Friday, June 01, 2001
John was up early again to type new
information into the database. I
got to sleep in till 5:00 a.m. We
were excited about finishing our work today and getting on our way to Hamburg. Unfortunately, it was overcast this morning.
We were nervous, because if it rained, be would not be able to take the
pictures of the headstones in the Petersdorf cemetery as John so desperately
wanted to do. This would complete
his collection of every headstone on the island of Fehmarn.
We honestly thought of going out and taking
the pictures, before breakfast, because it looked like rain was coming.
But we thought that would look a little too fanatical.
So…… we started to pack. I
got 90% of my packing done last night, and it was a real challenge!
With all my shopping, the suitcase was really full.
Luckily, I had a new suitcase this year that had a zippered, expandable
side. This gave me 3”- 4” of
extra room. I had started packing 2
days ago, so by now I had a system worked out, not to mention, I bought another
carry-on luggage! John was only
starting to pack this morning. After about 3 tries, he got all his stuff and a few more
things of mine into his luggage. Next
year, we must bring fewer clothes!!
By 7:30, we were downstairs and relaxing in
the dinning room with that wonderful breakfast that Anne serves to us each
morning. John asked her for
our bill for the past 7 days so we could settle our account with her.
She charges $60 DM ($30 USD) a day, which includes the breakfast.
We paid her the $420 DM and agreed with each other, that this deal was
truly a bargain. We have a big
room, private bath and a beautiful view on the front of the house only 2 blocks
from the main street of Burg. This year, Anne had to become our secretary, as we got phone
calls and messages each day. For
this, we always leave her a little extra money on the table upstairs in our
room.
After breakfast, John brought the luggage
downstairs and loaded it into the car’s trunk and back seat.
We really filled that little car. We
said our good-byes to Anne and assured her that we were planning to come back
next year. She is such a nice lady;
we can’t say enough nice things about her.
Soon, we were on our way to Petersdorf to
take the pictures of the headstones. The
weather was very precarious, as it was already raining very lightly.
We were determined and when we got there, the rain had stopped.
We immediately went to work. John
went one direction and I went the other direction, so we could meet in the
middle. On his side of the Church,
John encountered an elderly man who was the grounds keeper.
He seemed upset about the picture taking. He actually stood in front of the headstone so John
couldn’t take the picture. And of
course, he spoke no English. John
tried to tell him that the Pastor Jaeger of this Church knew we were doing this.
When he heard the Pastor’s name, he left John and went into the church.
We had no more trouble after that. Within
the hour, we were finished and now we had all the cemeteries photographed on the
Island of Fehmarn. John has
accomplished a major goal of this trip.
We walked around Petersdorf and stopped in a
few stores for some last minute postcards.
Then we got some pastries and something to drink and sat down to relax
for a few minutes. We took some
more photos of the streets of Petersdorf, and were soon on our way.
Judy eating a danish
We went back to Burg and thought we would
try to find an old friend, Michael Mackaprang, as John had a gift for him.
He was not at home, but his Mother, Ruth, was in the yard tending to his
garden. She is a delight…. In her
90’s and a wonderful to talk with. We
gave her a copy of John’s database, so she could pass it on to her son,
Michael. (Michael, and his Mother,
were the first one’s to share their information with John on our first trip in
1999.) We do enjoy talking to her, even though there is a small
language barrier. She asked about
Vera Fuller, from Dorothee’s Tour Group.
You see, she and Vera are actual cousins and they had never met until
this trip! We wished her well, and
told her we’d be back next year.
We drove over the Fehmarnsund Bridge for the
last time. The weather had cleared
up, so the view looking out over the water was clear and beautiful.
Leaving Fehmarn over the bridge for the last
time.
After we left the island of Fehmarn for the
last time, John wanted to photograph the headstones in the 2 Großenbrode
cemeteries. The first one was
located right by that city map we stopped at several days ago.
There is a tall hedge of bushes next to the road and the cemetery is on
the other side of the hedge!! We
stopped there first and took pictures of the stones.
