Reformation Tour – Italy, Germany and Switzerland. Part I. September 19 – October 3, 2018.

We were made aware of this study-tour led by Richard Gibson, the principal of Brisbane School of Theology, by my sister Ling and brother-in-law Wally.  The tour starts in Rome, and we will be joining them Thursday afternoon.

2017 was the 500^th anniversary of when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the church at Wittenburg.  Many tours were conducted last year to commemorate this significant event in the history of reformation.  Due to schedule conflicts, we could not make it; so we jumped at this opportunity to do so.  For the price of tuition, a lot of reading, and several reports, one could do this tour for credit.  We just paid the A$350 (or so) as audit fee.

Since returning from Hong Kong on the 13^th, I have not had a good night’s sleep, so I am dreading a bit that my jetlag would be further aggravated by this shift in time zone.  We shall see …

Wednesday 9/19.  Henry H came by to pick us up.  He hurt himself quite severely falling off a flight of stairs a few months back, so we were glad he was back on his feet, and working.

We didn’t have TSA Pre-Check for this trip, but the line we were in worked just like the pre-check line: magnetometer, shoes on, liquids and computer remain in backpack; I did take the belt off.  Getting through security took about 10 minutes.  The United Club by Gate 90 was crowded, but we managed to find a small table to settle down.

Thursday 9/20.  UA864 Newark to Hamburg used a 757, which felt really tight for a 7-hour trip.  My row was full, Anne had an empty seat next to her.  We landed early, and immigration was straightforward.

Priority Pass gave us access to Airport Lounge in this rather modern looking airport.  Unfortunately the food offering is rather limited.  Anne founded this room with some recliners, so decided to try to get some sleep.  We do have a long layover; our flight to Rome isn’t until 1 pm.

 Modern looking Hamburg airport.  At 7 am many shops and restaurants were already open.

The Airport Lounge was very empty when I took this photo at 7:20 am.  It was filling up an hour later.

The Eurowings representative said there is an 8 kg carryon limit for their flights, but didn’t mind our carrying our luggage on board.  Hamburg is a surprisingly large airport, and we had a bus gate, which meant lugging our stuff down and up the stairs.  The flight was a little under two hours, uneventful except for the lady next to me who clearly had a fear of flying.

Boarding the Eurowings flight from Hamburg to Rome.  I was a bit apprehensive about how well United's system works with the Eurowing system; it turned out to be a smooth transfer - except we had a long layover.

Just after we landed the sky opened up with heavy rain.  Fortunately by the time we walked out of the terminal to look for our Uber the rain dwindled to a drizzle.  We met up with the rest of the tour group – there are 24 of us – for drinks before dinner.  The Welcome Dinner at the hotel was a disappointment: the turkey breast was a bit dry.

The tour was booked with Mission Travel in Australia, the company that provided the bus and tour guide was Insight Travel.

Welcome dinner at the hotel.  Faith (far left) is a childhood friend from church.

 Ergife Hotel is a bit out of the way from town, but seems to do great business with tour groups and conventions.

Accommodation: Ergife Palace Hotel, Rome (3 nights.)

Friday 9/21.  Wakeup call was at 7 am, two hours before we had to leave for the day, so we had a relaxed morning.  First stop was St. Paul Outside the Walls, a basilica outside the walls of Rome where St. Paul was buried.  I never knew about this from my prior visits of the city.  It was an impressive building, not crowded with visitors, with the center-piece Paul’s tomb and his shackles.  

Panoramic view of the courtyard and front of St. Paul's Outside the Walls.

A beautiful colonnade.

The inside of the basilica.

Mosaic above the altar.

St. Paul's tomb, with the shackles he wore displayed above.

 This olive tree is "linked" to one in Wittenberg as "a sign of the growth of communion" between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church.

This Holy Door was opened by Pope Francis in 2015, and is one of several door one walks through to be forgiven of his/her sins.  Otherwise it is opened only once in 25 years for that purpose.  Many in our group were indignant that the sin can be absolved by acts such as these, and that the pope has the authority to do so.

These nicely trimmed pine trees are everywhere.  Our tour guide told us many of these were planted during Mussolini's time.  There are articles on if or how they are related to Respighi's Pines of Rome.

Next we had a bus stop of the city, with visits to the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navono.  Ling, Wally, Faith and we had lunch at the Bernini Restaurant in the square.  When asked if they could do quick, the answer was it would take 30 minutes.  It ended up taking 20 or so.  Last time (more than 10 years ago) we waited for so long that we left before the food was served; we had to meet up with our tour group then.

