In Marburg Angela took me inside a Lutheran Church on the hillside, just beneath Marburg’s signature Schloss (castle). As we enter the church, we pass by stone statues of the dukes. “The church and power were all joined together as one,” Angela whispers.
The Dukes expelled the Catholics. In the new millennium, beneath the whitewashed walls, the old Catholic paintings emerge.
On the way down the cobbled hill, I’m delighted to spy an Amsel — the European blackbird (the females have brown feathers). Such a soft, sweet warble, and according to Angela, a cheeky temperament. They’re known to eat the seeds from the ground after planting.
Time to journey to Berlin, on the hi-speed ICE train, to the town where history is erased and reclaimed. This Sunday will be the annual celebration of East and West German unification. Wheee!