JUDY AND JOHN’S SECOND TRIP TO FEHMARN, GERMANY

Monday & Tuesday- May 29^th & May 30, 2000

These were our traveling days.  As we usually do, we arrived at Miami International Airport very early, about 2 ½ hours before our flight.  Unlike, Alan and Tressie’s troublesome beginnings, we had a very calm beginning.  We checked in and then went in search of lunch, as we were too nervous to eat at home.  Then we sat and waited for 1-½ hours for our flight.  Once onboard the Lufthansa plane, we settled into our small space for the long flight.  We were served our dinner within the first hour onboard. 

 It was about this time that I changed my watch to Germany’s time.  We instantly lost 6 hours and were having a midnight dinner!   After the meal, the cabin lights were dimmed and everyone is encouraged to sleep or rest quietly.  This is the impossible dream!   We used earplugs, which helped block out the cabin noise (restless people talking and babies crying) and this helped a lot.  We had hoped to sleep for 4 hours, but this was a difficult thing to do….. sleeping in an upright, cramped position.

 The next thing we knew, the cabin lights went on at 3:20 am, (German time) and we were prodded to wake up and eat breakfast! (But it was only 9:20 pm in Miami!!)  Our bodies were protesting.  The good news was our flight was going to arrive an hour early.  Our flight only lasted 7 ¾ hours.

 Frankfort Airport is a major hub for Europe and the airport is very large, with lots of walking.  Mechanical walkways help with all this walking through the long corridors. (*NOTE- Wheels on your luggage is a must for any airport.  Don’t leave home without them.)  After getting off the plane, we had to go through the passport check.  We went to the longest line; the one for non-EU’s and they just waved us through to speed things up.  This was definitely not the good old USA.

 After a 2-hour wait between flights, we boarded another Lufthansa plane- flight 94 and were off to Hamburg.  For this leg, we flew business class instead of our usual economy class and sat in the front of the plane.  The seats were all leather and the glasses were made of real glass, but we noticed no other visible differences.  We had expected more legroom or bigger, more comfortable seats, but did not find this to be. (This was a short flight of one hour, therefore this plane did not have the first class section.)

 After arriving in Hamburg, we went through a passport check with no one there.  I was upset…… I wanted those stamps in my passport….. I wanted my passport to show I had been to Germany….. that I was a world traveler.!  Those stamps were my proof…. And I didn’t get them.   We found our luggage easily and within 10 minutes, we were outside the airport. 

 We brought John’s Motorola family radios, as did Alan and Tressie, and we contacted our friends using the radios.  They were driving around, waiting for our call.   They drove past us in the wrong lane and had to circle around again.  We waited in the chilly air (remember us… we came from 90 degree Florida) and we marveled at the size of the rental car that we saw pass us by.  We had 5 pieces of luggage to fit into the smallest Mercedes Benz car/van that I had ever seen!  Our friends found us, and soon we were 4 adults and 9 pieces of luggage in a tiny car.   With Alan driving, we were on our way into the city traffic of Hamburg.  Hamburg’s city streets can be confusing for new visitors, so pray a lot and look for the A-1 signs to the Autobahn.

An hour later, we found the Autobahn and were on our way to Fehmarn.  (NOTE*- The key to this miracle is Lübeck.  When in Hamburg, take the ring 2 to A-24 and then the A-1 to Lübeck.)  When you are on the Autobahn, just keep looking for those Lübeck signs.  They head you in the right direction.  After finding the A-1 and in turn, finding Lübeck…….don’t get off the Autobahn.   Just keep on drivin’.   The Autobahn takes you to the Fehmarnsund Bridge and onto the island.  You can’t miss it!

 We encountered some rain showers, while driving along the Autobahn, but when we finally arrived in Burg auf Fehmarn, the sun was shining and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.  About noon, we checked into our rooms at Anne Claussen-Mackaprang’s house.  We were happy to see Anne’s smiling face welcome us back to her home for another visit. (We had rented rooms in her home last year.)   We brought in our entire luggage, freshened up and were on our way again.  We were anxious to show Alan and Tressie the main street of this charming town. 

