daytrips, tolerance, and intolerance.
Yesterday, my family and I decided to visit the German city of Worms (It is in the western part of Germany, and it is not far from the French border) to see some of the historical sites relating to Martin Luther. The town itself looked like most German towns, with the pastel buildings and copious bakeries. It wasn’t really that busy though, and it was a Saturday. I was surprised. Anyway, we went to go see St. Peter’s Cathedral, which was really beautiful. (We asked where Martin Luther’s church was, but it was in another area, described by the postcard salesman as “Klausen.) I spent quite some time admiring the art at the cathedral, especially the sculpture and the Latin inscriptions. We also looked at some other interesting sites, but did not walk into any more buildings. Near the end of our day trip we went to go for ice-cream. The first place we went into had ice cream that was so-so. I had some, but the consistency was way too much like sherbet or something. The next place we went into…oh god, it was the scariest ice-cream parlour I’ve ever been into. The only salesperson was this old guy, and there was scary pipe organ music that sounded like something out of a vampire movie or something…My parents also kept on having me read the German and Latin inscriptions on the signs at the historical sites….
Also, when I went into the cathedral, I picked up a pamphlet that was about some festivities in town that celebrated a famous Jewish rabbi (in that area) named Solomon ben Isaac, or Raschi for short. All year long they are going to have things such as symposia, Israeli dancing, concerts, and other events to honor Raschi. I thought that was amazing, especially in Germany. Apparently Worms was a traditional Jewish learning area in Germany during the Middle Ages. I know that they actually still have the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery there. I’m seriously surprised that it didn’t get bombed or razed by the German government during the WWII era. I thoguht that that was an amazing contrast, compared to some sixty or seventy years ago, when Hitler ruled Germany, packing off innocent Jews to the concentration camps.
