Day 3 -- Eisleben and Leipzig

Day 3 -- Eisleben and Leipzig -- After breakfast we boarded our bus for the ride to nearby Eisleben. This is the small rural town where Luther was born. We visited his home of his birth in the morning, right down the street from St. Paul's Church where he was baptized, baptized the day after he was born.

From Luther's birthplace we then walked to the home where he died some 60+ years later, here in the same town. Even though he was quite ill he had been invited to travel from his home in Wittenburg to come back to Eisleben, to help deal with some legal disputes. And "Oh yes, would you please preach to the townfolk while you are here?" He was preaching at the church across the street from the negotiations when he was taken gravely ill and went on to his reward.

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We had lunch in the town square and took a great photo of ALL of us near the commemorative Luther statue.

In the afternoon we drove to Leipzig for a bus tour of the town center. Leipzig is a huge center of commerce, noted for it's annual market fairs, and huge downtown Market "Palaces." We finished the afternoon with a walking tour of downtown, ending at St. Thomas Church. St. Thomas is where J.S. Bach was organist and composer for 27 years!

Tomorrow we go into Wittenburg to see more of Luther's life.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED --
German's celebrate St. Nicholas day on Dec 6. We have Martin Luther to thank for a Dec 25 Christmas, and the exchanging of gifts on that day.

The largest concentration of Turks in the world in a single city is Istanbul. The second is Berlin!

Leipzig gets it's name from the German word "linden." Linden trees are lime trees, and the area has lots of them.

Napoleon lost only 3 major battles in his life. First Moscow, then the battle of Leipzig in 1813, and finally his Waterloo. The battle of Leipzig killed 120,000 people, more than died at Gettysburg.

The German word "straße" is not "strabe" but rather "strasse." That odd "ß" is the German symbol for a pair of "S's"

JS Bach got buried three times. (so far...) First in a simple country cemetery with no stone. Then he was moved and re-buried more honorably in a church in Leipzig. That church was bombed into rubble in WWII. Finally he was moved to St. Thomas Church, where he rests today under the floor near the altar.