The sun comes up about 4:30 a.m. each day, so John was up by 5 a.m. I slept in until 6 a.m.!! We proceeded to pack our belongings and straighten up the room.

Travel tip #12 - Something you must have when traveling to Germany is a Foreign Voltage Adapter. Emerson manufactured the one that worked for us. John also purchased a travel converter from Radio Shack, which did not work. Luckily we had 2 types with us and one of them worked fine. This was invaluable to us, as we used it for the computer, my curling iron, hair dryer and to recharge the video camera battery.

After breakfast, we loaded the car and bid farewell to Mrs. Claussen-Mackaprang. We cannot thank her enough for her hospitality. The room was comfortable, clean and convenient to the center of Burg. We were charged 70 DM a day, which included breakfast, for a total expenditure of 350 DM. Besides being a bargain, we got to experience a part of Germany we would never have seen by staying in a hotel. For this unique opportunity, we sincerely thank Mrs. Claussen-Mackaprang.

We found out that the Volksbank in Burg opens at 8:30, so we made that our first stop. We exchanged our American Express (US Dollar) travelers checks, for Deutschmark’s, and found out the exchange rate was better than at home. Keep your passport handy for identification and be prepared for a small service charge of 10 to 15 DM.

Travel Tip #13- Before the trip, we exchanged our US currency for DM (Deutschmarks) through American Express. If you have an Amex Card, call them and you can do this transaction over the phone, with no service charge. They mail the money to you. We also purchased some Traveler’s checks in US and German currency. Later, we found the traveler’s checks to be of no use to us. Possibly, because we were visiting a more rural area, no shops wanted any credit cards or the traveler’s checks. If you visit Fehmarn, bring cash. John suggests, if you order anything for your genealogy research from another country, exchange your money through Amex and pay that way.

After the bank, we went to the bookstore just around the corner. John was looking for certain books about Fehmarn, but had no luck. We had similar bad luck at the local store where Mrs. Claussen-Mackaprang said I could purchase the lace curtains. The store was open, and I found the lace curtains, but the woman behind the counter did not speak a word of English. Through signs and drawing on paper, I finally understood that you could order the size curtain that you needed from the samples on display, they would make it and send it by UPS, but not to America! I could see them, I could touch them, but I couldn’t buy them!

One last trip to the Aldi Market to pick up a few of the items we found interesting, and we were out of town. (Snack sausages for 3.99 each and sugar substitute for 1.99 each, for a total of 31.89 DM)

Travel tip #14- U.S. Customs will not allow you to bring the meat products into the United States. John was chosen for a random search, and lost the sausage!

On the way out of town, we noticed that the blooms in the raps fields were fading. The fields were no longer a brilliant, solid yellow. They were more yellowish green. We were amazed at the difference in the color. We must have picked the prettiest time of the year to visit Fehmarn! The farther outside of Burg, the less raps we noticed. Some fields hardly had any yellow flowers in bloom. Can you believe our luck?

We got on the Autobahn and headed towards Lübeck. Our plan was to find the Airport in Hamburg, find a hotel in the vicinity of the airport and then go sightseeing. When we got near Hamburg, John went to the left when he should have gone to the right. He got off at the wrong exit, which immediately confused us. We each looked at different Hamburg maps and realized we were lost again. John kept trying to find the street names on his city map and I was looking for highway numbers on my map. We didn’t even know which direction we were going in. Suddenly a man in a uniform directed us to turn into this side road. He was the Politzi, with a radar gun!….. and we were about to get a speeding ticket. We had maps everywhere and thank goodness he took pity on the confused dumb Americans who were trying to find the Hamburg Airport.

Instead of a ticket, he gave us directions to the Ring 2 and told us to slow down. We found this road, but ended up on the Autobahn again, going back to Lübeck. We immediately got off at the next exit and we were lost again. Now you know why we were looking for the Airport the day before we were leaving town!

I convinced John to stop at a hotel (that we had passed before) and ask for directions. We went up the desk, and the young man spoke a little English. We showed him our maps and asked him to tell us where we were. He showed us on the map, how to get to the airport….. just stay on the Ring 2! Look for the signs with an airplane on them and follow the arrows. Sounds simple doesn’t it?

After being lost for a total of about 2 hours, tearing up the Hamburg map, and lots of laughing…. We finally found the Airport. At the entrance, among lots of road construction is the Airlines Hotel. John went in, and reserved a room, which would be ready in about an hour. Amazingly, they will take a credit card! The rate for a double room for one night is 202 DM, and John says that includes breakfast.

