After a nice breakfast downstairs in Mrs. Claussen-Mackaprang’s home, we went back to see the interior of the St. Nikolai Church at Burg. The church is about 5 blocks from our room, but could you believe….. we got lost just trying to find a parking spot? Driving is a bit hazardous, so pay attention to what you are doing.

Upon entering the Church at Burg, we were astonished by the beauty of the interior. John was excited about the house marks that adorn both sides of each pew. The house marks are a family crest that marked the pews, thus identifying those seats as belonging to that family. These pews were the original ones built back in the late1600’s. The interior was very elaborate and beautiful. On the walls, were ornately carved epitaphs, showing some of the pastors or other, early prominent citizens of the church. They were almost beyond describing. John showed me the baptismal font at the front of the church, which was from the year 1391. In the floor of the church, we found the graves of some of the early pastors and prominent church members. If you ever visit this charming island, you must see this church. All the churches are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, for the people to visit.

Organ in the back of St. Nikolai church in Burg

After taking some more photos of the exterior of the church, we were once again on our way. Driving is enjoyable if you can keep your sense of humor. We headed towards Landkirchen, but took a wrong turn and decided to find the town of Wulfen instead. We stopped on the side of the road and took a photo of the Fehmarn-Sund Bridge with the raps fields in the foreground. The yellow fields are still breathtaking, no matter how many times we see them.

St. Nikolai church in Burg and it's cemetery

The town of Wulfen is very charming. The towns are small by our standards and you drive through them in a matter of minutes. On the far side of the town is the seaside, so we parked the car and ventured down to the beach to see the view and take some more photos. The fresh air is perfumed by all the flowers in bloom. Located by the beach, we found a golf course and a camp ground.

Road to Wulfen

It’s now about 11 a.m., and we’re on the road again. Following the map is difficult. We look for signs to the towns to help tell what direction we are going, but this doesn’t always work. Sometimes we find we’re going in the wrong direction, so we change our destination, thus being flexible….. not lost!

Passing through Avendorf, we stopped in a small grocery store for a cold drink. The local stores are so interesting as the merchandise is so unusual to our eyes. We purchased some beer glasses, drinks, post cards, Fehmarn decals, snacks and a few other odd items and spent 74.48 DM.. We spoke with the woman at the cash register, as she spoke some English. We asked about some of the unusual signs, and then we were on our way again.

After driving through Mummendorf, we arrived in Landkirchen. We went directly to the St. Petri Church and went inside. This is the church, which John was most interested in, as our ancestors were the pastors from about 1600 to 1745. On the walls, are photos of some of the early pastors and John found our ancestor, Georgius Marquardt. He was so excited to find his portrait, he photographed it about 4 times. He wanted to insure that he gets a decent photo of the portrait. We also, found his gravesite in the floor of the church.

Portait of Georious Marquardt

The interior of this church is breathtaking. Built in 1385, the carvings and ornate interior just amazed us. The windows have beautiful stained glass, the carvings of angels, the large carving of Christ on the cross, elaborate statues, the portraits….. all of this is wonderful. The history of this church just hangs in the air, and we were so thrilled to view this beautiful church. Upon leaving the church, John walked around the cemetery grounds, and took a few more photos of gravesites.

interior view of St. Petri church in Landkirchen

At each church, they have some print outs about the church, post cards or brochures for sale for the small sum of a few DM’s. They have a box for you to deposit your coins on the honor system. We spent about 3-4 DM’s at each church that we went to during the course of the day. This church’s print outs were particularly useful, as they were the translations of all the epitaphs on the walls and this was most beneficial to John.

Travel tip #8- If you visit the island and drive around using a map, buy two maps. One to use, which will get destroyed in the process and another map to keep. Do this especially, if you plan to keep the map for your genealogy research.

Next stop…. The St. Johannis Church at Petersdorf. This church was built in 1250. Inside, of course, it was very ornate. The altar, from the year 1390, was roped off and a sign asked you to please keep off. It was quite beautiful with 2 rows of carved figures.

