Wittenberg

We sailed most of the morning from Torgau to Wittenberg. About 7 kilometers from Wittenberg the ship usually spins around and they back into the docking area. Unfortunately the river has grown even more shallow and they could not turn the boat as needed. So we ended up sailing into Wittenberg going forward. This posed no problem for us, but the next cruise will not be cruising, they will be parked here and bused to the sightseeing events. Then half way through the cruise, they will have to pack up and transfer to the boat that is now stuck in Dresden for the rest of their trip. We were so fortunate to not have that happen to us.

Wittenberg currently has a population of about 50,000. It is in the area called Saxony. It has 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Our tour focused on Martin Luther. He was the reformer who changed the religion from the Catholic way of thinking to a more liberal way. The Lutheran Church follows his beliefs.

We visited the Castle Church which was built by Frederick III, also called Frederick the Wise. It was built in 1506, with the tower being added in 1842. The large church was built for the exclusive use of the king.

Martin Luther was a monk who came to Wittenberg to become a teacher at the University. He found that he had more ideas about religion and on October 31, 1517 the reformation of the church started with Luther posting on the church doors his 97 treatise. In 1534, the Luther bible was printed, which was a translation of the bible of the times into what became the current German language.

He eventually marries a woman named Katharina who was a nun. He helped her and 11 other nuns escape from their house. He married her because she was very smart. They had a home in which they housed students. They also fed the poor and had 6 children. Every year in June, Luther and Katharina had a marriage ceremony.

There is a garden in his name with 500 trees from around the world. His symbol is the Luther rose and the town has Luther bread.

After our tour we stopped at a beer garden and then Jen and I and 2 others walked back to the ship. Fortunately Jen had an airtag in her suitcase which allowed us to follow the signal back to our boat.