Some Sights From Lutherstadt Wittenberg and the Elbe River

In the thick of the family trauma that was going on at my in-laws’ over Christmas, I tried to escape once a day to go on a long walk with the dog. I wouldn’t have survived it otherwise. But it was also amazing, because for the first time in years, the Elbe River began to flood. (Of course, the downside of that was the ceaseless rain that was causing the waters to rise.)

The day we arrived at my in-laws’ (Dec 20th), things were still relatively normal. It was still possible to walk the mile over the flood meadow to the river in its normal channel. The river was running a bit higher than normal, but not unreasonably so.

By the 23rd of December, it had risen high enough to cover the groins that jut out from the shore of the Elbe to slow down its flow near the riverbanks, accumulate passing sand, and in general prevent the erosion of the banks.

By the 25th, the water had marched the entire mile across the flood meadow to start lap at the base of the dike. From there, the water level kept going up. It was… exciting! (At least because here, unlike in other areas of Germany, the flood never reached the point where it was a problem. Here it remained well within the confines of the flood meadows and the dikes.)

I just wanted to share some of the pictures and videos with you, because it was so impressive.

Here’s what things looked like on the 23rd:

The not yet flooded flood meadow of the Elbe River

On Dec 23, when the rain had briefly turned to huge bit wet flocks of snow (see monster snow flock in photo), you could still march the mile across the flood meadow to the normal channel of the river (even if it was already flowing a few meters higher than normal).

The Rocket Dog on the riverbank of the Elbe.

On Dec 23, you could still walk to the higher banks of the channel of the Elbe (although 95% of the time, the river is 3 meters or so lower than these banks). But the groins that are there that are a couple of meters high were already submerged.

The flooded lower banks of the Elbe River

Here’s a view through the reeds of the lower, flooded banks of the river

Flooded reeds

Normally, these reeds are situated high and dry on the slope above the beach that we sit on when we come to visit in the summer

By the morning of the 25th, the situation had notably escalated:

Higher water on Christmas morning

By the morning of the 25th, the Elbe had risen up out of its banks and had covered almost all of its flood meadow. Here’s the dog wading into the water just on river side off the levee

Almost at the dike

At this location, the water had yet to reach the dike, the base of which is just behind where I’m standing to take the photo

The view to my right

Here’s what it looks like when I looked right instead of left

The Rocket Dog wading in

He can’t stand to have a warm bath, but give him floodwater to wade through…

It is strangely pretty to submerge the world

It was amazing to watch the world slowly submerge

In other areas, it was already more dramatic

This road, leading onto the flood meadow, was already impressively submerged. Keep an eye on those street signs. They’ll be going further under on later days

A wider view...

Here’s a wider view of that spot at that time

The water had already reached the base of the dike here

At this particular spot, the water had already made it to the base of the dike by Christmas morning

By the 27th, the water had reached the dikes all over and was rising slightly and falling slightly depending on how many hours it had been since the last deluge.

Trees up to their elbows

Now the flood meadow was completely filled with water and the trees were up to their elbows in it

It made for some crazy scenes

It was quite a sight to see

The local wildlife was... nonplussed

The highlight of this was was the nutria that swam up, hauled itself out of the water, and started scratching at its fleas and ticks. That’s not a duck head sticking out of the log, btw. It’s a mushroom

I was in the midst of wondering about all the poor mice and earthworms—all drowned?—and all the deer—wandered off to… where?—when I got interrupted by a feral nutria swimming through the water then nonchalantly hauling out on a log and giving itself a good scratch.

In the 1950s and 1960s, people here—like Spouse’s grandmother—used to raise them for their pelts to make a bit of extra money. When it quickly became clear that this was not a lucrative endeavor, however, they then either slaughtered all the nutria or, presumably, set them free. They’re quite a pest all over Europe and normally local councils set traps and then euthanize them. But this is not the first nutria I’ve seen in this general area! They seem to be surviving here just fine.

Here’s a beautiful submerged tree from the 28th of Dec:

Later on the 28th, Spouse and I had to head into town to get a large photo of FIL printed and framed for display at his funeral. Seeing FIL’s healthy, joyous face in the picture hit Spouse like a sledgehammer. After dropping the picture off at the mortuary (because they’re organizing the funeral), we numbly followed our feet down the cobblestone streets, braving the frigid wind, paying no attention to where we were going. Suddenly, we found ourselves standing in front of the church where Martin Luther tacked up the theses just over 500 years ago. I mean, it’s not so surprising. It’s a small town and a big church. But with all the stress and trauma of his dad’s Alzheimer’s, we hadn’t had the freedom to while away time in town, and so we hadn’t seen it in years. And the tower was open!

How could we not climb all the stairs to have a look around at the flood from above?!

The famous doors of the church

The actual doors that Martin Luther nailed his theses to were lost in a fire centuries ago already. What they have now are a set of cast iron doors with some of the theses included as part of the design. I don’t think they ever open these doors. If you want to get into the church there is a smaller door to the right, outside the frame of the photo

The church tower

Here’s where you go in to start climbing up, up, and up!

A glimpse through the windows on the way up to the top

I think we’re about halfway up at this point

The last set of stairs!

This is the last set of stairs before you reach the part of the tower where you can wander around outside to see the view

The other big church in town

Here’s the view of the other big, old church in town… not much more than a 5 minute walk away

Finally we're at the top!

They didn’t mess around when they built the tower. I guess the whole area is there to let the sound of the bells out. And I guess, while you’re at it, you might as well make it a nice place to walk around and see the surroundings?

The flooded Elbe river

Normally, the Elbe is about 50 meters wide and it flows between the two parallel-ish banks that you can see by the two rows of shrubs and trees. But right now, the water is covering the entire mile-wide meadow on the far side and the narrowed flood zone on the town side of the river

Another view of the Elbe in flood

It is impressive how much water there is now. Sometimes, it’s so bone dry the river is merely feet wide and you can wade across it without much effort

The bells

Here are the bells. But—sadly?—we did not stick around to have our ears blown out when they struck the hour.

Here are some “highlights” of our long tromp up the stairs.

And then lastly, and far more interestingly, here’s a video of a trip around the circumference of the tower.