Lutherstadt, Muggelberg and the creepy abandoned building

Last Monday we took the 8th graders to Wittenberg; Lutherstadt.
And I know what you are all thinking; 'Saskia, I envy you so much. I would just love to sit in a bus for 90 minutes with 60 screaming children behind me.'
Well, that's why I'm telling you all this; sharing is caring and I'm that nice.
After what seemed like hours of agony, I was released from the bus a welcome breath of fresh air hit my face and my carsickness, and with that my grumpiness, disappeared.
What's next? I asked my colleague. 'We're going to the tree.'
Oeh, the tree. I instantly got excited, because I knew which tree she was talking about.
Luther was the kind that liked to make a show and burned his bull of excommunication (that's

basically a letter from the pope stating that Luther is no longer invited to his party) at the town gate, for all to see. 
'Legend has it' that Luther's followers knew that they wanted to commemorate the moment for times to come, so they planted a tree right on the smoldering ashes. Looking forward to seeing a majestic oak, I was a little surprised when I arrived at the tree. Yes, it was old, but not thát old...
After listening to student's presentations about the tree, I found a sign that confirmed what I already had suspected. This was not the Luther tree. Apparently the tree got chopped down and was replaced by this one in 1855 to commemorate the peace of Ausburg.
After that we went to the Luther museum that was situated in the Luther house to look at Luther' stuff. The building was Luther's former monastery and after converting his fellow monks and nuns, he moved into the monastery again and made it his private home, which definitely beats franticly searching the internet for a vacant room.
We walked to a church where Luther preached, but we couldn't get in. 2017 will be 'Luther Year' and Germany is preparing the famous town for it. Which unfortunately meant that all the churches and important buildings were framed by scaffolds and wrapped up with white cloths; like presents waiting to be opened. We took the kids to lunch early, they didn't mind that we wouldn't go into any of the churches. I had a great salad and got to know the staff of the German department a little better.
After that we had to return and if you take anything away from this tale; don't go to Wittenberg. At least not before 2016.


Sunday I set out to do something active outside. The weather here has been very 'borderline'; it can be sunny one moment and raining, even hailing, the next. Combine that with a strong wind and you have no idea what to wear whatsoever. Sunday was lovely however. Jack, Jana and I went to climb the Muggelberg. And yes, that made me think of Harry Potter as well. We were joking a bit about 'our great adventure' and how rough and though we were for climbing a 'mountain' and non of us could ever imagine what we would later find on top of it..

We set sail with our ship on the rough tides (aka; we had a ferry ride that lasted 2 minutes), walked through a beautiful forest and eventually ended up on top of the mountain.
Or so we thought, because while we were admiring the view, we saw a higher one with a platform. We decided to go there and that's when the real adventure started. We left the trodden path and eventually found the right mountain. We knew about the tower at the top, but what we didn't know was the platform had been abandoned for quite some time. It was surrounded by fences, which we climbed and we climbed the tower. The view was magnificent. I can't describe it. We watched airplanes land on Schönefeld and stared the Fernsehnturm in the distance. 

Next to the tower there was another building that looked abandoned as well. We climbed another fence and explored the building. Paint coming of of the ceiling broken glass, some beer bottles; this looked promising. A little hesitant we discovered room after room. Jack discovered an old lift and a ladder that led into the cellar, which neither of us dared to descend. After a while we discovered more rooms and staircases and our curiosity won. The darker the rooms, the more treasures it held.
Creepy treasures, that is. A room where there was just a dark engine. A room filled with papers and an huge opened safe. Something that looked like an old kitchen. A huge water tank that floated above our heads and a storage room where we found grocery lists from the '80 and packages with DDR stamps.
One of the rooms was completely dark and I tried to see what was inside by using the flash of my camera. ´Click´ the camera said and I screamed. The room was empty except for a large plastic white table with some tools on it. I ran.
The place was so creepy, but the decay was so beautiful at the same time.
Later when we were sipping our banana beers in a Mexican restaurant, we concluded that we had a very adventurous day. Adventurous and fun. Another great weekend.