Torgau--Miscellaneous Musings

The beginning of the end of World War II happened in Torgau when the Russian and American troops rolled into town. It's a tiny town on the Elbe. The bridges that crossed the river were wired with bombs awaiting the bad guys. On April 26, 1945 the good guys came.

However Torgau has seen a lot of history the past 600+ years. The old Schloss was remodeled in 1534. Peter the Great visited the schloss and determined it had one of the best towers he had ever seen. Martin Luther's widow, Caterina, is buried in St. Mary's church. For the last 2 days I've been hearing a lot about this remarkable woman who might have been as revolutionary as her more famous husband.

The town square is huge and is anchored by a beautiful Rathaus. While we were walking in the square a group of school children arrived. We were expecting noise and instead we received a surprise. The group went into a gelato shop, bought one scoop cones and very orderly walked out to the fountain in the square and ate them. We kept waiting for "typical kid behavior" to emerge and finally, after 10 minutes they started to climb all over the fountain and run and scream. Kids are kids!