Walking With No Limits - Part 1

This year's Easter weekend was a very special weekend for me. This weekend was a celebration for the gift Lord Jesus Christ gave us – Life! He died for us so that we can be set free from our sins, never to be hold back from His love and the freedom He has given to us. All that He is asking is to believe in him and to trust Him! Before I share my experience over this weekend, I would like to thank my Saviour for the love, life and talents He is giving me and also giving me a chance to experience it all!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” – NIV

A colleague friend and I decided to spend our weekend doing a bit of sightseeing in Germany. Now, there were a lot of things that happened over this weekend and therefore my writings will expand over two blog posts, just to make the reading a bit easier…. We wanted to visit the following cities: Leipzig, Halle, Wittenberg, Magdeburg and Potsdam.

We decided to start the tour on Friday morning, leaving from Dresden hauptbahnhof to Leipzig. When I arrived at the tram stop Friday morning at 06:50am, I realized that the tram service only starts after 08:00am on a public holiday, causing us to miss the train. Fortunately for us the train ticket was a Saxon ticket allowing us to travel anywhere within the Saxon borders, so we decided to replace Leipzig with Chemnitz. We arrived in Chemnitz at 08:55am. We didn’t have a city map, so we just started walking…. We’ve seen most of the tourist attractions: Sclosskirche (Benedictine abbey church St. Maria), Altes Rathaus (old town hall), Roter turm (red tower) and also the famous Lew Kerbel’s monument which is dedicated to Karl Marx. When we walked to the monument we were expecting a sculpture of a head standing on a meter high pedestal, but when we arrived, we got a surprise. It was huge! The pedestal was over 2 meters high. Unfortunately we didn’t stay very long in Chemnitz, so I can’t give a good overview of the city.

 Sclosskirche

 Altes Rathaus

 Roter turm

 Lew Kerbel’s monument

St. Peter's Church

We left Chemnitz at 10:20am to go to Halle. We used the regional trains during our tour and the journeys were comfortable. I can’t wait for the day when South Africa will have these types of transport systems which is in Europe. We arrived in Halle at 12:40pm and the first thing we were looking for was a city map. The weather in Halle was good enough for sightseeing; It was 4C and cloudy with little wind to spice things up a bit.

Unfortunately we arrived on a public holiday- all the shops were closed to buy food and only some of the restaurants were open but was quite expensive. Halle is a small city compared to the other cities I’ve visited, and has a unique atmosphere when walking down the streets. We tried to see most of the tourist attractions, but due to time we couldn’t visit the Händel-haus (music museum). My favourite part of this city is the Marktplatz (town square). In the square you will find the Marktkirche St. Marien (St. Marien Church), Unser Lieben Frauen (Our Dear Lady) and the Roter Turm (red tower). We were very fortunate on that day because the towers of the St. Marien church were open.

The stairs were horrible to climb. It was an uncomfortably small chamber to climb up, but the view was worth it as soon as we reached the top.

After we have seen everything in the town square, we decided to visit the Beatles museum. I enjoyed the trip through the museum. Do not let the small museum surprise you, for there are a lot of history within those walls. The museum is a three story building, each level dedicated to a certain time period of the band’s history. There is a nice souvenir shop and a small cafeteria. Below are some of the tourist attractions one could find in this small city:

Landgerich

Ratshof

Roter Turm (Red Tower)

St. Marien Church in front and the two towers of Unser Lieben Frauen (Our Dear Lady)

Dom

Post Haus (Post office)

Saline (Salt factory)

Salt was produced for the surrounding cities at the Saline factory by mining. Guided tours are availible through the factory during the week between 08:00am to 16:00pm. After a long day’s walk and sore feet, it was time for a rest. We decided to have dinner in a nice Italian restaurant called Trattoria Da Luca. I had a nice pizza with a really good Hefe dunkel beer to finish it off. After dinner we decided to check in at the place where we stay, HostelNr. 5, and what a nice place. We stayed in a dorm, a shared room for up to 6 people. The facilities were great and the service was excellent.

Halle made a really good impression on me. Walking down the little streets with some of the street crossings having little fountains in the middle, the pink dogwood trees found next to the streets and the sound of the church bells in the background on every hour… And the people were kind. 

On Saturday morning we left Halle to spend the morning in Lutherstadt Wittenberg. We arrived at 08:15am. It was in this city where Martin Luther nailed his ‘Ninety-Five Thesis’ against the door of All Saint’s Church. I found a nice article summarising the main events of Martin Luther’s life. We first walked to see the House where Luther stayed. They converted the house into a magnificent museum.

The museum contains most of Luther’s work he had done. It was quite an experience for me to see Luther’s original written notes he made while translating the first German Bible from Hebrew. The house was also used as a literature archive in those days, and one can see the archive through a glass window (for preservation purpose). And  there are a lot of books!

They also tell the story of Katharina von Bora, Martin Luther’s wife whom he married on 13 June 1525, and had six children together. For me it was a first to learn about the monk who married a nun. At the back of the house in the cellar Katharina brewed beer for extra income.

  

After visiting the museum, we headed of down the streets again to visit the famous All Saint’s church. The place where Martin Luther was laid to rest is inside the church. The craftsmanship inside the buildings in Germany is amazing. I am still amazed by all the historic buildings which surrounded me that was made by man and hand…  I realized that we do not know what we are capable of…

Below are some more photos:

 A copy of the Ninety-Five Thesis on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgence.

 The Church door on which Luther nailed is thesis.

 Original papal books that wasn't burnt on December 10, 1520.

  Martin Luther’s handwriting.

 The first German bible.

The presence and closeness I felt during my visit was unforgettable. This is a place I would highly recommend visiting. We were in Wittenberg until 12:00pm before leaving for Magdeburg.

And this is the end of Part 1…

Bis Später