We’re in the book!
From June 25 to July 5, our son, Michael, and his children, Emily and Lukas, and I spent our time in Germany. We first visited the city of Bremen, where my wife Heide came from. One day we drove to Bremerhaven (the Port of Bremen) where millions of immigrants departed Europe for Western destinations. Among them were my father and his brother and later my mother. Heide and her family also passed through there and their names were found on the computer set up that is part of the Immigrant’s Museum.
From there we traveled south to the Black Forest area of western Germany where my parents came from. We were able to see many of our “cousins” if only for a day or an evening. A great side trip was to Strasburg, France for a day. It is a very busy multicultural city. The Cathedral was really impressive as was the boat ride on the canal system that was a part of their defensive system in medieval days.
We were able to tour the ruins of several castles that abound in the area, and enjoyed a day at a recreated medieval farmstead. The farmhouse with its stables below the living area was originally there. Since then other buildings such as a tavern, a sawmill and gristmill have been moved there from their original locations elsewhere.
The picture shows us in the patio dining area of an old restaurant, the Wagen, in my father’s hometown of Fautenbach. It was a place he frequented, before immigrating here in 1923. There were about 12 of my cousins and spouses there in the evening of July 3. As we visited, a gentleman rode up to us on his bicycle. We were informed he was the Mayor, Gebhardt Glaser, who always enjoyed meeting visitors, especially if they were descendants of former citizens of the town. He brought forth a book he referred to as his “golden” book. It is his practice to try and get pictures and signatures of visitors as a permanent record for the community. We readily agreed and each of us signed as a local photographer snapped the picture. The Mayor noted that we had a special place in the book as the last visitor who signed it was the local Bishop. The article appeared in the regional paper on July 5.