The alter in St. Johannis Church in Petersdorf

Once we were outside, we walked over to take scenic photos of the town of Petersdorf. We stopped in a local shop and asked where the Peter Wiepert Museum is. She showed us on a map where it is……. In Burg, right next to the Church! We’ve been walking past it for 2 days!

Town of Petersdorf

It’s about 12:30 p.m. and the shops close for a 2 hour lunch-break. We decided to get in the car, eat power bars (John) and cookies (me) and drive. John wants to see the Peter Wiepert Museum in Burg. So off we go, back to Burg.

We decided to stop for gas as our gas tank in our rental car was less that ½ full. We stopped at the Esso station, but couldn’t get the gas tank open. I figured out that there must be a button to open the tank cover, but being unfamiliar with the car, we could not find it. We asked a gentleman at the next pump to help us, and he found the button immediately! Once again the dumb Americans totally amaze and amuse the local natives. While John was asking for this help, I was rolling with laughter in the car! John pumped the gas at 1.71 DM for the super grade. Wow…… gas cost 56.35 DM for 32.97 liters…. I think!!!! We will never complain about the price of gas back home again.

We drove directly to Burg and parked the car next to the bicycle shop, which was once the childhood home of our great-grandmother about 100 years ago. John walked to the museum and I went into a children’s store. I promptly purchased 2 hair clips and a dress for Deanna, my granddaughter. I was starting to go into shopping withdrawals and this revived me! I was feeling better already. Unfortunately, John was not having as good luck as I was, as he found out that the museum doesn’t open until June 1^st, the day we are leaving from Hamburg.

Off and running again, reading maps as we drive…. passing through Niendorf on our way to Bannesdorf. We were constantly amazed at the sight of all these big, beautiful, white windmills. They look more like very large fans or propellers instead of the "old fashioned" windmills you see in books. Although, we did see one of those traditional windmills….. it was a restaurant!

The St. Johannis Church at Bannesdorf is the smallest of the four major churches on this island. Although it is less ornate, it is no less impressive. There are three large seating boxes for prominent church families, high up over the pews on the left side of the church. These are very interesting and beautiful to view. There are fewer epitaphs on the wall. The altar is more modest than the others, but the whole interior of the church is quite beautiful. (If you visit this church, please note that we found the front door locked, but could get inside through a side door at the backside of the building.)

Interior of St. Johannis Church in Bannesdorf

Outside the church, John proceeded to take more photos to help complete his virtual cemetery for his website. We noticed there are people in the cemeteries doing constant planting and care of the gravesites. This may be due to it being springtime, but the beauty of these personal little gardens for each grave impresses us. We have seen more new and beautiful flowers in the past threes days than we thought possible. The cemeteries are a delight to behold.

By 1:45 p.m., I was resting on a bench and John was still taking photos. A half-hour later, we were on our way to find the beach area. Instead, we ended up at the Puttgarden Port, and saw the ferry that goes to Denmark. John again took more photos. We were amazed at the large trucks and double-decker tour buses that were driving onto the ferry for the trip across the water. This is a very large ferry.

Ferry at Puttgarden port

We found the native German people to be very kind and patient towards us. We have asked many dumb questions and everyone has tried to help us. There, of course, is a language problem, but we encounter many people who can talk to us in broken English. We have learned some important German words, but my main problem is understanding their answer. Overall, the German people are very polite and helpful.

We tried to make a phone call from a phone booth at the port. Remember the time difference back home and make your calls in the late afternoon. Key word here is tried! The phones need a card inserted, but the instructions are in German, which doesn’t help us. The phone did not like our AT&T calling card. Totally frustrated and laughing (on my part), John gave up trying to call home.

