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Waking up with the sunlight, I noticed it was 4:30 a.m., so I rolled over and stayed in bed till 6 a.m........ a more reasonable hour. John was up by 5 a.m. and he was on the computer, entering information in the Fehmarn database from the research we did yesterday. While I was sat working on this journal, John fixed our breakfast. He eats the traditional German breakfast of soft-boiled egg, sliced meats and cheese on rolls or brown bread. I eat my own traditional breakfast of cereal with milk and a pastry. Add some fresh fruit, a glass of tomato juice and a cup of hot English tea…… and we have a filling meal to start the day. By 8:30 we were in the car and on our way to do some exploring on the Island. John thought it would be nice to see the Wallnau Nature Reserve, so we drove towards the town of Bojensdorf. Outside the Reserve is a large camping area, complete with little stores and it seemed to be full with at least 200 campers enjoying the tranquility of this beach area. Before we got to the Reserve, we parked the car and walked down to the shoreline to take a few pictures. There were 2 men fishing off the coast and we noticed all the rocks on the ground. Where we come from in Florida, our beaches are littered with shells and shell pieces. But in Fehmarn, rocks and beach sand are the normal ground cover. We picked up some round, smooth ones and were soon on our way.
We drove on to the parking platz of the Wallnau Nature Reserve and parked our car. They opened promptly at 9 a.m. and the entrance fee was only 5 Euros each. The woman cashier gave us a map of the area and explained in German where to walk. We couldn't understand any of what she said, but we smiled and nodded our heads. We just walked in the direction she had pointed.
We wandered the paths and found several bird watching stations to go into and where you could sit on long thin benches. These rooms are of wood construction with long, thin windows for watching the birds. Several small birds flew in and out of the windows, and we noticed they had nests with baby birds in them up in the rafters.
We continued to walk into a
wooded area on a pathway marked with signs telling about the birds and wildlife
living in the area. Several activities are set up for children to do. There is
a special area with a path for the children. The instructions tell you to
blindfold the children and then lead them onto the path so they can guess what
the pathway is made of. Each 6 feet, the material on the pathway changes......
from wood chips, to rocks to twigs, etc. Also, along this path are boxes for
the child to put their hands into and guess what they are feeling. This was a
very clever area for the children to enjoy.
Shortly after 10 am, we were finished looking around. It's amazing how fast you go when you don't stop to read all the information signs!!!! (Couldn’t read the German!) We did look at the pictures and noticed how well planned and laid-out this reserve was. Finally, I did get a little shopping done at the gift shop in the front building before we were on our way back to Burg. Back on the main street in Burg, John started to grocery shop at the Jens Markit. I went to the Volksbank down the street to exchange our American Travelers checks for Euros. The bank charged me a fee of 7.67 Euros to do this. The exchange rate is 1.22 so our $500 USD turned into 401 Euros. Not at all like previous years when our US Dollars were worth more. After shopping for a few groceries, we walked over to the Bakery for a better selection of breads and pastries. The local bakeries are so much fun for me. This is a slightly larger bakery with a cafe attached. I found some zücker (sugar) figures of little clowns and animals that I purchased to take home. Also, some Kinder chocolate candy eggs that are very popular with the children because they have little toy surprises in them. They are inexpensive and are lots of fun and very popular with children. We went back to our room to have a little picnic lunch outside on our rooftop patio. We made sandwiches with our fresh bakery rolls and ate them with our “kraut-salat” and fresh strawberries. Lunch couldn’t get much better!! After relaxing for a very short time, we went to the Süderstrand (South Beach) area with the large hotels on the beach. We have never stopped there and walked around. On other trips, we had only stopped to take pictures of the boats in the nearby marina. We thought it was time that we looked at the hotels.
There are three, tall hotels with a covered mall of stores on the backside of the buildings that connects all 3 hotels. The beach is very wide and long, and full of beach chairs. Because the weather is very sunny this afternoon, many families are on the beach enjoying the beautiful weather. We found a map displayed of the entire complex and John saw the ruins of the Glambeck Castle indicated on the map. The hotel is built on the site of this old 13th Century fortress and castle. We walked around to that area and had a hard time finding it, but finally found it behind a store, not open to the general public. You could see where parts of the moat had been and where some of the walls had stood. It was in bad shape, but we were glad to have found it. It obviously did not fit in with this modern tourist area.
