We arrived in Berlin yesterday and there was no room for us in the inn. Every hotel, hostel, b&b and closet in the city was booked for a music festival and the Berlin marathon which takes place this weekend. After searching the web for an hour (and fighting off panic), we were able to find three beds in a hostel in Wittenburg, which is about 30 minutes away from Berlin by train. We didn’t know what to expect, but it was pretty much our only option.

When we got to Wittenburg, we discovered that the address of our hostel matched that of the Castle Church that Martin Luther used to speak in. Turns out, the hostel is IN the church’s living quarters. Not only did Martin Luther speak here, he nailed his 95 Theses on the door of THIS very building. He’s also buried here.

The bell tower of the church is right outside our window. The words “A Mighty Fortress is our God” is written on the very top of the tower in German. That phrase always sends shivers down my spine and seeing it on the tower (even in German) is quite moving.

The living quarters are pretty modest and seem to attract church groups. Right now there are about 75 or so little German kids staying here. We ended up eating breakfast (bread, cheese and processed meats) at the same time as these kids. They sang a song in German before the meal and continued to throw glances our way every now and then. A bizarre experience.

The town of Wittenburg is a little like Brugge in Belgium: beautiful (and old) buildings untouched by war, lots of cafes, shops, etc. These towns are a real nice change of pace from cities like Berlin and London.

We’ve had a few good conversations with travelers on ‘Reformation tours’, Apparently they (mostly older people) travel through Germany and Switzerland and hit all the historical Reformation stuff. These people must be fun at parties. We sat next to a couple of Americans at a cafe who lead Christian historical tours in different parts of the world. Strange.

We’re hoping to get back to Berlin tomorrow and then visit a concentration camp outside of the city. Then we head to Denmark on Saturday to stay with family. It’ll be nice to see some familiar faces. We’ve been talking nonstop about Tank Zollers and were able to connect to thekidstable.us to see the photos. We can’t wait to see this kid in person!

OK, talk to you from the motherland.