Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Dom at Limburg and the "Jest" of My Trip

 I spent my morning today at Limburg....about an hour away by train.  Over the past month, there's been various reports over the Cathedral (the Dom), the Bishop, and financial pitfalls for the Catholic Church.

I figured I'd get the first-hand experience and see it all myself.

So, I'll report that the Dom is in fine shape and does look top notch.  If you were in the region....I'd strongly recommend that you stop and spend an hour touring the place.

The money spent?  Well....I might have some heartburn over excessive funds spent on this deal.  But, church taxes are paid by Catholic folks who want to stay in the church.  The locals are well-to-do....affluent....and they ought to see some of this money come back into the local community via jobs and renovation.  Maybe the Bishop was lousy at project management, but he might have done the whole town a favor....spending their money on them, and not shipping it out to some third-world country.

Now, that said, there was the issue of reporters.  Yeah, I walked up and the N24-TV crew wanted to interview me.  I stood for a second....the Bama in me suddenly clicked.

I'd best not speak.  N24 is the German version of CNN....mostly neutral but always looking for some chaotic German event to report to the public.

You see, I'm not going to condemn the Bishop, or his church, or it's use of it's own money.  Germans might have heartburn with that.  They see serious ethics violations here.  Me?   It's their Dom....they can spend money as they see fit, end of the story.

There's also one other little issue with me on some German TV deal.....my wife's cousin's girlfriend might have watched the interview, identified me, and then asked if I was a Tea-Party guy or something.  It's best not to get into a mess like that, and have the wife asking me what the heck I was doing on TV, and not in the basement cleaning it....like I was supposed to be.

As for Limburg?  Well, my suggestion is that it's worth a six-hour day-trip.  Arrive by train, and just walk straight out the door toward the protestant church across the street.  The walk-platz starts there and there's plenty of walking.  Old buildings are everywhere.  Fancy statues are obvious.  Italian coffee shops and pizza restaurants are in great quantity.

The three key things after the walk-platz?  There's the bridge....about twenty minutes walking from the train-station.  Next to the bridge is the "rapids"......worth sitting and seeing.  And finally, there's the Dom area.

You can walk inside the Dom....no charges....just no pictures.  It's not big and grand like some others I've seen.....but it's worth the trip.

Limburg?  They have cash, fancy gift shops, fine dining, five-star wine, and plenty of art to gaze at and admire.  This isn't a poor town, and that's probably the reason why the Bishop spent the cash on renovation and plowed the funds back into where it came from.

Updated: spelling correct.  Thanks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The town is called Limburg, not Limberg.