Long Island Sound

Our flight to New York went smoothly, and having done this a couple times now, we were especially impressed by the quick and efficient automated check-in service for international travelers on SwissAir, AND - surprisingly - the amazingly quick processing through customs at JFK airport. Having been exhausted by these processes in the past, it was a real pleasure that everything went so smoothly.

And then there came cousin Carol and husband Greg to pick us up - which was really nice and very appreciated.  They made us a great dinner on the grill and we managed to hold our heads up for a little while of conversation before passing out from our travels.  For whatever reason, the jet lag is less for me coming in this direction, but it still takes awhile to adjust.  I woke up at 4 a.m. ready to go!

Everybody here is busy with their jobs today, so cousin kindly leant us a car and we drove 20 minutes up the road to the Sunken Meadow State Park on the Long Island Sound.  Wow.  A little beach is the one thing we had missed on our European travels, and here we are!  Really lovely.

See also http://nysparks.com/parks/37/details.aspx.

I have to say it's a really terrific way to re-enter by having the vacation linger just a little bit longer.  Tomorrow we'll get a little more visiting time with cousin and then be heading home....

Zurich - Part 2

Yesterday was all about strolling.  As you go away from the water, Zurich becomes quite naturally hilly - let's just use the word Steep!  No need for a bike.  So I just started to wander.  I crossed the bridge and started going up until I got to a lovely park that overlooked the city.  The part I liked best was the big chess boards in the park:

Totally great.  Then I crossed back over the bridge and wandered up the other side, and for some reason I decided to go into the Grossmunster Church which like all things European dates from a period of 1100 to 1230.  At this point in the trip, I have lost track of the old churches I've seen, and meaning NO disrespect whatever, they start to look a bit the same after awhile - at least to me.  Which is why I say I'm not sure what inspired me to wander into this one.  I'm so happy that I did because it presented me with a completely unexpected surprise.

The long history of this church includes a concerted effort to make the building a presentation of stained glass art.  What's stunning is that the windows have been periodically updated over time, and the latest display was designed, installed, and dedicated by Sigmar Polke in 2009 (he has since died in 2010).  The windows are at once contemporary while still incorporating the medieval stories that belong to the Old Testament of the Christian faith.  I could go on and on about all that, but here is the stunning part for me.  All of the west windows of the church are filled with sliced agate, held together with the traditional lead caming used in the old ways of making stained glass windows.  The sliced agates are especially meaningful to me because my maternal grandfather also made sliced agates, and in fact had created a light box which I inherited and restored and which sits in my living room at home.  But I have never seen sliced agates anywhere other than from my grandfather.  But here they are in a Zurich church, and curiously sliced stone (usually alabaster) was commonly used in the Middle Ages to fill window aperatures.

Here then is a picture of one of the windows:

So for obvious reasons, I loved this church because it brought yet another unexpected connection to my family history.

The evening was spent listening to a public lecture about the Klimapause at the university of Zurich where Clara's conference is.  We had a fine meal and came back to our room to watch the Swiss team lose to the French in the World Cup.  

I'm not sure there will be time for another post from Zurich, but will update when I can.  This afternoon we are going on a hike when Clara finishes her conference, and then a friend of ours who lives in Zurich has invited us for dinner.  We feel pretty lucky to have so much personal interaction with locals all along the way in this trip.

Zurich - Part 1

Zurich pictures:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=DB80BEE8046DF606!737&authkey=!AO7YfxkKprTX7cM&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

The trip to Zurich was uneventful, even though arriving in a big central train station was slightly disorienting for me, I finally found how to pay for the tram and make my way to the hotel, where Clara met me as I disembarked.  Our hotel room is quite lovely - the conference spared no expense for its speakers, of which Clara is one.  We even have what is mostly unheard of in Europe:  air conditioning!  Not that we have needed it much - the weather has been in the 70s every day with wonderful breezes coming from the water.  Lovely.

So while Clara is off "working", I discovered that Zurich offers free bicycles which I quickly took advantage of.  After a couple weeks of alternating between walking, sitting, and eating, I am thrilled to do some biking.  I went along both sides of Zurichsee (Lake Zurich) yesterday - which was lovely as there are parks and gardens and statues all along the way.  I even stopped for a bratwurst for lunch and sat watching the swans and ducks for over an hour.  It felt so good to have nowhere in particular to go and sit down to just enjoy the day.