By now it was almost 2 p.m. and we drove directly the Burg City Archives. We met outside with our dear friends, the Seyer’s - Peter and Margit. Peter researches his family history and was in town to do more research and to meet with John. They share a common interest in this work over the past several years. Shortly after 2 pm, the two men went upstairs to start their work in the local records of Burg and in the various books and information supplied by several other genealogists and historians. Margit, Peter's wife and I decided to do a little shopping in the local stores. We looked around the Olderogs department store, and walked along the store windows, before stopping at the Eis Cafe for some ice cream and good conversation. Margit is now retired from her office work, and is enjoying being on permanent "holiday". After chatting for a while, we went back to the archives, as it was almost 4 pm.... the closing time. Heino Kühl, who assists Mr. Karl Whilhelm Klahn in the Archives, was there. We had met him on last years trip. He speaks English, as does our friend Margit Seyer, making this visit very easy for John and I. Heino explained to us that the Archives would soon be getting a computer. John gave him a CD copy of the database for use in this Archive. This will help him by having the works of George Laage, Max-Otto Rauert, Karin Kleingard, Ruth Mackaprang, Christoff Lehmann and of course, John S. Kostick .... all together in one database. Of course... This database is the work of many others also...... all the day to day contributors who help John by contributing their personal family information. No one has ever compiled so much information in one database as John has done. To bring all these fine works together and make them accessible to the public via this website, has been a 9-year project that John thoroughly enjoys.
John found some new information, while Peter worked on his family. When Margit and I came back, they were looking at the note cards telling about the Seyer’s who immigrated to America. John took notes, and promised to help Peter find his American descendants. Before leaving, I said hello to Karl Whilhilm Klahn and we were introduced to his friend, Mr. Johannes Detlef. Mr. Detlef told John of a book he was selling on the history of emigration from Holstein and John arranged to purchase it. At this time, John gave a nice donation to the Archives and Mr. Klahn thanked him. John likes to give donations to the Churches and Archives as he uses their books and documents to do his research. We are always grateful for the help we receive while we are here for this annual one-week visit. Saying our good-byes to the Seyer’s, we were on our way. We arranged to meet with Peter and Margit on Thursday for another day of research at the Neustadt Archives. We went back to our room to freshen up before dinner. Before leaving America, John was contacted by Mr. Roy Harmon from Iowa. He was also going to be on the Island at the same time we were going to be there. He e-mailed John with a request to join him at his great-grandfather's gasthaus (guest-house). We left a message that we would meet him at the Hotel Am-Wind at 6 pm, as requested. We waited in the lobby for 30 minutes, but must not have gotten our message thru to him, as we could not find him. Later, we found he had left a message for us with our Landlord, Achum Kühl, as we found a note slipped under our door when we returned back to our room later in the evening. In the meantime, we decided to drive over to the Gashof Bannesdorf. We found the restaurant, and decided to have dinner. Throughout dinner we listened for anyone speaking English, in hopes of finding Mr. Harmon, but to no luck. The dinner was very good, but because this hotel is off the beaten path, no one spoke English. After dinner, we drove around to the cemetery at the Bannesdorf Church. This church appears to be having some major restoration being done on the exterior walls as they had scaffolding erected all around the church. We wandered around looking for new headstones and, of course..... more flowers. John walked to the back of the cemetery, and noticed that the Gasthof Bannesdorf was located just a few steps from the back gate of the property. We could have gone out the restaurants front door, turned right and taken a few steps and walked right into the cemetery!!!! Sometimes we get so focused, be don't notice what's on our right when we are turning to the left. We laughed at our own foolishness.
We were getting tired, but we wanted to go one more place.... to the small fishing village of Fehmarnsund to take a picture of the bridge at sunset. We had never been to this small fishing village, with its marina just to one side of the bridge. Finally, after much driving around.... We found it. Quickly we took our pictures as the wind was brisk and the air was getting cooler.
By now it was almost 10 pm and the sun was finally setting, so we headed back to our room to turn in for the night.
Tomorrow...... The Burg Market Place
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