Friday  - More Cemeteries

This morning, we were both up by 5:30 a.m. with the sun shining and the birds singing. It looked like a beautiful day.  But first, we both got on our respective computers and began working.  Before long, we ate breakfast and then decided that we needed to go shopping first.  After that, we would go to churches and cemeteries.

John & Judy busy at work in their apartment

We were getting low on groceries, so we went to Neukaufs.  While in the store, I am constantly looking for candy to bring back for gifts and a few food items to bring home.... for a little taste of the German food, after the trip.  I had purchased a Bavarian cookbook (written in English), last week at the Hohenschwangau Castle and had plans to cook a German meal when I got home to Florida.  This is always fun for me, as I love to cook and bake.

From there, we drove to the Volks Bank to exchange our US dollars for Euros.  After a quick look in some stores on the main street, we returned to our apartment.  The location of this apartment is great, because it is only about 5 or 6 blocks from the main street, making it very easy to run back and forth to drop off things.

Back in the car, our first stop was Petersdorf, in hope of finding the office for the church.  John had two birth records that he could not find in the Neustadt Archives because the Petersdorf Church has the hand-written books.  We were in luck, as we found a very kind woman in the office that pulled down the books from the bookcase and found the records for us.  The St. Johannis Church has the hand-written church records of the 1800’s and 1900’s.

Oddly enough, when we introduced ourselves, she recognized us.  She pulled out a large notebook with newspaper clippings, and there was an article about us from 2 years ago!

She remembered that we met Pastor Jaeger and that we had been in their Rapsblutenfest Parade with Dorothee Gossel’s American group.  She was very nice to have remembered the crazy Americans! 

From there, we walked into the cemetery to look around.  As usual, John was looking for new headstones and I was looking at the flowers.  John went into the church and took photographs of the epitaphs and portraits on the walls.  He has done this in previous years, but before we left on this trip, John purchased a new digital camera that can take very clear pictures in low light.  He wants to update the church areas of his website with better photos.

John reading headstones in the Petersdorf cemetery

The weather changed, and it started to rain.  We can't take photos in the rain, so we went back to the apartment to make ourselves a little lunch..... sandwiches, kraut salad, fruit  & sausages.  This works out better for me, because I can eat a small lunch and John can eat a bigger lunch.  I really enjoy eating in restaurants as the food is terrific, but I'll gain 10 pounds if I keep eating big meals all the time!  The food in this country is so wonderful.

In about an hour, it looked like the rain might stop, so we grabbed our cameras and the umbrella and headed for the small Kapplen Church on Sahrendorferweg.  This is the largest cemetery in Burg and we knew it would take a while to walk thru it looking for the new headstones.  John wanted to document any headstones from people who had died since the year 2000.

As soon as John started, the rain started to gently fall.  I opened my umbrella and held it over the camera and the two of us.  We walked up and down the aisles, huddled under our purple umbrella.  To look faster, John checked the headstones to the right and I checked them to the left.  We had quite a walking rhythm, but it helped us to look at the dates faster.  Here and there, we stopped to take a photo.  Occasionally, there was a branch of a tree, or some flowers in the way. That's when I tip toe over to the headstone, and hold back the stray branch that is blocking a date or name..... all the time, getting a little more damp and very cold from the bad weather.  All this was done to get those perfect photos for the website.  John is truly a “man on a mission”. 

A few times, the rain stopped for 5 or 10 minutes. But most of the time, we were under the small umbrella.....probably looking very strange.  Luckily, there were very few people in the cemetery at that time.  Finally, John had all the cemeteries on the island completed.

By 3 p.m., we went back to Burg and purchased some maps of Fehmarn to sell on this website.  It was still raining, so we went back to the apartment to rest and wait for the rain to stop.  Unfortunately, it looked like the gray sky was going to stay for the rest of the day.

By 6:30 p.m., we were getting ready to go out to dinner, when we noticed an envelope under the door from Max-Otto Rauert..... Sent c/o Achim Kühl at this address.  It was written in German, as Herr Rauert speaks no English. In the letter he informs John that he is having his 80th birthday and celebrating his 50th Wedding Anniversary with family.  He regrets not being able to meet John in person.   Herr Rauert has done a lifetime of work on the Fehmarn Genealogy and he and John exchange information to the benefit of both of their databases.  John is most grateful for this information he receives from Herr Rauert, as his work covers an older time frame than John has worked on.

After receiving his letter, we went to eat dinner at a local restaurant called Ton Olen Bahnhof.  It is in the building that was the old train station for the city of Burg.  The train station now is located in Puttgarden.  Inside were old photos of trains and of course, old photos of the train station as it once was. We find the old buildings very fascinating as we are always interested in the history of Fehmarn and we enjoyed our meal in this historical building. 

Ton Olen Bahnhof restaurtant
 

After dinner, we stopped in at the Internet cafe to check our e-mails.  Then we drove to Burgtiefe (the beach area) with the large hotels and marina full of sailboats.  We only stopped to take a few photos, as the weather was getting too cold for us.  The temperature was 13 degrees Celsius, which is 55 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is too cold for these two traveling Floridians.  We are used to 80 - 90 degree weather at this time of year.

John made one more stop at the harbor in Burgstaaken for a few more photos, and then finally we went back to our room.  Even though it was still daylight, we decided to call it a day.

Tomorrow, the Peter Wiepert Museum in Burg opens for the season and we’ll be there.