Erfurt

You remember how I said this vacation could only go downhill? Well, it began falling right after I finished the strawberries because we went to the Crime and Punishment museum. Basically there was nothing in it that didn't disturb me, discounting the shame masks which were just mean, not horribly cruel. If you are wanting to go somewhere were you can see instruments of torture worthy of Sauron, than that's the place to go.

But despite the museum, Rothenburg was a wonderful city and I was sad that we only got to spend one day there. We arrived in Erfurt on the evening of the 18th and spent the next day walking around the city. We took a tour auf Deutsch of the Augustinian monestary, which is were Luther was a monk for 6 years. So although it was cool to see, we didn't exactly get much out of it. There was a lady who translated the most important parts for us.

A bad picture of the cloister

Luther's cell

The monks would eat on the same side of the table because they were not allowed to talk and if they sat opposite each other they might try to comunicate with each other through their expressions. The monks carried their spoon with them all day, all the time and it was only taken away from them when they died. So having your spoon taken away was another way of saying you were dead.

I would tell you other interesting facts except, as I said before, the tour was in German so that was really about all I actually understood from the tour.

We also saw some of the churches in town that day, including the one with mom's favorite crucifix outside:

Abby, mom, Nate, and Ellie in front of the town square