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Sleeping in till 6 am was just what we needed to catch up on our sleep. I think jet lag was setting in yesterday, but we feel refreshed now. When I got up, I immediately started working on this journal, while John fixed our breakfast. He's getting good at this!! Shortly after 8 a.m., while we were both working on our computers, we heard the doorbell ring. It was Mr. Johannes Detlef, whom we had met at the Burg City Archives yesterday. He was bringing the book to John that we had purchased yesterday. Gerd Hagenah wrote this book and he lives in Germany. Mr. Detlef gave John Mr Hagenah’s phone number, as he wanted to arrange a meeting today. We will call him when we go into town, as we have no telephone in our room. I quickly got dressed, as Mr. Detlef went back downstairs to retrieve another book from his car. He presented me with a cookbook written by his wife, Annekatrin Detlef, called "...eine Prise Ostseeluft". I love to cook and bake, so this was a wonderful gift. It has over 400 pages of handwritten local German recipes. Reading these recipes will certainly improve my German vocabulary. I can hardly put the book down, as John is telling me to finish my typing!!!! By 9:30 am, we are out the door and on our way to the weekly Burg Market in the town square. This morning is my time for some local shopping. I found this weekly market years ago, and always make sure that Wednesday morning is free of appointments so we can look around at the local items offered for sale, along with the various food items. We walked around the small booths and tables. Venders were selling flowers, fresh produce, fresh meat & eggs, candies, body lotions and creams, clothing and purses, hats, belts, kitchen items, all kinds of Fehmarn gift items, crafts items, tablecloths and lots of other things. John purchased a Fehmarn T-shirt and a hat. I found some candy and bought some T-shirts for my grandchildren in addition to a new Fehmarn T-shirt for myself.
John purchased a cold small-lobster type salad and went to eat it on a bench in the shade, while I shopped some more. I found my favorite booth and purchased several small tablecloths for my home. I enjoy the way the German people set their tables with these pretty embroidered tablecloths and when I use them in my home, it reminds me of my trips to the Island.
John went into Stolz's department store to buy some books and maps for this website's gift shop. I went into a local book store and found some Fehmarn 2004 Calendars with beautiful photos of local scenery..... also to sell in the gift shop! Be sure to check out The Fehmarn Gift Shop on this website and see all the new items we have found for your pleasure this year. Click here to enter the Fehmarn Gift Shop Before going back to our apartment, we went to the Deusche Bank, to use their Geldautomat (ATM) machine. This is by far the easiest way to get your Euros. Just put in your bankcard from home, and push the button for English instructions, and in less than a minute, you will have your cash in hand. It is very simple to use. We have seen these Geldautomats everywhere..... even in the small towns. When we took our packages back to the apartment, we found Achim Kühl working with the men from the local cable company. He told us he was putting cable TV in all the apartments. Tonight we would have to try it, as watching the local German stations does us no good because of our limited German.
Achim has very nice apartments for rent with bathrooms and little kitchens. He supplies the dishes, pots, utensils, toaster, coffee pot, alarm clock, TV and an out-door patio with table, chairs and umbrella. It's all very modern, clean and roomy enough to be very comfortable. Many homes in the area are set up to rent zimmers (rooms) to the vacationers who come to the island. We prefer this type of arrangement when we come to the island as we find it very comfortable and the location is very convenient for us. Here’s the link we use to contact Achim: http://www.kuehl-fehmarn.de/index2.html Driving back to the main street in Burg, we went to use the pay telephones to return phone calls of people who were trying to reach us. The first call was to Roy Harmon, who we tried to connect with last night with no luck. John found out that he had been at the Gasthof Bannesdorf for lunch and looked for us, and we were at that restaurant for dinner looking for him and his wife! After talking to Roy, John arranged to meet him at the Hotel Am-Wind again this evening, but unfortunately his wife would not be able to join us as she had slipped and injured her back. Our second phone call was to Gerd Hagenah, the author of the book that Mr. Detlef had brought over this morning. He is a Historian, and often works with Genealogists looking for their ancestors. They arraigned to meet at the Neustadt Archives tomorrow. He lives near there and it would be a convenient place to meet with John. We will certainly have a wonderfully busy day on Thursday. After making the phone calls, we decided to go out to lunch. There is a bakery that serves hot and cold lunches with a small number of tables in the rear where we could eat. We have eaten there on previous years, and found the food to be good and inexpensive. John got the bratwurst and I got the hackenbracs (like a small meatloaf-ball) along with the boiled potatoes and the kraut-salat. At only 11 Euros, it was all very tasty and made a quick lunch. Before leaving the Burg main street, we walked back to the Open-air Market and purchased some flowering plants. We went back to our room and walked across the street for a visit with our friend, Annie Claussen-Mackaprang with our gift of a flowering plant. In 3 previous years, she rented us a room in her home. Last year, she was full of renters, so we now rent from her neighbor. It was so nice to see Annie, and visit with her. We told her how busy we were on this trip, and she talked of her recent trip to South Africa. At this point, her friend, Valerie, from South Africa, who is visiting Annie, came back to the house from a walk to the Market. After looking at the beautiful photographs from their mutual vacation in South Africa, we had to be on our way.