 The tour did the usual tourist things in Rome.  I didn't realize "trevi" simply means "three street," the fountain refer to that fact.

Many people wanted to visit Scala Sancto, the steps Jesus took from Pilate’s palace that were relocated to Rome.  We decided not to go as the walk from Navona to the steps was close to 2 miles.  Instead we took the tour bus back, and I slept for a bit.

At about 6:15 pm we walked to the Coop market to pick up a few things, and ate at Ferro e Ghisa.

Zucchini-crusted fish at Ferro e Ghisa.

Saturday 9/22.  Wake up call was at 5:30 am this morning for early departure at 7:30 am for the Vatican.  When walking quickly past these folks standing in line, I wondered how much extra one had to pay to get this sort of “VIP” treatment, and where that extra money went.  In any case, we first walked through three of the eleven (?) museums in the Vatican.  The tapestry one was familiar from our visit many years ago, and the statue one could be interchanged with many others I have visited and I wouldn’t notice.  The Vatican guide was joking that the wet dress was invented by these artists as naked women statues weren’t allowed (except for Venus.)  The Sistine Chapel was less crowded than last time, but it was still quite a strain to tilt my head to see it.  It was probably explained to me at my last visit: the Creation of Eve was the centerpiece in the ceiling, not the much better known panel where God’s finger was about to touch Adam’s. The pope at the time said to the cardinal who was depicted in hell that he couldn’t do anything as he was not in purgatory – hell was final; and that the famous “chimney” to announce the election of a new pope was only erected when needed.

 Line waiting to get into the Vatican was very long.  This is the reception area.

 The Vatican has on its grounds several gardens and museums.

 A statue in the museum.

 Mural depecting the resurrection.

 Gallery of maps.

 No photos are allowed in the Sistine Chapel.

St. Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world with a length of 220 meters.

Front of St. Peter's Basilica.

Lunch was with Wally and Ling at La Vittoria nearby. We than took the coach back to the hotel.

Quite a few folks from our tour ended up having lunch at this restaurant.

There was a bit of confusion as I wasn’t sure we had our flights tomorrow confirmed.  It wasn’t until around 8:30 pm that the tour director Juerg told me everything was in order.

Dinner was at 6zero1, next to the hotel.  It was inexpensive, but the food was good.

Sunday 9/23.  Today’s wake-up call was an hour earlier, at 4:30 am.  Our flight is at 9 am, and the airport is less than 30 minutes away on an early Sunday morning.  We ended up getting through airport security a little after 7 am, which gave us enough time to walk over to Airport Lounge, the Priority Pass lounge at FCO.  Even though the food selection was limited, we got a chance to have coffee and some breakfast.

Flight AZ422 to Berlin was quite full, but uneventful.  I was surprised that TXL is quite dated in appearance.  Traveling in a group of 20 plus meant everything was a bit slow, so by the time we got to the hotel it was close to 1 pm.  The rooms weren’t ready for us yet, so we went out in search of lunch, and ended up at the Burger King across the street.

Our rooms were ready at about 3 pm, and our afternoon tour started at 3:30 pm.  Our first stop was a 40-minute tour of the Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was built to honor the emperor that united Germany.  Most of the church was destroyed during the war, and what is left is now used as a “place for reconciliation,” with gifts from Stalingrad and Conventry.  A modern church and bell tower are (being) constructed on the old site and Lutheran services are conducted there.

We were then met by a local guide Sebastian who took us around the sites of Berlin.  There was a lot to cover in two hours: Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie (a replica as the original was soon removed after re-unification), the Jewish synagogue that was spared on Kristallnacht, the Berlin Wall, the Eastside Gallery where artists were invited to work on a 1 ½ km section, different houses of government, the large shopping center KaDeWe.  It was raining quite hard, so we stopped at only the Brandenburg Gate and listened to the interesting narration given by Sebastian.

 Most of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin was destroyed during the second world war.  The parts that remain intact are used as a Peace Memorial.  In sharp contrast to other German sites I have visited, there was not a lot of "coming to terms with our past" on display.

 This must be one of the few Protestant churches that were built to honor a person who is not a saint.  Kaiser Wilhelm was the first king of a united Germany.

 Inside the new church.

