Oppenheim (Maundy Thursday)

I'm currently sitting at my desk on a cold, wet afternoon, indulging my latest obsession - green tea - and I realize now that I have to run to the store before it closes. Tomorrow is Good Friday, or "Karfreitag." And, as I've learned (the hard way of course), Germans shut everything down for holidays - even church holidays . . . Being on break, this morning Thomas, Matthias, Ryan and I hopped the train to the small town of Oppenheim. Oppenheim sits on a hill between Mainz and Worms on the south bank of the Rhein River. Their Katharinenkirche is known as a prime example of late-Gothic German architecture. On our way up the hill Matthias noted a sign indicating that Martin Luther spent the night here on his way to and from the Diet of Worms in 1521. We also observed their strange fascination with frogs - brass and concrete sculptures of the amphibian on nearly ever corner - though we still don't know the story behind that. But perhaps the most interesting feature in Oppenheim is the "bone house" - a cellar underneath a small chapel just off to the side of Katharinenkirche. The cellar houses the bones - visible through an iron door - of 20,000 people collected between the years 1400 and 1750. Interesting.