Norm and Cathy's Travel Blog

Norm's sister, her husband, Klaus, Norm's brother, Cleo, his wife Joyce.  They are exploring Colorado with us.  First stop Florissant Fossil Beds.  Amazing petrified tree stumps and stories of the area of the fossils they have found.  The people are not the fossils!

Luther statue near Marienkirche and the television tower.  Television today spreads information as the printing press did in Luther's time.

This large sign is on a wall at our hotel in Berlin. 

This is where we will sing Saturday evening. A massive, magnificent church, the Berliner Dom.

One more rehearsal to go before the performance Saturday evening.  280 singers from the US have been working with Helmut Rilling on Bach's "Ein Fest Burg" and two Mendelssohn pieces, "Wir Glauben all an einen Gott" and the gorgeous, touching Psalm 42, "Wie der Hirsch schreit."  Beautiful.

I have my eye on this tenor.

Memorial outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church for the victims of the truck that deliberately rammed into a Christmas market crowd on Dec. 19, 2016.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.  Interior of the new church.  The massive old church was bombed in World War 2 and some of the remaining sections have been kept as a reminder.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church .  This photo from my phone doesn't do it justice.  I will try find another.

Our final stop on our tour with the Colorado Luther Chorale is Berlin.

Johan Tetzel was in this medieval town and was a preacher who sold indulgences for absolution of sins, but really to help the Archbishop of Mainz pay off his debts.  This is a coffer of his.

Organ

Top of pulpit

Massive and old

In front of the house where Bach was born

Norm among the roses

Russian army meets the American forces in Torgau in 1945.

Taking pictures of someone taking pictures!

Hartenfels Palace in Torgau

Martin Luther's hymn, A Mighty Fortress ois our God,' 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, ein gute Wehr und Waffen.'

Beautiful

Awesome interior

Martin Luther

Wow!

I am out of order but my phone died and I couldn't add photos.  These are the front doors of the church at Wittenberg where Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses.  That was the start of the Reformation, October 31, 2017.  There are metal doors now that have his statements on them.

Saw this poster from a performance of Messiah performed in Sioux City in 1940!

Handel's birthplace in Halle

Wish we could hear some of the organs we see in these magnificent churches!

Interior of church.  A glorious place to sing!!

Concert in Nikolaikirche in Leipzig

Cathedral in the castle area

In the castle area

Last day in Prague .  Love this city!

A lovely day to explore!  Drove around this morning, returned to the Old City Center for lunch, bought some street art on the Karl's Bridge and walked back with the castle in the background.

We spent half the day at the concentration camp Terezin and the town of Theresienstadt, which basically became a ghetto for prisoners after they expelled the town residents to make room for the increasing number of prisoners. I did not want to post pictures. Then the other choir members arrived, and now we start the part of the trip with them, with our first concert here in Prague tomorrow.

A very interesting day trip to Kutna Hora, 'miners' hill, a highly productive silver mining area in the 13th century that would be made into the Prague Groschen, the Prague coin, when it was still part of Bohemia.  The miners built this massive church, but it took hundreds of years to complete.

In Old Town Square .  First clock acquired beginning of 15th century.

A lovely evening in Prague at one of the bridges over the Moldau.  Google 'Smetana' for his glorious composition about his country and this river!

On to Prague .  It kills me not to be able to use umlauts.

Impressive.  Founders of Weimar Classicism appropriately honored.

Awesome.  And Goethe faces a statue of Schiller a few blocks away.

Paying our respects!