It was about 1 p.m., and we decided to go to lunch. The desk clerk recommended their larger sister hotel, down the road. We had lunch at the Concord Restaurant and we each had the luncheon buffet at 51 DM each. With a tip, the total came to 122.40 DM. This was a most beautiful restaurant with very attentive service. We helped ourselves to the salad buffet, the main course buffet and then to the desert bar. As a main meal, we had pork loin with a sauce, potato augratin, and mixed fresh vegetables. Fresh rolls and drinks were served at the table. The food was excellent.

Amazingly, we found the Airlines hotel again after being lost for only about 10 minutes. No street ever goes straight, the street names are a mile long and nothing ever matches on the map! We finally got a room, and unloaded the luggage. John let me rest for about 10 minutes, before he wanted to go out again. This time it was my turn to make a fool of myself at the hotel desk. I went back to the girl at the desk, with map in hand, to find out how to find the "Alt Stadt"; the old city center. She gave me directions and we were on our way.

We found this shopping area in the old city center (around 3 p.m.) without too much trouble. Parking is difficult, but John managed to squeeze our rented VW Golf into a space that was the same size as the car. Parking in this area cost 4 DM for one hour, and would only allow 1 hour. After 1 hour, we came back and got another parking ticket from the auto-mat machine for another hour. After certain times, such as 7 p.m., the parking is free.

First stop was a Bakery for a few pastries to snack on later. I’m going to miss Germany’s marvelous pastries. Walking down the street, the sights are so different from the small town of Burg. There were lots of big, old and new buildings, much more traffic and lots more people. We found the St. Petri Church and went inside. It was big, but not at beautiful as the Fehmarn Churches. We tried to find the church where our Grandmother was married, as she was born in Hamburg. We had no luck and not much time to find it. We went inside a very ornate and impressive building called the Rathaus, which is the city hall. The lobby is set up with historical displays for the public to view. This was a most beautiful building, inside and out.

Rathaus in Hamburg

Now, we had a mission. I had promised to bring a German beer stein to my husband as a souvenir of my trip. I had no luck finding this on Fehmarn, and John assured me that we would find one in Hamburg. The time was now! I asked a clerk in a small liquor-grocery store where I might purchase a beer stein. She told me to go around the corner to Karstadt’s and ask in there. Wow!!! This was the mother of all department stores. I had died and gone to shopping heaven! This store had everything. We walked into the store and found fine glassware of every kind. When we asked a clerk where we might find beer steins, she directed us to the 5^th floor in the other building across the street. This store was so big, it had 7 floors in 2 buildings, connected by cross walks on most of the floors! In this store was a deli, bakery, a pet store, a cyberbar in the computer area, a cafeteria, a very large gourmet grocery market, and every type of merchandise you can imagine. This was a whole shopping mall within one store!

We found a good selection of beer steins, and purchased one for my husband, Ken. (59.95 DM). We decided to wander through the store for a while, before going to their cafeteria-style restaurant for a light dinner. I found the housewares department and purchased a small set of lace curtains marked down to 9.95 DM. Soon after, we found the gourmet market and I just had to walk around this incredible grocery store. They had

the most beautiful displays of all types of food and deli cases, cheeses, meat market, fish market, and specialty food items that you could imagine. This food market within this large department store would even put our grocery stores to shame.

After eating in their cafeteria restaurant, at a cost of 17.35 DM, we started to leave the store. John was exhausted and wanted to head back to the room. By now, it was almost 7 p.m. We got back to the room, after making only one wrong turn. In the room is a TV and John watched an American sit-com, with the actors voices dubbed over with German. He also found a German game show and CNN world news in English for a while. By 8 p.m. he was dozing off from exhaustion and I was still working on this report on the computer. The sun finally set and it began getting dark at 10 p.m. With the windows closed, you can’t hear the airplanes taking off at the airport. By 11 p.m., we were asleep and eager to go home tomorrow.

Travel tip #15- Homes, hotels and shops, large and small, don’t have air conditioning. The outside air is a pleasant temperature most of the time and at night, air conditioning is not needed. (We noticed this because we come from Florida where it is hot and humid at this time of year.)

Click here to continue on to Tuesday

The FEHMARN GENEALOGY Site
Created using Microsoft Frontpage and maintained by:
John Kostick, 131 NE 172nd Street, Miami, FL 33162