France and Germany

Oh, I am just overwhelmed by the thought of all that I have to write, so I promise to keep it as short as possible.

As I have explained before, every student at MUDEC is enrolled in a sprint mini-field tour class. This means we take a class three times a week until mid-March and spend five/six days traveling around with the class to points of interest. Classes include architecture, history, art, and music. I am enrolled in the history of witch-hunts in medieval Europe. You can only imagine the amount of Harry Potter references we make. For our class, we left last Wednesday for a cruise through the French and German countryside, stopping in Trier, Speyer, and Rothenburg, Germany and Nancy, France. We spent time in each city getting to know the major tourist attractions and how they applied to our newly acquired historical knowledge of the witch-hunts.

Our first stop was Trier, Germany, which is about 45 minutes away from Luxembourg and a popular day trip for MUDEC students. Right off the bat we were a little disappointed this was our first city, with other classes heading to Florence and Amsterdam. We could do Trier one day after class, no need to take time out of our trip to do it in now. However, we were all pleasantly surprised! Despite some dreary weather and a not-so-exciting lecture about Trier witch-hunts, Trier is an adorable town, with little cottages lining cobblestone roads and shopping galore. We also took time to see the local cathedral, one of the largest I’ve seen, and to see the Black Gate, a Roman ruin. It was also fascinating to be in a city where so much happened in terms of witch-hunts. Trier was one of the major areas where the witch-hunts were rampant, where entire villages were whipped out.

We then moved on to Nancy, France, my favorite city we visited. It was a picturesque and quaint French town, complete with outdoor cafes and fountains. The city centre was breathtaking, a large cobblestone square with golden fountains at each corner and four iron and gold gates to allow entrance. We were on our own for lunch before heading to a visit of the local archives, and Taylor and I had the most delicious meal I have had since I’ve been here. I have NO idea what I ordered, but it was amazing. The restaurant had old birdcages and silver wear glued to the ceiling, as well as old French advertisements glued to the walls and coffee mugs with fleur de lis patterns. PERFECT. We also were blessed with SUNSHINE. It was one of our first extremely sunny days since I’ve travelled. I actually think Nancy was the first time I’ve seen grown not covered by snow since I left Ohio in December. Ah, how spring taunts the horizon. Oh, and we did some educational stuff… But the pretty fountains blew that out of the wind.

Nonetheless, on a dorky historian side-note, we did get to see a document signed by Charlemagne. It was overwhelming to be in the presence of such an old piece of paper by someone who is so historically significant and changed the world as we know it today. The woman who gave the lecture was an expert on the witch hunts and arrived specifically in Nancy to explain the hunts to us. She read aloud a few of the cases, which I found fascinating. Once you get beyond the fact that this is not just a story from the past, but REAL people, it’s shocking to see how such things happened. Despite everyone being a little drowsy after delcious meals and being in a warm room, the lecture was pretty cool.

Our next city was Speyer, a small German town…. Somewhere? We didn’t do a very good job of examining a map before. Speyer (pronounced SHPY-ER in a scary German accent) seemed a little out of the way, but, again, we were all pleasantly surprised! There was some amazing shopping (sales are huge in Europe in late January and early February), a stunning cathedral, and an adorable main road. (Sensing a pattern here? Apparently those are three things I go for.) After a morning full of shopping, we met as a group for a traditional German lunch! Amelie, you’d be so proud. We all ate pretzals and sausage and good German beer. There was a funny miscommunication where some of the girls ordered a pepper dish. Expecting bell peppers, they were more than a little surprised when they were served massive portions of jalapeño peppers! It was great to sit with some of the girls on my trip and compare what we had bought and really get to know one another! After another delicious meal (us broke college students LOVE our meals) we headed to our main purpose of the trip to Speyer- a museum exhibit based solely on hexen, or witchcraft and the hunts. We were all pretty excited for the museum, only to be relatively shocked to find the entire exhibit was in German. I wished hard for Amelie to appear, but to no avail, and had to use my French and English comprehension to translate some of the captions… again, to no avail. It was pretty cool though. There was some really old examples of witch craft proof (mandrake being one, thank you JK Rowling.) The most interesting thing I saw in the museum was a stack of wood that would have been required to burn a person alive and a looped video that shows how towns people would watch the burnings and react. There is a lot of wood that is needed, and seeing how some of the “peasants” would start the execution by cheering, but be disgusted by the end, really demonstrated the reality of the hunts and the horrors that accompanied it.

Our final destination was Rothenburg, Germany. Taylor had looked up all our cities in a tour book beforehand, but couldn’t remember if anything was mentioned about Rothenburg. Alas, it ended up being the most adorable city by far! A true medieval village, Rothenburg looks like a giant gingerbread metropolis surrounded by town walls and draw bridges, with a stone town hall presiding on the hill. The houses and buildings looked as if they were made of gingerbread, with white icing trim adorning the A-frames and windows highlighting shopping deals and local delights. One of the most attractive aspects of the windows, they showcased schneeballen, a giant pastry ball of fried dough covered in various toppings, from marzipan to dark almond chocolate. Oh dear goodness, God blessed such a place!

We got into the city on Friday night and the entire group decided to do a little exploration of the night scene. I entered a hotel to ask a receptionist where to go in town or what clubs and bars she recommended. She looked at me shocked and goes “somewhere for young people in Rothenburg?” I nodded and she laughed and goes, “…well, there’s one place?” Despite this initial negative outlook, the whole group found a pleasant little bar with cheap drinks and enjoyed on another’s company and getting to know the group! Saturday we got up and met up with another witch historian from England, who flew in to explain the trials and medieval crime and punishment to us. It was really interesting and it was fascinating to see the different between the trials in Trier and Rothenburg- everything was relatively low-key in Rothenburg in comparison. After a tour of the medieval town hall, a group of girls and I decided to grab lunch at a traditional restaurant and warmed up with some delicious soups and sandwiches. We then headed to the museum.

I have mixed feelings on the museum. It was a Medieval crim and punishement exhibit, highlighting both methods of torture and punishment. I had a difficult time looking at the torture devices and quickly skipped ahead to other areas of the museum. The most interesting part was the non-violent punishment showcase. This included:
-Chastity belts for women who couldn’t remain faithful
-Masks that had large tongues and ears that would be locked onto a persons head if they were caught gossiping (Taylor and I confessed we’d have to be in those a lot…)
-Shoes made of metal they clamped on you that had bells on them so that everyone would know you were a fool
-An empty beer barrel that they fashioned into an outfit that they made men or women wear if they drank too much
-A wooden plank with two head holes, they would make a quarrelling couple be locked in it facing each other until they got along
While these were entertaining to see and funny to make fun of and threaten one another with, it really took away from the seriousness of the punishment. These didn’t just happen in movies but to real people in our past. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating exhibit just to see how far law has come!

That night we had a few bottles of wine with a group of girls and really got to know one another and had a blast before leaving the next day for the six hour trip home!

Overall, it was a great trip. I was very hesitant at first, but was so happy that everything turned out great. The cities were gorgeous, the shopping was fabulous, the girls were tons of fun, and the educational aspect was interesting! What more can I ask for?

Now, only one more week of class before I’m off to Rome and Egypt for Carnivale Break! Can you say “blessed existence”?