Driving again, we finally found a beach on the northern side of the island, within site of the Puttgarden Port, after driving past the large farming estates of Mathaisfelde and Johannisberg. We walked down to the water and saw a swampy type beach area with few people. Then we noticed another beach area to our west, which appeared to be more populated. This beach had a small restaurant called the Grüner Brink Grill and many 2 seat beach chairs positioned on the sand, but back from the water. One particular odd thing about this beach, was the abundance of sheep grazing on a nearby dike. John walked down to the water, collecting rocks as he went. This beach has rocks in the sand, not seashells as we normally see at home. I was videotaping the scenery of the entire area, when John came back to me and said I must walk down to the water. He said I had to see this to believe it. Or maybe I should say, I must "smell" this to believe it. Along the water line on the shore, is some form of decaying matter, which smells incredibly bad. John thinks it might be decaying seaweed, but it smelled like sheep dung to me!

Beach at Grüner Brink near Puttgarden

The families on the beach did not seem to notice the strong odor. Past the shoreline, are sandbars, where the children were playing happily. We left the shoreline area immediately, but sat down to talk and eat a snack at the grill, spending only 6 DM.

So far, everything is very clean. Every public WC or Toilette, as they are called, has been spotless. There is very little litter on the streets and this all adds to the charm.

After leaving the beach area, we drove past the large farming estates of Krummensick and Seelust on the way to Gammendorf. Driving towards Dänschendorf, we stopped along the road and took photos of the spectacular "Wind Park" in the raps fields north of Lemkendorf. There were about 20 windmills in three rows, standing tall in this glorious field of yellow flowers. We’ve been told these windmills generate electricity for the island, at a high cost.

Windpark

By now it’s almost 4:30 p.m., after having seen Danschendorf, we drove through the villages of Wenkendorf and Altenteil. We ended up at the Markelsdorf lighthouse near Westermarkelsdorf. The lighthouse seems to be a private residence and did not appear to be open to the public. We took exterior shots and kept driving.

Markelsdorf lighthouse near Westermarkelsdorf

We were impressed with the slower, more rural existence of the Fehmarn people. In this area that we were driving in, are a lot of people who were riding bicycles and camping. We consider these small roads "in the middle of nowhere", but people are walking and riding bikes everywhere.

Passing through Schlagsdorf, we’re headed towards Petersdorf, again. After Lemkendorf, we found a cart in the raps fields selling products made from the raps and other local flowers. There were several varieties of honeys, candles from the bee’s wax-combs, soaps and many other items. We purchased the honey made from the raps flowers at 6.50 DM, spending 19.50 DM.

Judy in the Rapsfields

By now, it was about 4 p.m., and we headed back to Burg. John made me a promise on the drive back to our room…. that he would stop at another grocery store. I patiently drove all over this beautiful island, and I truly enjoyed this day, but every now and then I must shop! We stopped at the LIDL grocery store, and purchased more candies, canned water, smoked meats and other snacks. The strangest thing about this market was the shopping carts, which have the ability to roll forward and sideways at the same time. (We spent 34.32 DM.)

Travel tip #9- When visiting, don’t bring any snacks with you. Shop in their grocery stores and try the different foods and beverages that you find there. It’s quite an experience to try new things, and you will be pleasantly surprised by the choices. Remember to bring a bag, as they do not bag your grocery items and have no bags available for this purpose.

After returning to our room and resting for about an hour, we decided to walk to the Breite Strasse (which is a main road) and find a restaurant for dinner. About 5 blocks from our room, we found the Stadtcafe, which means city café. Tables were arranged outside, so we chose one and ordered dinner. By now, the air was cooling off and we were comfortable. John ordered a fish dinner and I had a breaded pork cutlet (Schnitzel). Both meals came with salads and fried potatoes. The food was excellent, as we have found everywhere. As we sat there and enjoyed our dinner, we notice the sky was turning dark…. but not from the setting sun! A storm was moving in fast. By the end of our meal, it had started to rain with lightening and thunder. We moved our plates to the tables under the awning, and waited for the rain to stop. We paid for our meal (50.50 DM), and ran back to our room in the rain.

Breite Strasse by the Stadt cafe

We showered, changed, worked on this report for a while and we were asleep by 10 p.m.

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