Brandenburg Gate.  The quadrica on top of the monument was taken by Napoleon to Paris, but returned after his defeat.

 Hotel Adlon is a favorite of the rich and famous.  This is where Michael Jackson stayed when he notoriously dangled his newborn out the window.

 The Jewish Holocaust Memorial consists of 2711 concrete slabs.

The French Cathedral was built for the Huguenots who fled France following the 1685 Edict of Fontainbleau.

Parts of the Berlin Wall were kept after the wall fell.  Artists were invited to paint on this section of the wall called the "Eastside Gallery."  One of the panels showed Brezhnev kissing Hoenecker.

Our group dinner was held across the street at a sister hotel.  The setting was elaborate, the menu was still simple: broccoli and chicken tiki marsala.  There were other smaller dishes and we were not sure what they were. In general, a satisfying meal.

Group dinner was at Vienna House Andel's across the street from our hotel.  The hotel seems a lot fancier, but not that expensive.

Hotel: Vienna House Easy Berlin (1 night.) 

Monday 9/24.  Today’s was mostly spent touring Wittenberg, where Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 theses on the door at Schlosskirche.  To get to Wittenberg by 10 am, it meant getting up at 5:30, having breakfast at 6:30, and leaving Berlin at about 7:30.  Our guide Thomas can trace his family tree back to Luther's days, if memory serves.  From what he said it seemed his father was also a tour guide, during a time the area was part of East Germany.

 Schlosskirche was the chapel of University of Wittenberg when Luther was a student at the school.

 This is the door where Luther nailed his 95 Theses.  The wooden doors have since been replaced with bronze doors with the Theses engraved.  Evidently there is still debate whether this event actually happened, even though contemporaneous reports support its occurrence.

 Schlossstrasse is one of the two main roads in Wittenberg.  The town was spruced up in preapartion for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

 Stadtkirche where Luther preached.

 Inside Stadtkirche.  The painting (partially shielded by Thomas, our guide) shows Luther preaching.

The “tourist” district was Wittenberg consists mostly of two parallel roads, with the Schlosskirche on one end, and Lutherhaus on the other.  Somewhere in the middle is Wittenberger Marktplatz.  We learned quite a bit about Luther’s life, the perceived importance of relics, Wittenburg University (and how it was absorbed into Halle University), and what the occupation by the Russians was like during the years 1945-1993 when the Russians simply disappeared overnight.  One “new” name for me was Melanchton, a contemporary and colleague of Luther.

 Inside Lutherhaus.

 This Luther Oak marks where Luther burned the papal bull excommunicating him from the Catholic Church.

Our driver Romulus managed to navigate this through narrow and winding streets all over Europe.  Unfortunately he scraped the side of the bus on our way to Geneva.

Lunch was simple halal food (there are several in town).

When I got to the hotel I discovered we didn’t get to see Luther’s grave as we didn’t go inside Schlosskirche.  I wish I had known about that; it would have been more appropriate for the tour than say the Russian occupation museum or the community chest concept introduced in Wittenberg.

We didn't get to visit Luther's grave as we didn't enter the Castle Church.  This is an image from the web.

Group dinner was chicken schnitzel at a nearby restaurant.

Hotel: Radisson Blu Furst Leopold, Dessau (1 night.)

Tuesday 9/25.  At about 8 am we started our journey towards Eisleben.  There was considerable construction along the way, so our bus had to take quite a detour, and we arrived at about 10:30 am.  We arranged to meet with the local guide at 11:15 am or so.

If one looks up Eisleben, one would learn that this city is where Martin Luther was born, died, and gave his last sermons.  We started with St. Andrews where Luther was too ill to finish his last sermon; he died a few days later.  The church was interesting in that it didn’t become all-Protestant until the last catholic Count passed away in 1540.  Next stop was the house where Luther died, but the actual place of death was at a different house – the mix-up was due to the owners’ having the same family names.  St. Paul and St. Peter was the church where Luther was baptized, it has been modernized, with the latest renovation a circular baptistry in the front.  Luther’s birthplace is now a museum (built a few years ago to accommodate the expected influx of tourists,) it had interesting displays, but not that informative about Luther’s life.

 Birthplace of Luther in Eisleben.

 Church of St. Paul and St. Peter where Luther was baptized.  Its interior is modern-looking.  The hole in the front of the photo is the baptistry.

 St. Andrew's Church where Luther preached his last sermons.  He was in town as a mediator but died during his visit.

