Eisenach and Munich and into Bavaria!

Hey I think this looks a whole lot like Smeltzer Street! Strasse means...street and Schmelzer is oh so close to Smeltzer! FUN! And Martin Luther's house was right on the corner! YES!

On Thursday, we went to Eisenach to see Bach’s birthplace and where Martin Luther went to school as a young boy and later where he was hidden in Wartberg Castle after his excommunication from the Catholic church. Pretty cool actually. Wartberg Castle was scouted out in early 1000 AD. And completed over the next century. Wow, a thousand years ago this castle was being built. Pretty impressive! Done in the romantic styling when redone in the 1800s at famous writer Gothe’s insistence, Wartberg is an architectural and functional masterpiece. The Earl’s court, for example had heated floors in the 1100s! Wow! Martin Luther’s Stube is a replica now with only the whale’s vertebra foot stool as an original piece. But pilgrims over the years have come to pay homage & starting in the early 1600s people scratched their names into the walls of his room where he translated the New Teatament into German & wrote 14 other thological reformative texts in 10 months time. Impressively Holy Spirit inspired! We also saw St. George’s church (it was closed but we looked inside) where Bach was baptized & his family was organists for 7 generations. By the way, what's up with St. George? He's supposed to have slayed a dragon. Hummm. I have some questions about that. Don't you? And wandered the streets of Eisenach enjoying Nikoli’s Gate close to the Hoptbahnhof. On to Munich for more excitement.
Friday
Today we saw Dachau Prison camp. So hard to describe what was going on in my head. So hard to see the basest of human depravity and so much life lost. I can’t comprehend it and honestly don’t know if I could handle it if I could understand it. I sat in a Catholic Nun’s chapel (the Karmelite Kloister) with the organ music playing on the site of Dachau and cried for those lost and for those who survived. And Amy & I were talking about how those people are covered by grace the same way we are. Those who caused and perpetrated the most horrific acts, maybe in the course of humanity, are covered by Christ they same way I am if they ask for his forgiveness. I guess that’s the two sides of fair. We don’t want God to be fair so we can have his forgiveness & saving grace but we don’t think others deserve it. I think I understand better how we crucify Christ each time we sin. Wow it was hard to take all that today. Tonight we explored the Hofgren & also the English Gartens and in the center of the English Garten (larger than Central & Hyde Parks) the park is beautiful! We saw swans with their little babies! So cute! And little ducklings and some wierd kind of geese with their little ones. I know I hate birds and all but they were really cute! We ate at the Chineese pagoda BierGarten. Yummy! We though of Jeff & Crystal as the German band was playing IN the chineese pagoda! Funny! We laughed at a couple of German groups (mostly comprised of young college aged men) sing German songs back & forth, just like in the movies. It was a fun end to a pretty tragic and depressing day. Back to the hotel and the guy at the desk told us if we bought something at the restaurant next dooe that we could use the internet for free. Wrong-O! Oh well, we bought overpriced sparkling water for nothing. Bummer! Oh well. Last night it POURED rain! It was fun to hear the storm and be warm & snuggly inside! So today we're just East (as far as I can tell) of MarienPlatz in a little San Francisco Coffee Co. with a daypass to the internet for 4.50 Euro. Oh, well it's better than nothing. Post again when we can. Tomorrow we're off to Fussen to see Neuschwanstein and the Hohenschwagau Castles. Walt Disney modled the main Princess Castle after Neuschwanstein. Until Austria...Aufwiederzen.