Just to be clear, however, I only biked a very small part of the lake.  Once you see the size of the lake, you'll probably understand why.  The following map shows the lake with Zurich located at the top (upper-left)

At the end of the day, Clara came back and we got dressed up to attend a banquet that was being put on by the conference.  I have to say that it was Hands Down the most wonderful meal I've ever had.  There were easily a couple hundred people there - scientists young and old from around the world - many of whom I have met by this point and so it was nice to see a few familiar faces.  It was an all-around interesting and enjoyable first day in Zurich!

Storks

I forgot to mention the proliferation of stork memorabilia in Strasbourg, and then the actual sighting of live storks in Freistett yesterday.  Here is a link that tells a little about them:

http://www.butterfield.com/blog/2013/10/24/white-alsace-storks/

Freistett

Freistett pictures here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=DB80BEE8046DF606!735&authkey=!AGzTfpVt42R6n94&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

Clara left this morning for Zurich to start her conference there, while I hopped a train across the river to Kehl where I was picked up by the kind archivist from Rheinau who I have been corresponding with the past couple years.  Off we headed for Freistett, which is the home of the Sommer family, the maternal side of our Mann relations.

First we stopped at the archives where Herr Wacker works and looked at the old church books where several of the vital records have been found that pertain to our Sommer family.  It's exciting to see and touch the old books with records that go back to the 1600s, and to have Herr Wacker's help in translating what they say.  I had been making a pretty good guess about what they said, but now it's fun to find out for sure.

Then we went on a walking tour of the village, and the first thing I learned is that the Rhine River in this area meandered all over the place, and in fact that water once came up to what is now referred to as "upper" Freistett.  But then the river was "corrected" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Tulla), which resulted in the river actually becoming shorter by 50 km, but also this correction produced more very rich farmland.  There's not much that won't grow well here, but the crops that stand out in my mind are tobacco and flax (today there is lots of corn as we'd see in Iowa or Nebraska).  In addition, there are even today over 3000 islands in the Rhine, and these were where villagers fled and lived during the worst parts of the many wars suffered in these areas.  It's hard to imagine living in the woods on a river island with no house or food, especially in winter.  Eventually they would creep out and start to rebuild their houses and villages, and then the next wave of soldiers would come and burn it all down again.  It was not an easy time for this area in particular.

Above is a picture from the local museum that Herr Wacker helps to run.  The dress of this couple shows a married couple because they are dressed in black (!) - unmarried people were allowed to wear more colorful things.  Also the woman is wearing a Kappenschlupf which is entirely unique to this area of Germany.  This was worn by all women (young and old) and the color of the beading on the skull cap would indicate whether single, married, or widow.  All so interesting!

We had a quick lunch, and then (unexpectedly!), Herr Wacker took me on a driving tour of the Black Forest.  Like at home, the air is cooler in the hills and the views of the Rhine Valley are magnificent.  He then dropped me at the Kehl station, and now I am back in Strasbourg resting up before another day of travel tomorrow.

So this should wrap up the "family history tour" for this trip.  I still can't quite believe everything I have experienced in the last week or so - it seems like a dream half the time, one that I hope to revisit again soon.

Strasbourg

Strasbourg pictures:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=DB80BEE8046DF606!708&authkey=!ADy4oPiElw17X5c&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

Saturday was our day to relax.  We did some hiking in the area, which is just so scenic and lush - very enjoyable.  Then we went to Pia's house to enjoy waffles with cherries and whipped cream (!).  Pia has a wonderful garden with chickens, and two very smart Australian Shepherds that she has trained to do some amazing tricks!

Then we had a simple and wonderful last meal with Trudel.  She served Spiegelei, which is fried eggs over ham and toast.  We were all laughing because Spiegelei literally means "mirror eyes" which is what the eggs look like when they're sitting on your plate.

So we went to bed early, and we didn't even hear that one of Trudel's neighbors came over to tell about hearing a story about one of the Schaefer's in my family being involved in a local "wonder" (miracle).  The surprises just keep coming.  Of course Trudel and I are both curious to see what this one is about, so I will post on my research website if we figure anything out.

The next morning, we sadly left our kind hosts and took the train from Koblenz to Karlsruhe, and then a bus into Strasbourg.  We found our hotel in no time and immediately started walking around the city.  Of course we had arrived on a Sunday, so many things were not open.  But we were in the vicinity of the magnificent cathedral when the bells started ringing - they must have gone on for 20 minutes - it was just staggering to hear them and be so close - all we could do was stand there and quietly stare.

We managed to find a little grocery store and bought some bread and cheese and ate in our room which has a small kitchen, so that worked fine.  Yesterday, we went back to the cathedral to learn all about the rather amazing astronomical clock they have inside.  And while there, Iit two candles, one for g-grandmother Marie Grimm Klein, and the other for her mother Pauline - both of whom came to New York from Strasbourg.

