August 18, 2019
Sunday 18th August In Wittenberg - 75 Kilometres to See 95 Theses.
August 18 Sunday 75kms
In Wittenberg - 75 Kilometres to See 95 Theses.
Frau, the commandantess, cycles by looking a little grumpy, but Ann butters her up and she’s happy with 22€. Following breakfast, as the rain clears, we cycle into town to explore.
The Marienkirche is our first port of call. A plaque outside remembers the holocaust and notes that Jews were evicted from Saxony-Anhalt in the mid 16th century. The church, exterior of gothic style, is of more sober design inside. The wide pews, upper balcony make for quite a contrast to French or even German Gothic. Paintings by Cranach, friend of Luther, illustrate ordinary people in worship.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We walk through the town to the Schloss Kirche . This has an excellent information site with plenty of English explanations. The church is Gothic in style but again has definite architectural differences such as the statues of important Reformation figures along the sides. Something looks about to happen here and sure enough, the serious looking German choir begins swaying and singing with the young Kenyan choir members doing energetic solos. All very invigorating. We stay for a little of the service to hear the choir, but at the point when the pastor climbs the latter to deliver his sermon in German, we discretely depart.
We retrieve our bikes and head back to the campground, over the railway, over the motorway, over the river and there we are. Weather’s behaving strangely, but the sun finally shows and we enjoy tea outside next to Marmot. Several more cycle tourers have set up camp and we chat with a couple from Hamburg. Storms are forecast, but will they really come?
Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 944 km (586 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 6 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |