Tag: Humor

Our big day had finally arrived.

We were sitting in the lounge at 8:30 a.m. waiting for the cruise director to call our group to board the bus to Wittenberg.

I had spent about an hour in the Word earlier in the morning and was prepared for the day. Now, I was itching with anticipation.

I tried to turn the conversation to Wittenberg and the day ahead of us to no avail.

The Wife: “This Bloody Mary is too sweet.”

Ann: “Yes it is, and you would think that would make me stop drinking it but no.”

Just about this time our group was called and we headed for the bus.

Wittenberg was the only place we have visited on this trip that felt touristy. Big buses dropped off people near the entrance, the streets were crowded, and tour groups crowded near one another and strained to hear their guide over the guide of the group next to them. Continue reading “Reformation Tour—Day 9”

We left Dresden early this morning and arrived in Meissen by 8:00 a.m.

If you know porcelain, you know of Meissen.

And if you know me, you know I wasn’t going on the porcelain excursion.

Nothing against porcelain, but I am on a Luther quest. So, while the other members of GSB team reverted to worldly pursuits like Augustus II to popery, I set off alone into the city of Meissen like Abraham, not knowing where I was going but looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God.

I was not disappointed.

Using the gothic spires of the Meissen Cathedral as my North Star, I walked up the narrow meandering streets of Old Town until I found myself in front of the imposing structure, that is Meissen Cathedral, whose towers, spires, and roof whispered, “Look up to the heavens.” Continue reading “Reformation Tour—Day 8”

It is 6:12 p.m and I am finally sitting down to write.

Actually, I’m writing while the gals and our new friends from Australia (we met them yesterday at lunch) are talking around me.

So, if this post is no good, you will know why. Hemingway never had to put up with such distractions.

Ann and The Wife tried to pressure me to write earlier this afternoon, but as I told them, you can’t command creativity, and I wasn’t feeling it.

Today was a good day: a good balance between touring and relaxing. Too much touring and too much listening to tour guides drone on with all the fun facts and scripted stories, it can get old after a while.

Our excursion today consisted of a 3 1/2 hour morning walking tour of Dresden. There is much to see here but it all has a wrinkle: because the city centre was reduced to rubble by allied bombing one night in February 1945, almost everything one sees has been rebuilt. However, it was rebuilt to look old by essentially copying what was destroyed in 1945. In that sense, this city is unique and a bit odd. Touring Dresden is a like watching a very good actor—there is the appearance of authenticity but you have to remind yourself it is not what it appears to be. Continue reading “Reformation Tour—Day 7”

The Elbe River has its origin in the Krkonoše Mountains on the northwest border of the Czech Republic and ends in the North Sea.

It’s the Elbe that will carry us to our prized destinations of Torgau and Wittenberg over the next few days.

Extending their hegemony to the Elbe was a goal of the Romans, who suffered perhaps their greatest defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, where they were defeated by an alliance of Germanic tribes in 9 A.D., forever limiting the reach of the Roman Empire to the Rhine River. It explains why we have not seen any Roman ruins in Prague or the Czech Republic.

The Elbe was also the eastern border of the Carolingian Empire during the reign of Charlemagne in the ninth century. This fact has special relevance to us because Charlemagne is a GSB Kingdom Hero.

Our day began in Decin, from which we departed at 6:15 a.m. We arrived in Bad Schandau around 9:00 a.m. Bad Schandau is a town filled with brothels and casinos, and is run by former agents of the East German Stasi who have banded together to form a German mafia of sorts that extorts money from local businesses, hence the name “Bad” Schandau. Continue reading “Reformation Tour—Day 6”

Following the death of Jan Hus, the Hussite movement continued to gain strength spreading into other parts of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic).

The Hussites were the majority in Prague and in Bohemia for nearly two hundred years after Hus.

Sometimes those who are His are many and sometimes they are few, but whenever they are, they are the light of the world. It is easy to get lost in all the activity like the Thirty Years War, or the French Wars of Religion, but not if we look for the light.

There were other lights after Hus and before Luther both outside and within the Catholic Church. They include Jerome of Prague, Thomas Conecte, Savanorola,  and Cardinal Andrew, archbishop of Crayn, who opposed corruption under Pope Sixtus IV, and who said prophetically, “The Most High will find other means, which are at present unknown to us, although they may be at our very doors, to bring back the Church to its pristine condition.”

The Hussites were the forerunners of protestantism in Europe and paved the way for the man we will study on the next leg of our tour, who fulfilled Cardinal Andrew’s prophetic words. Continue reading “Reformation Tour—Day 5”