The rest of the day was quite pleasant.  We had a fabulous lunch in the local square where there were few tourists, and we walked from one end to the other exploring different areas of the city.  It was lovely, although honestly we were missing the quiet beauty of Udenhausen....

That said, the city did get pretty quiet last evening when the World Cup game started - Germany vs. Portugal, which I understand was one by Germany.  The World Cup is a very big deal here - everybody is following very closely!  And we are just as happy to be mostly oblivious to anything but each day's adventure.

Schaefer Reunion

Pictures from Alken:

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Pictures from Udenhausen:

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Friday was a big day on the "program" as several arrangements had been made to meet with living relations of my Schaefer family, but I think the patience of Frau Trudel was indeed tested that day.  First we had a misunderstanding with her about what time we were going to leave, so we weren't ready (not good), and then the workers who were supposed to come fix her driveway for over a year suddenly appeared.  Poor Trudel was beside herself!  But we all stayed calm and reassured her all was ok, and the day unfolded just right.

So by early afternoon, we had driven to the "Moselle side" (Udenhausen sits at the top of the hills between Rhine on east and the Moselle River on the west), and we took a small hike around an old castle on the hill overlooking the river and had a nice picnic lunch.  Then we drove into the town of Alken where we met Walter (pronounced VALter) and Pia, who are - roughly speaking - my third cousins.  Here is a very simple explanation of our relationship:

Johannes Schafer and Margareta Gipp:

   Paul Schaefer - remained in Germany

   Peter Schaefer - our relation who went to America

I am the gg-grandaughter of Peter, and Walter and Pia are the gg-grandchildren of Paul.  Both are a bit younger (born 1960s), and both speak good English whereas nobody else we were to meet could, so I'm sure the younger Schaefer's were sent ahead as the ambassadors!  Walter has just been re-elected as the mayor of Alken and is a bit of a history buff so he gave us a great walking tour of the village explaining its history all along the way.  Then we went to visit St. Michael's, built some time before 1015, which was opened just for our visit.  To our great surprise, as we came in, there were Rosa and Leo Escher - Rosa being the one who was born a Schaefer, and who had written to America after the War to inquire after Schaefer relations there only to get no reply.  Rosa can speak not a word of English, but she was clearly happy to meet me/us.  We finished touring the old church and then continued our walking tour into one of the old towers of the wall that had once surrounded the village.  Rosa and Leo came along the whole way - it was great.  Finally we ended up at Rosa's house where she served apricot cake with sour cream frosting, a strudel, and strawberries - all of which were wonderfully good.

So next Walter and Pia took us to tour the Castle Thurant which found Walter, Clara, and me climbing to the top of the tower for the best view down to the River Moselle - fantastic.  Then we all parted ways with plans to meet again later for a "family dinner" that would include even more Schaefer relations.

Thus we made our way back to Udenhausen for a little time to recharge, and then headed for the Udenhausen Museum which was founded by Trudel's sister Barbara.  As we arrived, there was a lovely sign in front welcoming the visitors from America.  And right on time, here came the other Schaefer relations:  Klaus who is a working farmer in the area and who brought his young son Johannes, and Franz who came from a place called Rhens, both being first cousins to Rosa.  A big dining table had been set up in the museum, and Barbara had prepared a feast.  I sat next to Walter in hopes of getting the occasional translation of all the conversation going on - and certainly there were some stories being told that I don't think I half understood.  But Franz and Klaus and Rosa had all brought some old pictures of their families, so that was exciting to see and share.

After dinner, we took a great tour of the museum and had more fun conversations looking at all the old things that once were part of everyday life in Udenhausen.  Then as the evening wore down, we posed for our new family photo outside the museum.  Rosa had found an old chalkboard and wrote in big letters the Schafer name in the old German script that she had learned to write as a girl, and her daughter Pia is holding that sign in our German Schaefer family photo.  

All in all, this was a very special day for me personally and for our family's history.  Before this day, Rosa had lost touch with her cousins, and certainly everybody in Germany had lost track of those who came to America.  Not only did I never dream there was such a place as Udenhausen, I never imagined there would be people who still belong to this place to offer us such a fantastic welcome.  Walter and Pia have been invited to Boulder, and they both seem excited to accept the offer.  I think in 2015, we might be hosting a reunion in America!

Koblenz

Pictures from Koblenz here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=DB80BEE8046DF606!561&authkey=!AJ9c3HZ4KQc-xyQ&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

We soon discovered that our German hosts had a very well thought-out "program" put together for us, so even though they had told us that we could sleep as long as we wanted, it quickly became obvious that we should get ourselves moving to meet even half the plans they had for us!

