Greetings from rainy Bamberg! This is such a beautiful and interesting city, one of our favorites yet. But I have to back up to our last morning in Erfurt (Saturday), which we crammed a lot into. It was sunny and comparatively warm - perfect for seeing a few more sights before leaving Erfurt.
We started with a tour of the Augustinian Monastery, where Martin Luther was a monk from 1505 to 1511. This was a very difficult period for Luther, as he was a sensitive soul and never felt he could be good enough to avoid God's punishment. So he hardly ate, slept as uncomfortably as possible, and went to confession several times a day, to the exasperation of his superiors.
The other main event in the monastery's history was a terrible tragedy during World War II. On February 25, 1945, the Allies bombed Erfurt and 267 people who tried to shelter in the basement of the library were killed by a direct hit. The fences on the left in the photo above mark that area, which is currently undergoing complete rebuilding.
The monastic church can be visited for free, but the rest of the monastery has to be seen on a guided tour. What was funny is that it's available only in German and we were the only two to show up for the 12:00 tour! And the tour guide didn't speak a bit of English. So it ended up being an hour-long intensive German lesson, as she spoke slowly and simply in German and I tried desperately to listen politely and to understand.
I actually succeeded more than I expected, even managing to translate some things for David and give her a few short responses. It helped a lot that I knew something about the history of Luther, and that many of the German words I learned for my dissertation have to do with history and architecture. But there were still plenty of words I didn't understand, and she patiently tried other words or gestures until I did. It was a very mentally tiring, but interesting, hour!
The small cloisters
Original notes scribbled in the margins of a book by Luther
Luther's room - not very big!
Reconstruction of a monastic bed from Luther's time
Inside the large monastic church, where Luther attended services regularly and conducted Mass after he was ordained.
Medieval stained glass in the church, which Luther would have looked at every day. He incorporated this design into the "Luther Rose," which is still the symbol of Lutheranism.
Next item of business was to climb the tower of this church for some nice views.
The wooden stairs, especially here at the bottom, were rather terrifying. They creaked horribly and swayed a little as we climbed them, but fortunately we made it without incident.
A close look at the bells near the top
View of the Augustinian Monastery we just visited.
View over the Kramerbrucke, a very pretty bridge full of nice little shops.
Back on solid ground, this is one of the buildings of the Kramerbrucke.
Just down the river from the Kramerbrucke is the Little Synagogue, the yellow building on the left. Entrance was free and we enjoyed a quick visit.
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Then we hoofed it back to our hotel's parking garage and were on the road to Bamberg by around 3:00. The drive was two hours and seemed a little longer than usual, but it was another smooth and lovely trip. The traffic was light and the landscape was full of trees and mountains, with lots of nice bridges and tunnels to get us efficiently through them. One of the tunnels was over 7km (about 4 miles) long.
Report on Bamberg, which we leave tomorrow morning, coming up in the next post.
