Hi All! I arrived in Germany on early Tuesday morning, Sept 1 and spent the first day in Frankfurt taking care of some initial business for my trip and trying to beat off jet-lag! Largely, this is done by taking it easy, but not sleeping until it's late at night local time. That pretty much worked, and by early Wednesday morning, I was in good shape to drive south to visit Katie Claycamp (a PoP member doing graduate work at the University in Konstance.)

Although the weather has been pretty rainy, which has prohibited us from getting a good view of the Alps, we've been having a great time touring Konstance! Although the city dates as a "Free City" from the 12th century, it's roots go back to Roman times, when there was a Roman fort here named in honor of the first Christian Emporer, Constantine. Later, in the early 1400's, Konstance was the site of the Council of Konstance, the last pre-Reformation Council of the western church, at which Jan Huss, a reformer who had been promised safe conduct, was burned the stake. About a hundred years later, Martin Luther was also promised safe conduct to respond to charges against him. But, with the memory of what happened to Jan Huss, Frederick the Wise took extra precautions and had Luther "kidnapped" for his own safety. During his "captivity", Luther translated the New Testament into German.

It's been fun catching up with Katie and her boyfriend Volker, and getting to see a new part of Germany. Tomorrow, I'll be off to the Mosel Valley for a few days. Each time I'm in a new place, I'll post a link in "Photo Albums" to the set of photos from that place. You can click that link on the sidebar, or look at the Konstance Photos by clicking here.