Einfugen means 'paste' in German

We're in Erfurt. We’re at a very nice (and quiet!) hostel that John and Kristen recommended to us and have settled in for a couple of nights. We plan to meet John’s sister for breakfast in the morning.
Today, we took the train from Berlin to Wittenberg…first class! We’re too old to buy second class Eurail passes and we were feeling sorry for ourselves about that until we experienced first class! Fabulous! Leg room! Privacy!! Leg room! Temperature control!! Leg room! We’re never going back :).
Wittenberg was great. It far surpassed our hopes for it. We got in just before lunch and started with food before finding the information center and grabbing maps. Our fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants navigation continues to work out for us. :) We started with Schlosskirche (Castle church), the church where Frederick the Wise attended in Martin Luther’s day and the church where Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door (no longer original--it burned in a war--pictured below). Luther is buried there. The church was cool, but felt more like a monument to the Reformation than a place of worship (in fact, I‘m not sure it‘s used for worship anymore). I appreciated having Abbey along as a reference because it’s been over 10 years since I actually studied the Reformation. From there, we found the Town Church, St. Mary’s where Luther actually attended and preached. It was filled with Reformation-era works of art by Lucas Cranach (both Sr. and Jr.) and some of those were pretty cool. The churches were both free (!) and so nice and cool on another warm and humid day.

Abbey and Luther :)
After the churches, we went to Lutherhaus, a former Augustinian monastery that became Luther and his wife’s home. It’s now a huge museum about Luther’s life, writing and effects and we both had low hopes for it. Happily, it turned out to be well worth the admission price! It had incredible amounts of first-edition copies of Luther’s pamphlets and writings. And it was pretty amazing to stand there and read excerpts of his writings--things that are such basic tenants of the Christian faith-- and to realize that the average “believer” in Luther’s day had never heard these things until Luther published his pamphlets; that we are saved by grace alone through faith, that we can have a personal relationship with Jesus, that there is freedom from sin! At the same time, it was sad to see what Luther became in his later years, replacing his Scripture-based pamphlets with anti-Semetic writings…I guess it’s a reminder that he was just a man and that it was not his words, but God’s truth that transformed the church in the 16th century.
From there we headed out to catch a train SW to Erfurt. We missed the train we’d hoped for, but pleasantly waited two hours for the next one. We got to witness a great thunderstorm (appropriate since a thunderstorm scared Luther into his decision to be a monk :) and the whole train ride to Erfurt was through the same amazing storm system…it poured rain and lightning flashed directly overhead for most of the trip! Thankfully, it held off here in Erfurt until we’d reached our hostel, but it was thundering as we reached the door and shortly thereafter, the skies let loose! Mmm. I love a good storm!

Yma enjoys the passing scenery

Sorry no pictures uploaded to picasa today. We're using the hostel's computer (a considerable challenge! All error messages are in German, the y and z are switched, symbols are in strange places! But I now know how to say 'cut' and 'paste' in German and at least I can figure out 'ja' and 'nein' :) So uploading pictures will have to wait until I have wireless for my computer. Thanks for the comments being made...I like to know that you're reading!