Fall Travels – 2008

It was a great trip – we left Kansas City on September 15, 2008, and returned on October 15, 2008. We landed on September 16 in Frankfurt, Germany, and took the shuttle to pick up our rental car. We circled around the rental car location three or four times before we got on the right road and drove to

Ruppertsecken

We stayed in this village of 300 inhabitants two years ago. Pat is still on the trail of his lost great, great, great-grandfather and wanted to do some more searching in the area and retake photos of headstones. We were able to find a really lovely Ferienwohnung (holiday apartment); the owners, E and his wife A, were charming, and E welcomed us with a tin of cookies. The next day Pat went to cemeteries in Ruppertsecken, Marienthal, Wuerzweiler and Gerbach/St. Alban and took bunches (679) of photos, which he plans to post on the web to help out other genealogy researchers. That afternoon we took a hike on the Donnersberg, the highest mountain in the area, and then went to eat at a nice restaurant in Bastenhaus.

9/18 Pat went to Wuerzweiler and Rockenhausen for family research and then we both went to Winnweiler where Pat talked to a local official about the Karl family. We forgot to put our cardboard “clock”(Parkscheibe) on the dashboard when we parked the car and there was a ticket when we returned. We went to the bank to pay the ticket and the woman at the window said in English “You want to pay 8 euros”. Pat said, “I don’t want to pay anything”. The woman laughed and said, “You must pay 8 euros”. The next day we went to Neustadt (Wied) and Pat talked to a person in the priests’ office in hopes of finding some information about his great, great, great-grandfather.

Ruppertsecken was celebrating Kerwe that weekend, and E invited us to come along. Originally it was a church dedication ceremony that now is mainly an occasion for getting together and drinking wine and beer and eating and dancing. It was cold outside so everything moved into the Gasthaus. There was a band playing traditional German songs and we joined the table and linked arms and swayed back and forth with the music. Pat danced with J and even though Cynthia told E emphatically that she can’t dance, he got her on the dance floor – E found out quickly that Cynthia indeed can’t dance. At 10:00 PM young people continued the tradition of a dedication at which the Kerwechef reads the declaration. E and his father were both Kerwechefs. In the past only the boys of about 14 years of age participated, but nowadays the girls do, too.

9/20 we drove to Kaiserslautern to find some touch-up paint for the car (it had a small scratch on the door) and also found a nice wine shop. Then we headed back to the Donnersberg to hike to the Adlerbogen (Eagle arch) approx 400 meters high. It was a spectacular view. E had invited us to have dinner with his two lovely daughters, his wife’s parents, and himself (A was singing with a band that evening that was celebrating Kerwe in some other village.) It was an excellent dinner and we really enjoyed visiting with all. We went back to Kerwe that evening; the band played more modern music and the gathering was younger. On 9/21 we drove to

Kirchheimbolanden

Friends G (distant relative of Pat’s) and W welcomed us with homemade cheesecake and coffee. Afterwards we strolled around the city and then had an excellent dinner that G had fixed. The next day W, Pat and Cynthia drove to Worms; while W swam in the indoor pool Pat and Cynthia visited the Jewish cemetery and the cathedral where the Diet of Worms was held. After picking W up, we walked along the bank of the Rhine where the legend of the Nibelungen took place. On our way back to Kirchheim-Bolanden we drove through Zellertal. That evening we once again enjoyed great food and great conversation. G and W have a picture on their wall painted by a friend that we really liked. We said our goodbyes on 9/23 and drove to

Celle

It was fun to see S and H again and enjoy S’s gourmet cooking – a lovely meal. While S and H were teaching the next day we walked around Celle. Late afternoon we went to see the school where S teaches; it was interesting to see the school and particularly the classroom S uses for home economics classes. Thanks to H, we then had a private tour of the Celler Brewery and at the end got to quaff a glass of the brew – quite good. On 9/25 we went on a tour of the Moeck recorder factory in Celle along with about twenty 8 and 9 year olds. We both enjoyed seeing the recorders being made. From there we drove to

Lüneburg

Between Celle and Lüneburg is supposed to be the “heide” (moor) with blooming heather and a specific type of sheep, the heideschnucken. The entire drive we saw nary a heide nor a heideschnucken! We did, however, see the train station in Uelzen, which was designed by FriedensreichHundertwasser; it is spectacular! Lüneburg is a lovely, picturesque city well worth visiting. The next day, Cynthia was determined to see a heide so we drove to Amelinghausen and took a short walk in the Kroenberg Heide. From there we drove to