So off we went to Koblenz which is about 20 minutes north of the where they live.  We walked along the river and visited the monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I who was the King of Prussia at the time our Peter Schaefer emigrated to America.  The statue is located where the Rhine and the Mosel Rivers converge and it's really quite a site.

From there we took the cable cars across the river.  The cable cars themselves are a fantastic way to cross the river, but they are supposed to be only temporary as a means of accessing an international garden show which was recently being shown on the other side.  Technicially nothing as modern as a bridge or cable cars are allowed if the area wants to keep its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We'll see what happens - the cable cars are popular and people want them to stay.

So where do the cable cars go?  To the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenbreitstein_Fortress).  The truth is that we didn't spend a heck of a lot of time IN the fortress because they had a great place from the top where you could have lunch and the views were fantastic.  Eventually we returned back across the river to walk in the old parts of Koblenz.  Some of the churches there were quite lovely.  One of my favorite attractions was the Schangelbrunnen, better known as the spitting boy fountain.

So even though there were more sites to see, we decided it was enough for one day and returned to Udenhausen to clean up before heading off to a fabulous local favorite restaurant in Winningen. This area is known for some of the finest wine in Europe - every square inch of the mountainsides in every direction are growing grapes.  It's also known for having die Weinhex - the wine witches, which supposedly cast their special charms to protect the crops from evil.  All of which confuses that heck out of me since this region as well as many other areas of Germany routinely burned women at the stake for being witches.  Trudel said the story has been changed for commercial benefit now - of course.

Well, the dinner was one of the best ever, and the cook - an ancient and jovial big German man came out to shake everybody's hand and chat for awhile.  We were very full in more ways than one.

Woelfersheim to Boppard

Rhine River Pictures here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=8B79A2F6DD2491D0!5379&authkey=!AMQEHtbNeFXdIzI&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

Boppard Pictures here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=8B79A2F6DD2491D0!5451&authkey=!AKy-6sZgV1jB064&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

I know, I know!  I am way behind in telling our travels, but internet connection and time have been something that belong to some other dimension than the one I have been living in the past few days!  So I will do my best to start filling in what I can.

This post will describe our journey from Woelfersheim to Boppard.  When we woke up on Wed. morning, the sky was an ominous black and then the downpour let loose.  So MUCH rain pouring and pouring.  There is a good reason that area is known as the Wetterau.  Well, we were torn, because there had been some terrible storms in Dusseldorf the night before where some people had even been killed, and from what we could tell of the forecast, there might be bad weather where we were going too.  Add to our limited internet, we had also found that the cell phones we acquired for use in Europe don't work, so I could not call our host in Boppard to inquire if it was still a good plan for us to come by way of boat on the Rhine.  So after breakfast, we just decided to go for it - meaning, stick to the original plan, which was take the train to Rudesheim, and then the boat up the Rhine to Boppard.

Well, as soon as we decided that, the weather started to clear.  The hotel manager kindly gave us a ride to Friedberg since EVERYbody told it was a bad idea to the take the bus.  The switch of trains in Frankfurt went aok, and before we knew it, we were in the wonderful village of Rudesheim on the Rhine with sunny skies. 

The ride up the Rhine took about 2.5 hours and it was just wonderful.  It reminded me a lot of the riverboat trip I took with my mom a few years ago, only this time there were old castles and churches and villages all dating from something like 1200.  The boat provided some explanations while the rest of the time I was madly reading my guide book.  I will try to provide a link to some pictures once I get to Zurich so you can see a little of how wonderful it truly is!

So then we got to Boppard, and there we met Trudel and Wilfried (these people are not related to us, but they are now easily friends for life!) who were our kind hosts over the last 4 days.  They bought us some ice cream and then took us on a walking tour of Boppard - a wonderful little village.  Then we hopped in the car and headed up the high hills to some overlooks of the Rhine we had just traveled - the views were magnificent!  While hiking between one overlook and another, we ran across a man who was just closing up camp from a long weekend of making charcoal, of all things!  He was happy to speak in English and explain everything about the process, which was quite fascinating.  Who knew?

Finally we got back to Trudel's house in Udenhausen, the village where the Schaefer emigrant ancestor lived before coming to America.  Trudel and Wilfried have a lovely house that overlooks open fields to the west.  They had meat marinating and soon on the grill, and there we were having dinner on the deck as the sun was setting over the fields.  Trudel and Wilfried were so nicely attempting all their communication in English, but suffice it to say that we were all using our little dictionaries quite often.  So even though our communication might have been halting here and there, we got along just fine and had some good laughs at some of our misunderstandings!

