It is our second and final night in Wittenberg and we have had a really good time here. We are staying at the Luther Hotel, appropriately enough, which is pretty nice and very central. Absolutely everyone we have seen and heard here is an American, mostly from the south and mostly on a Christian-themed group tour, complete with name tags.
Our spacious room in the Luther Hotel
We do have free wireless internet here, but it is only in the lobby and a little bit intermittent, so again not ideal. So I'm afraid this will be quick and light on pictures, with hopes of adding more tomorrow sometime, either from here or from our next destination, which is Erfurt.
The weather has been astonishingly good here - not only blue sky most of the time but also starting to warm up just a little, making us feel like spring may actually be on the way. We even saw a butterfly today! Unfortunately, however, there is a major storm on England's southern coast right now and it's swirling our way. So we probably have some seriously windy and wet weather coming up soon.
Wittenberg is the most important of the string of Luther towns in eastern Germany, so much so that its official name is "Lutherstadt Wittenberg" (not remembering this fact caused us some complications with our sat-nav). Luther came here as a monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg and ended up staying for nearly the rest of his life. This is where the Reformation got started and took hold, making it important for world history as well as religious history.
For all its importance, Wittenberg is surprisingly small, unassuming and quiet. It's a former East German town, and that is still apparent in a few run-down and abandoned buildings scattered around. But it feels very safe and comfortable and has a really nice "European feel" to it. In the right light it has sometimes even reminded me of Venice - which is also rather run-down, come to think of it.
Also surprisingly given the year-round influx of Americans, the town is not at all touristy and very few people speak English. This has been good for our language practice, but admittedly we miss being lazy in bilingual western Germany.
To back it up a bit, our drive from Berlin yesterday was really pleasant, with good weather, very light traffic on the freeways, and the best rest-stop yet. The bathrooms (clean as always) were decorated with vintage art, the shop was well stocked with Coca-Cola Light, and our hot lunch from its cafeteria-style restaurant included some seriously delicious German food.
Once settled in our hotel in Wittenberg, we took advantage of the last rays of sunshine for some photos of the two churches of the city, both with close connections to Luther. We had a late dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant, where our waitress was a very funny Chinese lady who enjoyed teaching us German.
Today I got up astonishingly early (about 8:15) and headed out solo while David took care of some business on the internet in the lobby. The sky was so clear and the morning light was lovely. I had such a nice time revisiting the main square and the two churches, and was so glad to get some nice sunny photos for my website.
When I got back we had breakfast, which was much better than the one provided at our Berlin hotel. Then we set out for our main goal of the day, the Luther House. It was really cool on the outside, but sadly it is closed on Mondays in the winter! So we're going to go as soon as it opens tomorrow morning at 10.
That left us with the rest of the day wide open, so we decided to go on a little day trip. We had a glance at our road atlas and our Rough Guide Germany, and decided on the town of Worlitz, about 15 miles west of Wittenberg. It is not at all famous, but it is part of a World Heritage Site for its palace and landscaped gardens. More info and photos on this side trip tomorrow, hopefully!