Hamburg

where we met A and M who had just become grandparents for the second time. It was so good to get together with them again. M gave us a driving tour of Hamburg which included stopping at this newly erected monument to five guys from Liverpool who got their start in Hamburg. For supper, we walked to a neighborhood Greek restaurant - excellent food and great ouzo. The next day was Sunday, so we headed for the Hamburg fish market –something not to be missed if you are in Hamburg. Here’s M eating a traditional raw herring sandwich, much beloved by the Hamburgers. Other Houston friends of A and M also arrived and we all took the U-Bahn downtown and ate. On 9/29 A and M left us alone in the apartment (we especially liked the bathroom accessories – the toilet seat and the shower curtain – which M bought for his grandson, J) and drove to Travemuende where they had rented a Ferienwohnung so they could be closer to H and help out with her new baby girl and her really cute, active 2 year old son. Pat and Cynthia bought a day transportation ticket that included the harbor ferries and went down to the Elbe and hopped on a ferry. We got off at Oevelgoenne and took a walk down to the area to see the houses where the captains used to live. On 10/1 we went to the Museum for Hamburg History, which turned out to be fascinating. One of the sections was on the emigration from Germany to America in the 1800s. Hapag-Lloyd, the huge German shipping company, started as the Hamburg-American shipping line for emigrants going to America – the H and A part of Hapag. This is an interesting picture of a rope making machine, which used to be used in the ship yards –the infamous red-light section of Hamburg, the “Reeperbahn” (the ropemakers’ lane), is named after this. Twenty years ago when we walked through the Reeperbahn in the afternoon you could see women in big windows advertising themselves. We didn’t see that this time –now there is a section for men only. After the museum we went downtown and got a beer and currywurst and then went to a free organ and French horn concert at St. Peter’s – the musicwas beautiful. Pat noted that the horn really complemented the organ nicely. On 10/2 we drove to

Travemünde

which is just north of Lübeck on the Baltic coast. A and M’s daughter H and her husband and two children live in Lübeck. We got to meet H’s son, a cute little fellow who said “Hi Pat” and a very respectable “Cynthia”, and her 8 day old daughter Z – a beautiful baby. We all went to the Altstadt of Lübeck and walked around. It was a lovely afternoon– we have known H since she was two years old; she has become a lovely young woman and it was a treat to see her. Sorry we did not get to also see her sister J this time. In the evening A and M and we went to a restaurant in Travemünde and had a great seafood dinner and then stayed up too late and drank too much wine but had a great time. The next day we headed southeast to

Schwerin

which is in former East Germany. It turned out to be a beautiful town with droll rhino statues. The whole area would be worth going back to and exploring – lots of lakes and castles. Our pension was teeny, tiny but well done and much classier than our hotel in

Nohra (Weimar)

We had planned to stay in a Ferienwohnung in the Weimar area but it turned out everything was booked because of German reunification day. What we ended up with was an ETAP hotel– when you see a sign like this when you enter the hotel you know you’re in trouble (the sign says: Attention! You are entering a luxury-free zone). A good example is the molded toilet; note the absence of toilet seat or lid. However, it was clean and we spent a lot of time in Weimar and Jena so we wouldn’t get back to our hotel too early. On 10/5 we went to Weimar, which was a major cultural center for many years in the 17^th to 20^th century. J.S.Bach worked there several years before moving to Leipzig. Goethe lived and worked there; we toured his house and garden, which he designed in 1792. We then went to Liszt’s house. Then came a long walk to find a house, “DieAltenburg”, that was the subject of a book Cynthia had read last year. It was built in the 1800’s during Goethe’s time in Weimar and later Liszt and his lover, Carolyne Sayn Wittgenstein lived there. Today, it is privately owned. It was interesting to follow the path described in the book over the river Ilm to the palace in Weimar. The next day in Weimar we went to the cemetery and into the mausoleum where Goethe is interred. Schiller is also said to be there, but a DNA test done a few years ago demonstrated that the body inside the coffin is not Schiller’s so who knows where Schiller really is. Also saw the grave of the man who built “Die Altenburg”. From the old to the newer – we went to the Bauhaus museum. The Bauhaus movement, spearheaded by Walter Gropius, started in Weimar in 1919. On 10/7 we headed to Jena and stopped first at the St. Michael’s Church, where Pat had a long discussion with the pastor of the church. From there we went to the “Optikel Museum” which was quite interesting. The next day we left our lovely hotel and drove to

