BBrrrrrrrr.....

Today started much like most other Saturdays here, a slow start to the day and a mid-morning coffee before going out on our English newspaper buying trip. Before we left the apartment the sun was out and the weather was bright although on the walk to the train there was a nip in the air.

Having bought the paper, once we arrived back in Mahlow, though the sun was still shining here, there were some ominous black clouds hanging over Berlin to the north.

It did not take long for rain, make that sleet, no, snow began falling! It didn't amount to much by our Canadian standards but below are a few pictures of the first snow of the winter.

Reformation Day

31st October is more commonly known for Halloween in the UK and USA but, thankfully, here in Germany it is more commonly known as Reformation Day. This day marks the day in 1517 in Wittenburg, Germany when Martin Luther grasped a hammer and a long piece of paper covered with his writing. He walked out into the street and straight over to the castle church door, where community messages were often posted.

He nailed his 95 points of discussion on the door. He only wanted to lay out his newly discovered views of the Bible to other church leaders in the Medieval Catholic church. He thought he was free to do so even though his thoughts were radical. After all, he was an Augustinian monk and a professor of theology.

Without his knowledge someone printed his words on the newly invented Gutenburg press, distributing it all over Germany. Within a very few days, Martin found that he was the subject of everyone’s thoughts. In the cathedrals and great stone castles of his homeland, the pubs and peasant’s cottages—everyone was talking about the views of Luther. Without a signal to announce it, the Protestant Reformation had begun!

Whilst we are thankful for the Reformation we also enjoyed the bank holiday now instituted in it's memory!

Being a very autumnal sort of day we drove upto Niederfinow, about 80 miles northeast of Berlin. Niederfinow is the site of one of the largest, if not the largest, boat lifts in Europe. It links two canal systems and allows a number of boats / barges into a kind of bathtub from one canal system and raises or lowers them to the other canal system. The boat lift structure is about 60 metres high but the actual 'bathtub' takes the boat a height of 37 metres.

Not for the first time, I had camera battery problems although I did take some video that I have not yet worked out how to load here. in the meantime I scanned some pictures from the accompanying brochure so you can see what it's like.

After we looked over the structure and watched some boats passing through the system, we drove to the nearby town of Eberwalde and from there took a scenic drive through the forested area in which the trees were nice shades of yellow and amber before heading back to Berlin.