Darmstadt

Hello again! Right now, we are staying in Darmstadt for two nights. We left Marburg yesterday and visited Worms today. It's a national holiday here in Germany, Ascension Day, the day when Christ ascended into heaven (found in Acts 1, I believe). Very few places are open today in cities as people honor this holiday, but it was still a good tour of the city!! (Another fun fact our tour guide told us was that today was also declared "Man Day" because Mother's Day was celebrated on Sunday, but fathers do not get a Father's Day. The guys on the trip have been having fun celebrating their Y chromosomes. ) Moving on....

For those of you who don't know, Worms is the place where Martin Luther made his famous statment at the Diet of Worms in 1521, "Here I Stand, I Can Do No Other, God Help Me, Amen," when he refused to recant his views against the Catholic Church. Emperor Charles V outlawed him and ordered that no one feed him, give him shelter, or read any of his books. His life was in serious danger, as anyone could have killed him and recieved no punishment for doing so. This is when Frederick the Wise took Luther to the Wartburg to hide him there. Worms has a huge Catolic Cathedral, called St. Peter's Cathedral, and it also has St. Magnus, a Reformation memorial church and was also the church that began preaching Luther's teachings as early as 1521, the same year as the Diet of Worms. Worms also has a Jewish Cemetary, which is the oldest preserved Jewish cemetary in all of Europe. I'm not sure if this is true for all Jewish cemetaries, but the gravestones in this cemetary had Hebrew writing on it, which I thought was cool. I haven't taken Hebrew yet, so I have no clue what it said, but I recognized that it was Hebrew writing! It was neat to see, and we were informed that that cemetary is no longer used to bury the dead, there is a new cemetary somewhere in town, but our guide said that there are usually no more than 1 or 2 burials a year in that cemetary. After our trip to Worms, we headed back to our hotel in Darmstadt, where we will spend tonight again. Tomorrow, we head on a 3 1/2 hour journey to Nuremburg for a tour, and then we will be staying in Neuendettelsau (I probably didn't spell that right, I dont have our schedule here with me to get accurate spelling, but I tried!). Neuendettelsau is our last destination of our trip. It's hard to believe how fast time has gone on this trip, but it's been so much fun it will be sad to see it end. Until then however, I will definately be enjoying the last remaining days of our time in Germany. Stay tuned!!
+Grace and Peace+