Shortly after our visit to Anne, we jumped in our car and wanted to drive to the Burg City Cemetery, but incredibly, we got a little lost looking for it. We ended up at the port city of Burgstaaken instead. While there we took a few more photos of the boats and port area and purchased some fresh cherries at the local produce stand.
Back in the car, John remembered that the City Cemetery was on Sahrendorfer Straße, so we drove there in a very long, round-about way....... and finally found it. I think this is the only place on the Island that John just can't find each year! This being the largest cemetery on the Island, we were there for about an hour taking our photographs.
Back again to our room, we rested for about an hour before heading off to Großenbrode on the main land. We had an appointment to meet with Mr. Harmon for dinner. After a short stop at the Großenbrode Cemetery to take just a few more photos, we arrived at the Hotel Am-Wind just before 6 pm as arranged. This time, all went as planned. We met Roy Harmon and his German friend, Jörg Strohbehn. Roy’s wife would not be joining us due to her accident. After the introductions, they joined us in our car and we drove to a very charming, local restaurant called Alter Krug. Roy showed us the interior of this restaurant, and we found small charming dining rooms that were decorated beautifully with teapots, china dishes, flowers and lovely tablecloths. The men decided to sit at a table outside on the front patio, as the weather was cool and pleasant. The exterior of the restaurant is decorated with spring flowers in large pots on the ground and it has many hanging pots as most restaurants do at this time of year.
Roy had explained to John that last year, he had received a report on his Treimer family history and was very appreciative to have received so much information on his family that came from the Island of Fehmarn. It was his Great-Great Grandfather Treimer, who had owned what is now known at the Gasthof Bannesdorf. That is why we tried to meet there yesterday. Roy spoke of his visit to this Hotel and Restaurant and told us he met with the currant owners, the Meetz family. They were interested in the history of the place and showed him several pictures of it in previous times. Roy gave them a picture of his Great-Great Grandfather for their collection and he told us they were very happy to have it. As we sat at our table, we all talked of Family, past and present and found out that Roy is retired for the past 7 years. He and his wife are in Germany for about 3 weeks and will be leaving this area tomorrow. Roy is well traveled as his job as a consultant in the Manufacturing field led him to many parts of the world. Since his retirement, he continues to travel with his family and told us many interesting stories of these travels. The conversation soon turned to some of the misadventures we have had in Germany over the last 4 trips, and some of the things we have learned. Roy told us several funny stories of his past travels. We were all having a very good time. When I asked Jörg if he had ever traveled to America, he told me he had. He spoke kindly of his travels and said he particularly enjoyed seeing our National Parks. I asked if he found anything odd with the local customs, as we often do. We all agreed that the water, or lack of it was odd to both of us. Jörg found it very odd to sit down at a restaurant and be served a large glass of ice water when you didn't order it. We find it odd to never get water, and when you do, it is warm and it is carbonated! There are always different customs in different places, but you must not let them upset you. They are all just part of this fun learning experience we call travel. We were very delighted with Roy's choice of the Alter Krug Restaurant. Jörg helped me read the menu, so I had a better idea of what I was ordering for dinner. John, Roy and Jörg all had the scholle fish (flounder), a local fish that John finds very tasty, so he eats it often when on the Island. I had a wonderful meal of 3 pork medallions wrapped in bacon, noodles with a mild Gorgonzola cheese sauce and fresh broccoli. The food and the service were excellent. After much pleasant conversation over a fine meal, we left the restaurant for the short drive back to the Hotel Am-Wind. Meeting Roy Harmon and his friend, Jörg, was a very nice experience for John and myself. We always enjoy meeting other family historians who are helped thru this web site. After saying our good-byes to our new friends, we were on our way back to the room.
Tomorrow..... Neustadt Archives
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