 TRESSIE- “We recognized the house from the photo on the website, from last years article.  Annie is as cheerful and friendly as described.  We were shown upstairs to our rooms, and John and Judy had the front guest room with bathroom and we got the back guest room with bathroom. Our room had a balcony with a view of Annie’s beautiful garden in the back yard.  Alan and John unloaded the car and brought up the luggage.  We took this time to freshen up a little, and were off to find something to eat.”

 We showed our new friends the main shopping area of Burg and decided to eat lunch right away.  The outside tables of the Stadtcafe beckoned to us.  Reading the menus is always a challenge.  At home we read several articles on understanding the menus and we even had little printouts of words on menus, but they can only help you so much.  Most of your ordering is guesswork.  Talking to your server, if possible, seems to help the most.  Even with this small problem, we had a relaxing lunch.   (Total expenditure for lunch was 74 DM for the four of us.)

   
Rathaus

   Soon after eating our lunch, we were off to see the local sites and shops.  We went into the Rathaus (Burg’s City Hall) and bought maps.  John had no luck asking questions of the clerk on duty, so we decided to come back at a later time.  After that, Tressie and I went shopping at the local shops, while John and Alan went to the Burg Church to check out the cemetery.  We had so much fun checking out the local souvenirs, postcards and cute stuff.  The clerks in the small stores generally speak very little English, but I found that if I can see the number on the cash register, then I could figure out what to pay.  They are very nice and helpful people and we had a pleasant time.  One nice saleswoman, after finding out that we had come from America, gave us a cloth Fehmarn shopping bag for free.  We were excited and happily went on our way.

 
Burg Church

  With the use of those handy Motorola Talkabouts (Family radios that work within a 2 mile range of each other) we called the guys and found them to be in the cemetery.  We met back at the church and wandered around the cemetery, while John finished taking his photos of the headstones.

 TRESSIE- “When Judy & I went to meet the guys at the cemetery, we went into the Burg Church first.  The outside natural light dimly lights the inside of the church, and it gives you a very old, almost mid-evil feeling.  You almost expect to see a pastor from the 1600’s come walking out to greet you.  You can feel the history hang in the air.  As we walked down the center aisle, I was able to touch the house marks on the end of the church pews.  This made the genealogy research that we do come to life for me.  Seeing the portraits on the epitaphs brought these people to life for me also.  This is the oldest building I have ever been in and it makes me wonder about all the people who have pasted through those doors that I just went through.” 

 After leaving the church, we found a local grocery store on the main street and did a little shopping before returning to our car.  Surprise, we had a parking ticket!  We tried to avoid this by using the parking tickets purchased at the automat machines.  But we must be doing something wrong.  Tomorrow, we’ll find out how to pay a ticket and possibly how to avoid this problem again.  

 We headed back to our rooms for a short nap and to re-organize.  Jet lag (and no sleep on the plane) was getting to us.  John fell asleep instantly and I also had no problem taking a short nap.  After freshening up, we all got in our little rental car, and drove off to find Petersdorf, where Alan’s ancestors are from.  We went to the “Johannis Kirche” and looked inside the beautiful church.  Tressie and John searched the cemetery for familiar names while Alan and I went to try to make a phone call in the yellow phone booth that we saw on the street outside the cemetery.

 This year we had better luck using the phones.  I dialed 0 800 2255 288 to access the AT & T operator.  Alan dialed 0 800 888 8000 to access the MCI Operator.  From there we just told the operator the phone number in America and how we wanted to pay.  This works fine, but be sure to find those yellow international phone booths.

  
Judy in Phone booth

 We ate dinner, at a small café near the church called Bauerstubchen.  The waitress was most helpful in assisting us with our choices and we had a pleasant meal.  Our dinner (for John and myself) was about 55 DM.

 After a small side trip to see Westermarkelsdorf, we returned to our room at Annie’s home.  Exhausted, John fell asleep with the use of those earplugs (that we had on the airplane) to block out his sister.  I sat up working on this article till nearly midnight with Tressie.  Luckily, my brother can sleep with the lights on!!

 TRESSIE- “While Judy and I were working on this article, Alan was writing in a new journal for this trip.  Alan is writing about the trip because he is so excited about being on the island where his grandfather was born.”

Click here to continue on to Wednesday 

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