TRA[life]VELS

Our first "reading week" was last week which I spent in Trier, Germany. Trier is where Chris' mom grew up, in Western Germany near Luxemborg. So we were spoiled and instead of paying to stay at hostels, we stayed at his Grandma's house and got most of our meals for free courtesy of all his family. The Rhineland is beautiful with its rolling hills and beautiful rivers. The bonus was that the sun actually came out! Seeing the blue sky was so novel.

On Monday there was a parade for Fasching. The best way I could describe Fasching would be to have you picture a Mardi Gras and Halloween hybrid. Even the Germans we talked to didn't really know the point of it, but the general consensus is that its an excuse to get work days off so you can dress up and get drunk. The parade had all kinds of crazy floats, and when you shout "helau!" they threw candy at you. The bummer was that it snowed the entire time, but after that first snowy day we had some consistent nicer weather.

On Tuesday we decided to play tourist and go see some of the sites. Trier is the oldest city in Germany, and has its roots in being occupied by the Romans. We went to see "Porta Negra" [The Black Gate] which was the original entrance into Trier, a Roman Colosseum, the Roman Baths, and Pauline's Kirche [the church where Chris' parents got married]. That night we went to Chris' great-aunt's house. Her and her husband live in this beautiful house on the river that has been in the family for hundreds of years. I realized that night just how much I appreciate communication...especially the being able to do it part. There were about ten people at dinner with us and they all obviously spoke German. Sometimes I would pick up on things with the words I knew and then use their non-verbal communication to fill in the blanks, but many times I sat completely dumbfounded. They were all very sweet though, using what English they knew to try to include me whenever they could. On Wednesday for lunch we went to his other great-aunt's house. Sigrid and her husband Horst were so great. Sigrid made us chicken and rice, but the Tiramisu was probably the best. Just when we were about to pop, she asked us if we liked it and we said yes. She took our plates to clean them off, we thought, but came back out with MORE. Needless to say, we were fed well that week. After lunch, they drove us up this hill to where there was a path that led through the forest. Sigrid kept saying "Grey, grey, everything is grey. In the summer it is much better!" I'm sure that's true, but the lack of greenery gives you an opportunity to use your imagination. It's beautiful either way. We stopped at a lookout that gives you a view of the town, some of the surrounding hills, and the river. Even the rain clouds couldn't take away from that walk. We went back to the house and before leaving, in true grandparent-ish fashion, Sigrid and Horst gave me 20 euros! Thursday was basically free so we just went walking into town for some food and coffee, later we went back to a family friend's house - the Gombold's - for dinner. We left Friday at noon on the 9 hour train ride back to Regensburg, only to pack up so we could leave for Dresden the next morning.

Currently we're all in Wittenberg on our Reformation study tour for Reformation History with Dr. Cleaver from Liberty University. We're gone this entire week. Saturday we were in Dresden, yesterday we stopped in Berlin for 4 hours and then headed to Wittenberg where we are today and tomorrow. We depart for Eisenach tomorrow for 2 days and then Heidelberg until Sunday. I'll have a lot to tell! Until then...