Tuesday, June 25, 2013

good to be home

Doin' laundry in Berlin
This trip was an amazing, amusing growing experience.  I am thankful for everyone who helped us make this possible -- all those who prayed for us, encouraged us, who contributed to the Sabbatical fund, and who filled in for me while I was gone. 
If you were following my entries, you probably noticed they were a little rough, and the spelling kept getting worse and worse.  Well, trying to post entries from your smart phone when you have to type one letter at a time and your internet connection keeps going out on you was a bit of a challenge.  Also, trying to find time to sit and compose these little messages when you are on the move and tired, sharing your room with people who want to sleep, or having to leave in half an hour to find something to eat made it tough as well.  So I kind of gave up once we got to Berlin... sorry, but it made the rest of my trip a lot easier.

At The Circus
But here's what happened in Berlin:
The first night, after a six-hour train ride, we were tired and just took a cab to our hostel (we're pretty sure the cabbie took the scenic route).  Our hostel was a wild, bohemian place appropriately named The Circus. 

En route to Alexanderplatz
The next day we needed badly to do laundry, so that took the afternoon.  When it cooled down for the evening we went walking through the city.  We found ourselves in Alexanderplatz at the famous radio tower, so we splurged and rode up to the observation deck.  Besides the amazing sprawl of Berlin itself, we noticed lines of blue lights moving down far off streets and wondering what so many parades of police were up to that night.  We found out on the way down the elevator when we heard a couple talking in German about how hard it was to get around the city with Obama here.  We suddenly realized we hadn't seen or heard the news in 2 weeks, and so were oblivious to the fact that our own president was there in the city to give a historic speech. 
Over Berlin
 
Wandering further downtown, we reached Unter den Linden and crossed the bridge. Soon we could see the Brandenburg Gate, and it was surrounded by temporary fences, police guards, and news trucks.  It was late at night, but there were tourists hanging around the area and we could approach very close to the podium where Obama would speak from the next day. 
At the Brandenburg Gate
the night before President Obama's speech
 
Back at the hostel, we decided we'd try to go down and see the hoopla, despite the fact that the temperature was in the 90s.  My brother Paul had a mishap with his electronics (the hostel staff had mistakenly stored them in the refrigerator rather than the safe for the night), and stayed back.  Brian and I found that we couldn't get within a couple of blocks of the Gate, so we finally gave up and returned to the hostel.
 
A portion of the Berlin Wall
remaining on Bernauerstrasse
 
Our final day in Berlin was spent at the amazing museums on Berlin's central island.  We bought a ticket for all 5 museums, but only went to 2 of them before we (especially Brian) were all museumed out.  I was awed to see many of my favorite paintings in their selection of Caspar David Friedrichs and Max Klingers, and delighted to see with my own eyes some of the most important antiquities in the world, including the Ishtar Gate and Stele of Hammurabi.  The Uruk exhibit at the Pergamon museum (there's an ad for it in this month's Biblical Archeology review) was also pretty amazing, at least for the quantity of materials on display.
From a painting by
Caspar David Friedrich
 
Since Brian and I were supposed to take a flight out at 6:20 in the morning, we just decided not to sleep that last night.  So we were pretty wiped out on all 3 of our return flights, and it didn't help that the last flight made a stop in Orlando to refuel (Tampa was closed because of thunderstorms). 

Paul takes a shot
at the Ishtar Gate
 
Coming home felt so good, though -- back to friends, family, and familiar turf.
I learned many things I will never forget on this trip --
  • how huge Martin Luther's influence still is, and how large his presence is still, especially there in Wittenberg
  • how even the legendary German transportation system can get tripped up by a natural disaster
  • how different people can be in their response to foreigners, some irritated and others ready to drop everything to help you out
  • how much beauty there is in Germany, its fields and mountains, its ancient architecture, and its people's efforts to live responsibly on this planet
  • how great it is to go off and spend quality time with family members
  • how much I missed my family members who couldn't come
  • how great it is to have a home to come back to, and people you love.
  • how large this world of ours is, how unpredictable every day, and how our good God blesses us all in different ways with the same love and grace.
Thanks to all of you for following this adventure. 

Peace,
Pastor Scott








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