Leipzig - Thursday, June 14

We started out with "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- just the name of the restaurant in hotel and then travelled to the city center in Leipzig (pronounced "Lipe-sig").  Leipzig was a part of German Democratic Republic before 1989 and in the state of  Saxony.  The city is the location The St Thomas Church where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as a cantor and the home of renowned boys choir Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig).  Bach is buried at this church.

Equally impressive was the St. Nicholas Church, a few block away.  One could spend hours in this Church to observe the detail workmanship.  Clearly an awe inspiring "monument".

So many of these significant buildings we have seen throughout our trip had to be renovated because they were destroyed or badly damaged during World War II.  What a resilient people to recover what they lost during war!

Also in the city center are the German Democratic Republic Museum and the Bach Museum of which our group was able to tour.  Each stirred a different set of emotions. This city of 500,000 people is a place in which most of us would love to spend more time 

After lunch, we boarded the bus and took a 4 hour ride to Bad Arolsen, county of Waldeck in the state of Hesson in what was West Germany.  More on this location tomorrow.

The entire trip to Hesson today was like driving across the topology of different rural areas of Minnesota.  Here, far more small grains are grown, most of which Bob Wittmer, John Perschbacher and Chuck Steele could identify from the bus, namely wheat, canola, barley, sugar beets and we did see some corn. As Steve Lindeman observed, part of the time, the topology was relatively flat but as we got closer to Bad Arolsen, the grain wrapped across the rolling hills as so often seen in photographs of Germany and it felt a little like Southeastern Minnesota near the Mississippi River valley.

Wes reported, 

The drive from Leipzig to Bad Arolsen was absolutely spectacular.  I had forgotten what wonderful scenic views there are from the Autobahn. Grand rolling hills and valleys with green fields of grain  are everywhere. Tree stands punctuate the landscape as our tour bus rolls up and down the motorway. 

After arriving and checking into the hotel, we had another great dinner; no disappointment in the food category.

Near the end of the meal two guests stopped by. 

First, Gilda Syring dropped in and has been a contact point for Wes and Steve Sprenger throughout the trip planning.  They made contact with her because of Adelaine SIme’s family history research.  Gilda is related to Ralph and Kelly Troll from Kiester.  When she announced her family ties, Larry Katzung reported he was also related to the Troll’s.  Connection made!!

Second, Manfred Mueller, a distant relative of Chuck Steele who lives nearby also dropped in.   Their common parental connection intersects around the year 1720.   They have been in contact over the years and again met in person tonight.


Chuck reported:

Arrived in Bad Arolsen in late afternoon. During the group dinner Manfred Muller stopped by to find Chuck and Karen Steele. Unfortunately he could not have dinner with the Tour group. Manfred is a distant cousin of Chuck Steele and Joan Moyer, who lives in Bad Arolsen.

After the dinner, Wes Sime and Steve Sprenger persuaded Gilda, our Bad Arolsen guide, to drive to Vasbeck to hoping to contact Vasbeck relatives to join us the next. This really turned into and adventure. Wes invited Ann and Emily along and Gilda’s car turned out to be rather small. A VW Apollo 2 door. Wes Ann Emily and Steve all piled into the back seat. We went with haste over to Vasbeck. Gilda has somewhat a lead foot. Getting out of the car we all immediately noticed a farm aroma in the air. Ann and Emily, not being from a farm, really notice it and express alarm.

     

Wes knocked on the door of what was thought to be the Sprenger house, but it turned out to be a guy by the name of Fritz, who was somewhat of a recluse. Fritz invited us in. Gilda expressed this was a bad idea, however Fritz had a Vasbeck sippenbuch and we were able to see the records of our ancestors. Leaving Fritz’s house and walking up the street we met Elda Embe who was in her late 60s, and she indicated she was a Pistorius. Then a young lady came by walking her dog and stopped to talk. She turned out to be Elda’s granddaughter. Asking about others in the town, it turns out that many were in choir practice. There is a group of men who make up a singing choir. Short time later we met a young man by the name of Phillip Embe who was a junior in high school.  It turns out Philip had done a school project of documenting Vasbeck’s history and identify all the houses in the village. We all went to the town pub and finished plans for the next day.

Wes provided the following:

After dinner, Chuck, Steve, Emily, Ann and I went with Gilda Syring in her tiny two door Golf VW car to the town of Vasbeck to do some advance preparations (any resemblance to the Secret Service advance party that preceded Obama to Venezula are totally erroneous and should not be mistake for this venture).  Anyway, we trekked into this little town and were greeted by the distinct farming aroma of fresh fermenting silage just like our days back in Minnesota growing up.  The farm fresh atmosphere is right there in town.  No mistaking it. Anyway --- we stumbled into a goldmine of sorts in the genealogy world.  We made connection to two of the Emde family (Lydia and Phillip) whom Steve and I met last September. Together with another Emde family member Stephanie we shared a wonderful evening of family reminiscing with family connections most notably to the Pestorious family (too bad Steve and his wife could not make it on the trip). Thereafter we strolled over to the church and visited with the pastor who kindly agreed to let us visit the church tomorrow and look for more connections.  After that we heard the choir singing in the community center which just happened to be located over the local pub.  So of course, we had to drop in a share a little brew with the locals.  We are beginning to fit in nicely by now.  Our translator Gilda Syring is such a great help.

The “Bad” in Bad Arolsen does not mean “undesirable”; it means “bath” in German.  And we have a superb pool and spa at our hotel.  But we had been warned yesterday that there is typically a deadline at hotel pools; not just a deadline for when the pool closes but also an earlier deadline of when swim-suits were optional.  As our group sat in the lounge and gazed out on the back lawn chatting about the day’s events, we had just about decided it was time to “throw in the towel” for the evening.  At that moment, “low and behold” a couple of our travelers spotted a man walking to the spa area and he had thrown OFF the towel!!  The first deadline had been reached and all the rules changed.  In America, we might call him a streaker, but he wasn’t running.  As a matter of fact, he was not in a hurry at all!   What a proud man!!

Sigh!!  What will tomorrow bring?     

Oh and one more thing: we 'mericans ain't so accustom to pay toilets and automatic self-cleaning toilets.