While taking pictures of the headstones, I get
a little side-tracked because all the beautiful flowers planted around the
gravesites fascinate me. There are
also bouquets of flowers in vases left by the families.
The colors are brilliant and I started photographing close-up shots of
the different varieties of flowers. I
plan to put them on a disc and use them as background wallpaper or screensavers
on my computer. This will be a
constant reminder of my trip.
Flowers from the gravesites.
We finished up the photos of the headstones at
the small, local church. This
cemetery had very few stones, and we were done in a very short time. Then we were on the Autobahn and on our way to Hamburg.
Driving on the Autobahn amazes us. It's similar to our expressways, but at times it is only one
lane in each direction. Large
trucks go a little slower, and when there is a few cars behind one, he moves
over to the paved side of the road. To
pass, you drive on the centerline. The
oncoming traffic also moves to the side and you pass down the center of the
highway, with traffic coming at you at 90 m.p.h.!!!
This is kind of scary, but everyone does it.
Passing on the Autobahn
I've mastered 90% of the road signs, by now.
On our first trip, we were so confused.
I made a point of looking these international road signs up on the
Internet and studying them. It has helped me a lot.
Driving along the Autobahn, with the large,
open fields, we have noticed that the fields of raps flowers are fading and at
times are only 25% yellow. It's a
big difference from a week ago when we arrived on the island.
About half way to Hamburg, we exited the
Autobahn and took the 432 Road thru some small towns towards Segeburg. We found this route on the map, and thought we would try a
new way into the city of Hamburg. This
was a more leisurely drive, and we even stopped to buy some fresh strawberries
that we ate in the car, along with some salami and danish that we had bought
earlier. This was our lunch!
The view was beautiful and the weather was clearing up a little, although
it was still overcast.
About 2 p.m., we
turned left onto the 433 and soon we arrived in Hamburg.
We had by-passed all the heavy traffic by taking this route.
(This was definitely the road to take to Fehmarn next year.)
We had reservations (thanks to Dorothee Gossel) at the Kock’s Hotel and
it was very easy to find, because they had faxed us a map and the directions.
We were told that this hotel was within walking distance of the Hamburg
Airport!
When we checked into our room (#13), the desk
clerk said “we could just throw our luggage thru the window.” She wasn't kidding.
The window opens wide onto the small parking lot.... right next to our
car. John passed the luggage
to me thru the window. Wow, this
was too easy!
After settling into our room, we decided to
walk to the airport to see how long it would take.
We walked along the paved walkway and made it to Terminal 4 in only 15
minutes. We asked about the early
check-in for our luggage, and then walked back to our room.
We walked to a nearby restaurant recommended
by the desk clerk and had an excellent meal in a small local place with 1
English menu!! We actually knew what we were ordering!
After returning to our room, we put our
luggage to be checked-in back into the car....thru the window. Then we were off to the airport to return our rental car and
to check-in our luggage and get our boarding passes for our early morning
flight. Lufthansa allows this
convenience for early morning travelers, so you don't have to be at the airport
2 hours early. Our flight boarded
at 6:50 a.m. All we would have to
do was go to the boarding gate with our carry on luggage.
We walked back to our Hotel room and watched
some German TV shows. We found some
very strange game shows, and I even found Star Trek, John's favorite show, but
in German. This looked very strange
to us. After a while, we found CNN
news in English and watched the European World News.
Of course we turned on the computer for one last night of working, but by
10:30 p.m..... it was lights out for us!
J
On Saturday, at 5:30 a.m., we walked to the Hamburg Airport and make our 7 a.m. flight home.
This was a memorable trip for John and I,
and we want to thank everyone for the success of this trip.
Auf Wiedersehen
Und
Gute Fahrt
(Good-bye and good travels)
Judy Kostick Cummings
Please send all comments or questions to Judy at Judaline@bellsouth.net
The FEHMARN GENEALOGY Site
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