The Elbe - Wittenberg

Overnight rain was a very welcome relief after weeks of continual high temperatures. The ground was still wet this morning - but not for long.

Wittenberg - our destination for today! Who would think that this quite, quaint town would be at the centre of one of the biggest revolutions in history - the reformation! 

Very critical to be able to get long term parking in the shade - just so happens in Wittenberg this criteria was catered for. Parked up - sought a walking map from the tourist office - very helpful young woman who Evan suggested a 20 minute film in English that we may want to watch - air conditioned room so how could we refuse! 

This town's official name is Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, the place where Luther lived, worked, allegedly pinned his 92 treatises to the door of the Schlosskirche, and preached. The door these days is not the wooden door of Luther's day but instead a bronze door of the 19th century cast with the 92 theses imprinted in the door.

The very famous door on which the 92 theses were posted - signalling the upheaval of the reformation.

Yes we did a tour of the church - in German - but there was nothing to see every wall and ceiling was undergoing restoration so we very quickly backed out of this.

The very beautiful altmarket has undergone remarkable restoration making it an interesting market square to visit. 

The market square in Wittenberg.

We took a further walk to Luther's house - a former monastery and now the Luther Museum.

Famous door of Martin Luther's Hall  - his image is carved on the sandstone.

The Marienkirche, the twin tower church overlooking the altmarket was interesting, it was here that Luther preached, was married, his children baptised and here where famous art works of Lucas Cranach the elder resided. The Marienkirche is also interesting because in the late 14 hundreds when the church was being extended upwards and interesting so e carving is visible up high which has the word "Jeudsau" (?) or Jewish-pig. Anti-Jewish feeling ran high in this village back in the 15th century. It is thought that at the time of construction of this part of the church Jews were being expelled from the town.

High on the south-east corner of the Marienkirche.

Enough of sightseeing - where is the shade? We had lunch before heading a few kilometres down the road to Worlitz - a very famous German-English Garden. Here we are spending the night.

Timber framed houses in Worlitz.