 The pulpit where Luther preached from, inside St. Andrew's Church.

Luther's Death House.  Not where Luther actually died as there was a mixup.

Market was in town, so we bought our lunch (chicken and wurst) just as the food truck was about to pull up stakes.

To round out the day, we visited St. Anne.

 Luther was at one time the vicar of the Diocese where St. Anne the nunnery was located.

St. Anne's has a nice view of the city.

Our hotel for the night.

Hotel: Best Western Erfurt-Apfelstadt (1 night.)

Wednesday 9/26.  Today’s sights were in Erfurt.  Matthias would be our local guide, and he had a wealth of knowledge about the town and Martin Luther.

Our tour started with a town square, “anger” in German, where a robust statue of Martin Luther stood.  Erfurt for a while was in the middle of two major trade routes (north-south and east-west) and was quite wealthy, with house owners competing to show who was richer and more cultured.  We passed by a couple of catholic churches, the view to which was somewhat blocked because of the fair set up for Octoberfest.  Then it was a walk to former Erfurt University where Luther started his studies, Kramerbrucke where houses on both sides blocked nearly completely the view of the river.  The Augustinian monastery where Luther started as a mendicant Augustinian monk is now used for many purposes, but it still has a “museum” part that showed what it was like for Luther while he stayed there.

 Town Square, Erfurt.

 Martin Luther statue in front of the Gospel Church.

 There must be a Scholossstrasse in many cities in Germany. This one crosses over a river, with many planters with nice flowers sitting in the river.

Many houses around Fischmarkt were owed by rich people who tried to outdo each other in elaborately decorating their houses.

 There are many houses and castles built on top of hills in this area, many of the buildings are ruins, this one seems to be intact.

 The guide warned us the town square was transformed for Ocktoberfest.  This is what he meant.

 Erfurt Cathedral on the left, St. Steven's church on the right.  Both remain Catholic.  Luther spilled the cup conducting his first communion as a priest in the Cathedral.

 Erfurt University where Luther studied from 1501 to 1505.

 Like Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Kramerbrucke is a bridge lined on both sides by houses.

 Legend has it that Luther begged at this stair case from Kramerbrucke while he was a monk.  The guide told us this was highly unlikely as the Franciscans and Dominicans were there before the Augustinians.  It was more likely that Luther begged outside the city.

 The river spanned by Kramerbrucke.  This is actually a divided river with a small island in the middle.

 Luther became a monk at this monastery.  It is now a museum, and Protestant.

 Chapel of monastery.

 Luther's study at the monastery.

 Before a novice became a monk, he had to lie prostrate on this slab overnight.  This is the tomb of Johannes Zacharias, whose persecution of Jan Hus at the Council of Konstanz caused the latter's being burnt at the stake.

 This is just one room in the building. Note the inscription "Soli Deo Gloria."

We had a bit more time for lunch, so we had a sit down dinner at the Pavarotti Restaurant in Gildehaus.  I had the “Gildehaus Rinderroulade” and Anne had “2 Thuringer Bratwursts.”  The former seems to be a traditional dish for this part of the country, and Thuring is the state Erfurt is in.

The Pavoratti Restaurant is located in the Gildehall of Erfurt.  We had lunch here.

When Luther was condemned at the Diet of Worms, he fled to Eisenach and hid in Wartburg Castle as Junker Jorg.  The Castle reminds me of the Prague Castle, although most people call it an inspiration for the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.  We spent sometime hearing the story of the Hungarian Princess St. Elizabeth who devoted her life helping the poor, working so tirelessly that she died at age 24.  Luther translated the New Testament from Greek to German during his refuge here also.

 Wartburg Castle.  There is little resemblance to the Neuschwanstein on the outside, but there are some similarities in the interiors.

 Story of Hungarian Princess St. Elizabeth who died helping the poor.

 Luther's study during his stay in Wartburg.  He translated the New Testament into German from Greek in this room.

View of city from Wartburg Castle.

We had a 30-minute bonus stop at Bachhaus where I did a quick tour of the museum.  The collection seemed quite extensive, but the limited time made a deeper appreciation impossible.

 Some of the instruments on display in the Bachhaus.

It took about 2 ½ hours to get to the hotel, located outside Frankfurt.  Dinner was at 8:30 pm, and it was after 10 pm that we got to our room.

Accommodation: Novum Select Hotel, Russelsheim (2 nights.)

Continued in Part II.