Today is the Wedding Festival of Martin and Katie Luther, or Luther Hochzeit. We got down to the breakfast later than I would have liked and had to rush it to be done by 9, because Pr. Hagen was planning to take a group over to the city church that Luther preached from most often at that time. It was raining, and we all had our jackets. We walked quickly over and it turned out that the church was not open until 11 AM. If only we had seen the sign the day before!
Shannon and I went to the coffee house across the street from the hotel because it was one of the few places open. I had a large cappuccino and Shannon had a Chococcino. Both drinks came from the same machine that every hotel we have been to was using. No actual barista doing anything. Only one time in this entire trip did we interact with a barista, and Shannon had a challenging experience due to the language barrier. It’s been surprising to see that the coffee culture in the US may be far different from that of Germany, maybe we just haven’t encountered a real coffee shop. We might have to travel to Paris or Vienna for the coffee/cafe culture I was expecting to see.
We returned to the hotel to rest for a bit, then around 11 set off again. We encountered various members of our group out and about in the city. We went into a few more souvenir shops and got more decks of cards (which were cheaper here) and some magnets (expensive). The one item we haven’t been able to find is the Martin Luther rubber duck, which would’ve been a funny gift for my mom since people with jeeps give each other ducks now for some reason. Shockingly, several of these stores, even one run by a very nice old lady, also sold graphic pornography items.
After the souvenir shops, we returned to the city church and paid the 6 EUR to go in. It was nice, but maybe not worth that amount of money. Still, if you’re in Luther’s town, you probably don’t want to leave without going into his church.
As we saw several times, right next door to one church was another.
From there we went back to the main market place and bought some Knobibrot mit Kase, or garlic cheese bread, and another Kirschbier. Both items were excellent. Other members of our group had bought a big plate of mushrooms, and I tried one, also quite good.
We then walked all the way back down to the Augusteum in the hopes we would find another souvenir shop with the ducks, but did not encounter it, so we returned to the hotel to rest for a bit. Tomorrow at 5 AM we board the bus for the final time to head to the Berlin airport. The only souvenirs I got for myself are a commemorative coin from a machine (which sadly says 2019 on it instead of 2024) and several decks of the German playing cards.
I’m looking forward to being back home with my dogs, air conditioner, and ice maker. I basically didn’t make much progress reading my material for the test I’m hoping to take to get a data governance certification, the trip has been too busy. Other than on the train ride out here that is. So I have to catch up on that quickly.
After a bit more rest, I went down to the lobby, bought some stamps to mail some final post cards, and then settled our bill with the hotel. We had heard rumors of a parade for the Hochzeit, and it turned out the corner of the street our hotel was on was the end point, so we watched the parade ending for a bit. Then we went out to dinner at the Tuscan restaurant a few blocks away. I had a Diavola pizza, which I’d been considering at several prior pizza occasions, but had been nervous about the spice level. Turns out it was fairly tame. The pizza had pepperoni, red pepper, tomatoes, and garlic on it. Shannon had carbonara with ham and did not find it to be particularly impressive. I also had iced tea (it was Fuze from a bottle).
When we left dinner, we walked past a music act by the city church and watched it for a bit. The same band had been playing earlier around 11 AM. Then we went to get another Kirschbier and also a Honigbier, or honey bier. Shannon preferred the Kirschbier, and I think I did too, but both were good. We watched another band do a sound check on the main stage, then watched a different band perform on the front steps of the Ratthaus, or town hall. Many of the musical acts included bag pipes, which surprised me. I had always thought of them as more of a Scottish thing than German, but they were very popular at the wedding festival.
We got a final Eis on the way back to the hotel. Shannon got macchiato again, and I had banana. The banana tasted almost too realistic, but it was good. The best flavor I had the whole trip was probably the Melone. Now we’re back at the hotel packing up and preparing to rest before a long day of travel ahead.