Patriotism, Anne Frank, and Martin Luther

This weekend was a little more low key, but probably one of my favorites. *Note: I'm typing this on a computer in Amsterdam and it's mad because I didn't spell favorites with an -ou. #europeprobs

On Thursday night CES generously hosted a 4th of July barbecue for all the American students studying at the university. We had a variety of delicious grilled meat and veggies, the always classic bread, and, as with any European meal, alcohol. To quote our program director, "There will be free wine and beer, and for that reason I will not be there." It was a perfect afternoon to spend outside, so we threw the frisbee around and enjoyed celebrating our sweet homeland sans fireworks but with great company.

Ultimate frisbee has become a group favorite  

Our CES coordinators, Courtney and Maaike

On Friday morning I went to Amsterdam with Nick and Maddie (whose blog is far more entertaining than mine: http://adventuresofmaddie.tumblr.com/) to tour the Anne Frank museum before meeting our friends in Dutch art history that had been on a field trip there that morning. Due to some train track construction getting there was slightly confusing, but we made it nonetheless. This was such a relaxing and fun travel day, which I credit mostly to my great travel companions. 

We arrived in Amsterdam around 2:30 and found some lunch at a little cafe by the museum. If you asked my mother to describe my favorite meal, she would say grilled cheese. Well, world, until today I had not had a grilled cheese in roughly 2 months. Then I found this:

We finished lunch and waited in line to buy our tickets to the museum. It was incredible to see where Anne's family was hidden for so many months and imagine what life must have been like for them. The bookcase that hides the secret annex is the original, which was unreal. I think my favorite part was the marks preserved on the wall marking the Frank girls' height over their time in hiding. It made it so real, made it all the more heartbreaking to imagine this otherwise average family living through such horror. 

After the museum we had a somewhat complex adventure through the train station and hotel to find Taylor (coming in from Maastricht) and Jacob (from the field trip), but after dropping our stuff off we set out to explore the city and find dinner.

We found a delicious pizza place with free wifi, always a bonus. Maddie and Nick had to catch the train back at 10:00, so we finished eating and wandered a little more before returning to the train station. With a 6:30am train to catch the next morning we had an eventful night of showers and bedtime.  

Trains on Saturday were a hot mess. Suffice to say I ended up sleeping on the floor of a train for 4 hours while Jacob was forced to sit in front of the bathroom and Taylor got squeezed between 2 violent-movie watchers. Long train ride. But we made it! We only had a few hours to see all of the Luther sites, so we got started right away. First, Luther Haus:

The pulpit from which Martin Luther preached

The Ten Commandments painted by Cranach

Martin Luther's robe

The Luthers' personal dining room, including the table around which the conversations written down in Luther's "Table Talk" occurred.

From Luther Haus, we walked down the deserted, quiet main street to St. Mary's Church where Luther preached during his life in Wittenberg. We sat in on an English service, and wandered around a little afterward. Unfortunately, the town is preparing for the 500th Anniversary of the 95 Theses in 2017, so much of it is under construction, including the mural usually seen at the front of the church. 

We found our hotel at the end of town and grabbed dinner from a grocery store across the street before taking an unintentional nap. We woke up and wandered back into town to see the buildings lit up at night before going to bed. 

 We hit the last 2 points of the town on Sunday morning, the Oak Tree and Castle Church.

The Church door to which Luther nailed his 95 Theses in 1517

This Oak marks the spot where Luther burned the papal bull threatening his excommunication.

We took a quick train back to Berlin and made a pit stop at the Berlin Wall before starting the journey back to Maastricht. 

After this day of travel I have a new picture of what hell looks like. I believe it strongly resembles IC1919, aka the 150 degree train on which we spent 5 1/2 hours. I could've fallen down and kissed the floor of Teikyo by the time we got back there at 11:30.

This weekend we are flying.