Leipzig and Dresden

This weekend we had a three day weekend and some friends and I went to Leipzig and Dresden, two cities that are a couple of hours south of Berlin. There were 9 of us altogether: 5 drove down on Friday and 4 took the train on Saturday morning. I went with the group in the car on Friday morning. We took our time driving down to Leipzig and stopped at Lutherstadt-Wittenburg (where Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Catholic church), Dessau, and Halle.

Wittenburg was kind of what we expected - we saw the church and walked around the town. It was pretty and very old European. We ate lunch in Wittenburg and then got back in the car and headed for Dessau. When we got to Dessau it started snowing absolutely HUGE snowflakes! So we got out and played in the snowflakes a little. But then it started freezing rain instead. So we got back in the car and said good riddance to Dessau (there wasn't much that we could see anyway). We arrived in Halle and walked around the marketplace with a beautiful church. It was really cold on Friday, so we ended up in a bookstore enjoying the warmth and seats. We didn't really know what else to look at or do in Halle, so we were going to move on to Leipzig (where we were staying in a hostel Friday and Saturday night) when we decided to ask a bookstore clerk what they recommended we do. And one lady in line jumped in and told us we should go to this museum about a five minutes drive. And she offered to let us follow her there!! She was really nice and took us to the museum and we ended up eating dinner with her, her 18 year old son, and her German friend who is married to an Englishman. So, it was lots of fun and a great serendipity to meet such nice Germans and actually get to sit and have dinner with them! After dinner they took us around a little bit and showed us some things around Halle. And by that time it was getting pretty late, so we headed on to Leipzig.

Once we got to Leipzig, we couldn't find our hostel (we set out on this trip with no city maps...haha, I'm thankful we made it anywhere this weekend!), so we pulled up the train station to go in and ask for directions. Tom and I went in to ask for directions, but all of the desks were closed because it was midnight. So we ended up calling the hostel. Tom and I return to the car to find two Polizei (police) vans behind our car and the other three guys standing outside the car talking to the police! They asked Tom and I to show our passports, and they told us that someone called us in because we were sitting in front of the train station for too long! So after 20 minutes of checking our passports and car registration, they told us everything was fine and we could go on. And we asked them if they could give us directions to our hostel, and they ended up telling us just to follow them! So we finished the night with a police escort to our hostel! What a day!

The next morning in Leipzig, we met up with the other 4 and walked around Leipzig. We saw a church that Bach is buried in (I think!) and has his cello and violins and some other stuff in it. We also saw the town halls and an art museum. The weather was much nicer and warmer and that made it so much better to walk around and explore the area, which I am learning is what visiting European cities really is!

The next morning we drove to Dresden. A lot of Dresden was bombed during World War II, and has since been rebuilt. We saw the Frauenkirche (a church) and other churches and old(ish) buildings. The Frauenkirche was a huge restoration project. The outside of the church stood for a couple of days after the bombing and then crumbled, so they rebuilt the church using as much of the old rubble as they could. So, the new pieces are all white sandstone and the old pieces are darkened sandstone from the original church. It was beautiful (as were all the churches I saw this weekend). After more walking around, we got back in the car and headed back to Berlin! Coming back from this weekend made Berlin and my apartment feel more like home.

I do feel like I am enjoying my time here and being in Berlin more and more. It's exciting to think that I am actually living here! I have always wanted to live in a foreign country instead of just visit. And Berlin has a lot to explore and see, and I realized that after visiting some smaller cities this weekend.

And God continues to teach me to depend on Him for my energy, joy, peace, and strength. Everyday, his Word reminds me that He is so worthy of praise, no matter where I am or what happens. At one of the churches we saw this weekend, there was a really lifelike statue of Jesus on the cross, and looking up at it so overwhelmed me that I felt compelled to kneel. I've never felt so "at the foot of the cross" before and I felt so humbled and loved to know that Jesus died on the cross to take away my sins. The hymn "When I survey" came to mind, and I was reminded of how grateful I am that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. And now the curtain is torn, and I am reconciled with the Father. And Jesus is no longer on the cross, but is risen and alive and seated at the right hand of the Father!