So this ended day 1 in Udenhausen.  More description to come soon.

Soedel-Woelfersheim

See pictures here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=8B79A2F6DD2491D0!5326&authkey=!AND6nYBh2QbNp7Y&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

The last 48 hours are a blur - mostly because of jet lag, I'm sure - but also because so much has been happening all at once!

First, it was a little stressful, right out of the gate because both our planes were delayed - Clara's more-so than mine since her plane was diverted because of tornado warnings going on in Denver.  So rather than us arriving in Frankfurt within 30 minutes of each other, Clara arrived 4 hours after me - but arrive she did!

And what miracle, but the author of the Soedel Familenbuch had agreed to come meet us, and there he was with smiles and hugs for us both!  It was something.  So off we go, traveling part of the way on the Autobahn at 140 mph, and Herr Meyer laughing 'you can't do this in America' while we agreed with our eyes closed!  But then we got off the main drag and headed toward Woelfersheim, getting the most wonderful descriptions of the landscape as we went.  Woelfersheim is in the county (kreig?) of Wetterau, so named because of its lushness - some of the most fertile land in all Germany is here.  It reminded me a lot of Iowa, except there are low mountains on every horizon, and not a single of these lush farms is irrigated.  We also found out that this area is well known for its production of roses.  In fact, later in June will be the annual Rosenfest, and indeed we passed a field completely filled with many colors of roses.  Beautiful!

Herr Meyer then took us for a driving tour of the area, which was wonderful, but then he started to realize that none of the restaurants he wanted to recommend were open because we have arrived on on a big holiday in Germany called Pfingsten (Pentacost) - and of course this is something we had no idea about!  So Herr Meyer took us home to meet his surprised wife, and after being served strawberries and ice cream, we all went first to the church to get our pictures taken with the representative from the mayor's office who presented me with a gift of a beautiful ceramic jug for Apfelwein (apple wine) - it's just beautiful.  Then we went to the White Tower in Soedel which Herr Meyer has the key to because he is the local tour guide.  Something I never imagined about Soedel is that it has the remnants of a wall and 4 towers that were used in the town's defense.  When I asked who they were defending themselves from, he said "the neighbors".  Apparently neighboring villages would come to steal each other's riches, although it doesn't sound like there was any killing going on.  So the wall was, I guess, the first fence between neighbors !?

We did manage to find a local pizzeria and we all enjoyed dinner together before they dropped us at our hotel, and we were asleep probably even before our heads hit the pillow.  End of Day 1!

Day 2 starts by having a very lovely continental breakfast in the hotel, and then meeting Herr Riess, who is the other author of local history books who has taken over for showing us around since Herr Meyer was leaving for a vacation in Bavaria and Greece!  So Herr Riess made arrangements with the caretaker of the Soedel church to let us in.  This church, built in 1450 (?), has been so painstakingly cared for and the parts of it that have failed along the way have been completely restored.  They have even saved some of the wall paintngs, one being a depiction of tulips, which held high monetary value in early Europe.  We got to see every nook and cranny, including climbing up the inside of the bell tower - it was awesome!  

We then spent some time at the residence of the pastor who is the keeper of all the original church books.  Herr Riess and I looked them over for several hours, and then we needed some walking, so he dropped us at the Jewish cemetery, which was small but interesting.

After a little afternoon rest, we visited Herr Riess at his home and had watermelon in his lovely garden.  He then took us for a tour of the Evangelisch church in Woelfersheim, which had to be "bigger and better" because of the competition between the two villages.  Nevertheless, Herr Riess says that he today attends the church in Soedel because of all the friendly people there.

So we ended our day having dinner in the hotel - but we had a local specialty - Spragel or white asparagus.  It was incredibly good served wrapped in ham, a potato on the side, and hollandaise sauce poured over all.  Now we are falling asleep at the table, and headed to bed before the next day of travels.

Internet has not been great - hopefully it will be better at our next destination.  More soon!

The Schedule

Generally, here is our travel schedule:

• June 8:  fly to Frankfurt
• June 9-10:  Woelfersheim and Soedel, home of the Mann family
• June 11-14:  Boppard, home of the Schaefer family
• June 15-18:  Strasbourg and Freistett, home of the Klein and Sommer families
• June 19-22:  Zurich, no known relations
• June 23-25:  Long Island, NY, home of Schaefer cousin

At the very least, this blog will tell about our adventures.  I'll do my best to upload some pix as I go, but I'm not nearly as slick as my world-traveling niece, Rachel, whose travel blog was awesome.  But hopefully with mine, you'll get the drift.