not be possible without Wittenberg where I was standing today. WOW! I wished my sister would have been with me...but wait, she got to have dinner with the Fonz.

When we got back home, it was raining. We went over to Almut's co-worker Suzanna, and her husband Deter's house for BBQ, various sausages, and good salads. Another couple, Peter and Christian were there was well. Peter is a girl. But that reminds me, Almut told me when she looked at the blog, in the area where I have the two time zones that there was an alternate lifestyle advertisement. I never saw that back in the states. I don't think there were ads when I was doing it at home. Just curious if you see them, and wondered about it. Almut did.

The kids cooked some kind of dough shell for sausages over an open flame. Sort of the "blanket," for pigs-in-a-blanket.

I can tell I'm starting to wear down. Seeing this sign made me yearn to be back in Texas with Waylon and Willie and the boys.

Wittenberg