"...think the dancer mad.": Adventures in Deutschland: Luther Land and Beyond

Can we just talk about how ridiculously hot it was in Germany our first week there? Ok, no, I can't even talk about it. It was that hot.

Our second full day dawned bright and sunny and stupid hot. And if you weren't aware, there's not a lot of air conditioning in Europe. But we did enjoy a relatively cool train ride down to Wittenberg from Berlin that morning. Absolutely loved the train system in Germany! And it didn't hurt that we were able to ride First Class due to our global rail passes. Seriously, if you are traveling abroad, check out Eurail. You won't be disappointed!

After a short train ride through the German countryside, we disembarked at the Lutherstadt-Wittenberg station. Bags secure on our backs, we made the short walk into the little town of Wittenberg. We stepped onto the 500-year-old cobblestone streets, as the tiny village was just waking up and shopkeepers were placing their goods out onto the sidewalks.

The first main attraction at the entrance of the town is the home where Martin Luther resided and served as dean of theology at University of Wittenberg.

I think this basically means, "Let no man think that God doesn't expect something great of him." But don't quote me on that. Quote Luther on it.

"Academic library" (if my...Latin?...is correct)

From Luther's home, we made our way into the "town square", if you will...

Wittenberg is way smaller than I imagined. But it was rich in history and full of character.

Stadtkirche ("City Church")---the church where Luther did most of his preaching---stands tall and proud above the town center. And services are still held there today!

Did I mention that everything was under construction?

Just down the street (also currently under construction), Schlosskirche (Castle Church)---the church where Luther nailed his 95 Theses--sits on the end of the town.

That's Castle Church down there on the left. It--along with City Church--is under construction because Wittenberg is already preparing for "Luther Week 2017", the 500th year since the Reformation began. Martin Luther is kind of a big deal here in Wittenberg.

And here's the famous door on which Luther nailed the 95 Theses:

Because of construction, we couldn't get right up to the door, so we improvised:

Hubs and the replica of Castle Church

Our self-guided tour of Wittenberg almost complete, we headed back toward the direction of the train station. We had an ICE train Munich-bound to catch! But before we made our way out of town, we stopped at the Wittenberg mall. Yes, a mall. If you scroll back up to the picture of the water canal/flower boxes and look to the left side, you'll see the word "Arsenal" on the building. That's the two-story indoor mall in Wittenberg. Weirdest thing I'd ever seen: walking from the ancient cobblestone streets into a modern shopping center complete with stores like H&M and the German equivalent of Verizon. It was like Doc Brown and Marty McFly tossed us into the Delorean and sent us into the Wittenberg future. Except, like the rest of Germany, it wasn't air conditioned.

We snagged a few lunch items at the grocery store inside the mall and hoofed it in the beating sun back down the quiet street leading to the train station.

Waiting for our ICE train

We finally boarded and cozied in for our 6 hour trek to Munich, enjoying the landscape view as our train whipped through the countryside.

Castle? Church? Could be either!

As soon as we arrived at the Munich hauptbahnhof, we emerged out onto the bustling city street and headed over to Schillerstraße to find Hotel Belle Blue. I couldn't believe the absolute melting pot that is Munich. Turkish, Indian, Asian, African--name the culture, it was there! We found our little hotel (Did I mention it was flanked on all sides by strip joints and casinos? Whaaat?), dropped off our bags, and headed back out in the few remaining hours of daylight to explore Munich.

We decided to find a store to grab some snacks for our excursion the next day, so what better place to stop than Aldi. How would an Aldi store in the Aldi motherland compare to it's American counterparts?

Three words: Bread vending machines.

Why aren't American stores funding these?! Genius!

Oh, and if anyone was wondering, beer really is cheaper than soda in Munich:

From there, we hopped aboard the S-Bahn for Marienplatz, the beautiful, historic, not-so-big-city-feeling center square of Munich.

New Town Hall (where the famous Glockenspiel resides)

Old Town Hall

And of course, a trip to Munich isn't complete without a visit to that world famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus.

Three stories of food, fun, oompah music, authentic Bavarian dancers, and of course, beer.

Buuuut, after a quick look around, we took advice from some locals and actually ate our Bavarian dinner across the street from Hofbräuhaus at Augustiner. We were not disappointed!