Prague

to visit H and V. It was a strange feeling to drive into a country where we could not read any signs. We stopped for lunch and pointed to a couple of things on the menu; fortunately, beer is a universal word (actually, it’s not. P happens to know the word for beer in Czech, however)! We got totally lost in Prague and although we finally found the right area, ultimately had to call V to come rescue us, which he very graciously did. H was taking the bus from Switzerland that night and arrived in the morning. It was a delight to see H and V again and a real pleasure to see Prague with people who grew up there. On 10/9, H and V took us to see Vysehrad, the site of the old castle built in the 11^th century. It was a little foggy but we still got a good view– there is a tower on the hill opposite in this picture. We had no idea we were going to climb up to it the next day! Then down to the Altstadt to walk around and see the famous clock strike on the hour. We had lunch in a Czech cafe; fortunately V picked out what we should have and it was quite good. We split up for awhile and Pat and Cynthia found an outdoor café and had a beer. The entire time we were having our beer, there was a good-looking young man standing nearby, occasionally checking his cellphone. Cynthia thought he had gotten stood up but he was awfully patient about waiting so long. Finally Cynthia asked him if he spoke English and when he said “yes” she asked why he had been there so long. Turned out he was part of the security detail for the Jewish cemetery a block away. We met H and V back at the square and went to a concert at St.Climent’s Cathedral on the Royal Path in Prague. The concert with a Baroque organ and a chamber group was beautiful, especially the Adagio for Violin and Organ by Albinoni. Pat remarked again how lovely it was to have the organ accompanied by another instrument. Back at H and V’s apartment, we had Czech wine and good conversation. The next day we took the tram to the hill on the other side of the Moldau. Here is a very sobering, powerful monument to those who were killed and/or suffered during the years of Communist rule in the Czech republic. The plan was to take a cable car up the steep Petrin Hill but the cable car was out of operation, so we walked up. When we got to the top we weren’t through – then we walked up the 300 steps of the Prague Eiffel tower built in 1891 for the Prague exhibition. Our calves hurt for the next three days but the view was worth it. Pat took several pictures to prove that we really had walked all the way up. From there it was downhill, although V managed to find some unique paths to take us quickly down. We walked through the castle/palace complex, Hradcany, which was built and rebuilt over the years, the last royal occupants being the Hapsburgs. The stained glass in the St. Vitus Cathedral, most of which was done in 1933, is beautiful. Across the picturesque Charles Bridge we went before going back to the apartment. H and V had a get together to go to so they left us on our own. We liked their Russian dolls on the theme of the rulers of Russia in the 20^th century; note that one can see a strange peculiarity of these leaders in that they were alternately bald! V made reservations for us at an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood and we don’t know what he told them, but the staff was all smiles when we came in and told them our name; they spoke no German or English. V taught Pat to say “sklenici červeného vína – dvě deci” so he could order some wine and “jedno velke pivo” so he could order beer; Pat decided to just take the peppers off his pizza instead of trying to say “bez pepře”. The waiter appeared to be very amused by us. When we were ready to pay the bill the manager came over and said in English – four hundred and forty! (That’s kroner, by the way, not dollars.) It seems they spoke a little English! We really enjoyed spending a couple of days with H and V and look forward to the next time. On 10/11 we had no difficulty getting out of Prague thanks to V’s directions and we headed to

Bamberg/Burgebrach

We had hoped to stay in Bamberg but could not find any rooms available so we headed on west and ended up in Burgebrach, a little village a few kilometers from Bamberg. We walked around the village and then enjoyed having trout at the hotel restaurant. The next morning we made a side trip to see a castle in the area and then drove on to a Volkfest in Bamberg which we thought was going to be a big, outdoor fair. Turned out it was just a carnival, so we headed to the Altstadt. Bunches of people were there and we mainly wandered around. We got lost getting out of town but finally ended up back in Burgebrach. The next day we headed to

Aschaffenburg

We chose this small city because it was close to our car rental place and it turned out to be a delightful place to spend our last two nights. We took a long walk around the Renaissance castle overlooking the Main river. A beautiful setting; this castle belonged to an Archbishop. We ate at a brew house, Schlappeseppel, in business since 1631. The next day was laid back and in the evening we went to an outstanding concert presented by the Frankfurter Museums-Orchester. The final piece by Shostakovich, Sinfonie in g-minor op. 103, was very impressive. 10/15 we winged our way home – no travel glitches and got home about 8:30 PM.