Prague and Other Adventures

Prague: Last weekend, my language school took a day-trip to Prague, Czech Republic. While it may not be very well-known among Americans, I have to say that Prague is a gorgeous city—one of the prettiest cities in all of Europe. The grand medieval and renaissance buildings survived the World Wars almost unscathed, which is very rare for central Europe. There is just so much to see and do there, that I know that I need to go visit again, hopefully for a couple days.

Here is the view from Prague Castle, which stands on a high hill in the middle of the historic part of town. As far as the eye can see are beautiful buildings from every architectural period in the last one thousand years.

This is one of many winding roads that twist and turn through the heart of Prague. Behind these buildings looms St. Vitus Cathedral with its Gothic spires. This church was built by the same architect as the Köln Dom, and these twin cathedrals are among my favorites in Europe.

One of the many dazzling stained-glass windows in St. Vitus Cathedral.

We ate dinner at this peaceful café, where we enjoyed some traditional Czech food—goulash, dumplings, potato pancakes, and beer.

Teaching: I have now successfully taught something from the Scriptures in German for the first time. It was a small thing, but it was an important step in becoming a full-fledged vicar. On Thursday nights we have a Vespers service and a Bible study. Pastor Rehr told me about the text that we would be studying, and I mentioned that I had preached a sermon on that text just a few months ago. He was excited to hear this, and he asked me to quickly prepare something to say as a small part of the Bible study. When I say quickly I mean it—I had about 25 minutes to read my old sermon and figure out something to say in German. It went well. I think that everyone understood what I was trying to say, and Pastor Rehr was pleased with my insights. It was an encouraging day!

Thanksgiving: For my language course, each of the members of my group had to give a presentation about some festival or tradition of our homelands. I chose to teach them about Thanksgiving. I had a PowerPoint presentation about the important parts of Thanksgiving—the history, how we celebrate, and what it means. And then I baked a pumpkin pie for everyone to try. It went pretty well, and it was a good way to push myself to learn even more German.

Other Sites: We have continued to see some of the many attractions in Dresden, while learning some more German in the process. This week we went to the Volkswagen factory (where they have a really cool driving simulator), the Felschlößchen brewery (a great tour with all the free sausage, bread, pickles, and beer that you could want), and Saxon Switzerland national park (a pleasant hike through impressive hills of sandstone).