My name is Lin Strong and I am the current President of OGSA and Gene Janssen is OGSA treasurer. Gene and I planned this trip to further our acquaintance with other Ostfriesen researchers, Upstalsboom-Gesellschaft members and to pursue other projects for our organization. We were also looking for other research books, maps and pictures for use by our members.
Pictures of the trip:
I flew in to Amsterdam Airport via Northwest. My husband dropped me off at the airport in Minneapolis at 1 p.m. and I left at 3 p.m. on the 29th of March and arrived a bit later than scheduled at 7 a.m. on the 30th. My seat companion was from western MN and had never traveled before. After we talked about travel a bit, I put in my earplugs and sleep mask and slept for almost six hours. I'm worthless without some sleep — guess I'm getting old! Gene flew with Icelandair and arrived about 1 p.m. so I had a few hours in the airport. They redid a large portion of the airport about three years ago and it is very open and clean. The train is located in the same area as the auto rental and that area also has some shops and restaurants. I found a seat in an out of the way area near the police station and got out a book to read. Most of the time, however, the book took a back seat to people watching and visiting with fellow travelers. Gene will tell you I talk to almost everyone
One couple I met was from Rotterdam who were traveling to Italy for a month because The Netherlands was too cold. Another lady was born in the Netherlands and lives and works for an art gallery in Seattle. We had a marvelous time! Just before her friend met her we saw an older man with a white paper skullcap which had been wound into a button in the middle of his forehead. Coming out from the button were two purple horns about 4" long. Maybe being a bit tired and punchy helped, but we laughed so hard we almost rolled off our seat.
Gene finally got in and we got the car, a Mitsubishi, and I have learned never to leave the garage without finding where the windshield washers are and where the light switch is. We didn't find out how to put the car in reverse until MUCH later!
It is so much cheaper to rent an auto with stick shift, but when you only drive one for a couple of weeks a year, it takes a bit of time to adjust.
I drove as Gene had not slept on the plane. With talking to people and walking around the airport a bit, I was in better shape as I had also slept. Jan Bolhuis from Hoogezand had given us directions and they were great! We will post them with our travel tips if any of you are flying into Amsterdam and want to drive.
We met Jan for our evening meal at the Van der Valk Motel in Zuidbroek. What a nice man! He drove us around a bit after the meal until we were about to fall asleep on him. This area has several large shipbuilders — this area is noted for its shipbuilding.
We had wonderful rooms — very large and American style, breakfast was included in the room price. Jan picked us up at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning and we traveled through the country. The area is so reminiscent of Ostfriesland with similar style farm homes and villages. He took us to an area of rich farmer homes — very large and very ornate! The house is attached to the barn area. There was lots of money in that area at one time — and probably still is! We traveled to a village called Westeremden and visited the Gallery of Henk Helmantel. He is a realist and paints still life and building interiors. Awesome is the only word that discribes what we saw. His art is so realistic that you feel you could reach into the painting and pick a grape! I am not exagerating either! I have some information on him and you will see an article in the next newsletter.
We also traveled to Delfzijl and had tea and torte in a restaurant that is located on the dike. In the distance, you can see Ostfriesland. We talked about a ferry between Emden and the Netherlands from that point or possibly a bridge that could span the distance — maybe someday! We left Jan after 3 p.m. after a wonderful day. Jan is retired and looking for Bolhuis families in OF, the Netherlands and the USA.
We traveled through Groningen and arrived at the border. Customs was stopping all vehicles entering Germany. They do not want to spread the hoof and mouth disease. All I said was "Ich bin Amerikanerin." and they waved us through. Usually vehicles are seldom stopped at this border. We were so excited to cross the border — Ostfriesland, finally! We arrived in Emden at my cousin Gisela's home about 4:30 p.m. and took a walk through downtown Emden. After sitting for too many hours for a couple of days, the walk was great! The weather was cool and rainy as it proved to be for most of our trip, but we come for the people, not the weather.
After our walk we traveled to Upleward where Gene stayed with Gisela's parents, Arno and Lene. We ate abendbrot (translates to evening bread/meal — bread, luncheon meats and cheeses) and homemade soup there. After a nice visit, Gisela and I returned to Emden.
APRIL 1 — Sunday Morning — I left for Upleward to pick up Gene and came across a team playing boßeln on the road between Conrebbersweb and GroßMidlum. Wanted to take a picture, but no time! We drove to Rysum and parked at my cousin Alma's home where they were very surprised to see us! Gene is an organist and had always wanted to see their organ — supposedly the oldest working organ in the world. After the service, Alma's husband Ihno took us up to see the organ and Gene got a chance to play it — one of the highlights of his trip! We had a cup of tea with them, but had strict instructions to be back at Lene's for lunch at noon. Lene has a Ferienwohnung (bed and breakfast room), so if you ever need a great place to stay — let me know!
We traveled to Greetsiel after lunch for a couple of hours. Even though Greetsiel is tourist heaven, I still love it — especially the shops
I picked up some great souvenirs and some decals, etc. for the conference. We had to hurry as we were expected at my Cousin Martha's for tea in Loquard at 3 — the streets are all torn up as they install new cobblestone right by her home — driving in the small towns is always such a challenge as the streets are so very narrow. Not a problem for a horse and carriage or bicycle, but modern cars are not always a good fit. After tea we went back to Rysum for the evening meal and my cousin Ilse, her husband Bernd Hansen and their two sons arrived unexpectedly. As you can tell, so many of my relatives live there and it is so wonderful to see them and see how much the children grow. They gave me a ride back to Emden and Gene traveled back to Upleward.
APRIL 2 — Monday morning we visited Sparkasse Emden, the bank where Gisela is employed. We spent several hours there setting up a checking account, one of the main purposes for our trip. This will really simplify paying for books, maps and all the other things we need in Germany. Then we took a tour boat and traveled through the Emden harbor. If you have never done this, I recommend it, but dress warmly. Emden harbor has many ship builders as well as the Volkswagen plant. Major employers in the area.
We headed to Norden after lunch to meet with a lady from a publishing company. We are hoping to publish Sturmflut, a brief history of the storm floods that devastated Ostfriesland. Over tea, we discussed other projects we had been involved in and it appears that this may be one of our next projects — $ permitting. After a tour of their plant, we traveled back to Emden. Lots of phone calls to set up appointments, etc. We detoured through Marienhafe and a tour of the church tower. There was a small carnival in town and we walked through. Gene tasted a Mattjes Sandwich, which I don't think was his favorite! Monday evening we spent with Karl Backer and his wife, they are Gerriet Backer's parents (Gerriet is on the List). They live very near the center of Emden and are such wonderful people. Tea and torte were served which is always served when you have guests.
APRIL 3 — Tuesday we drove south, first to Simonswolde to order the Simonswolde OSB — they could not believe we wanted so many copies. Then on to Schuster Buchhandlung in Leer. This time we had the map in hand, found the correct street and only had to walk a block to the bookstore. Last year we entered Leer from the east and had a terrible time finding our way around. We entered Leer from the north this time and just kept heading straight ahead and found them. Both of us spent a LOT of money there! They have a great selection of books, maps, pictures, etc. As we were checking out there was a gentleman ahead of us and I said to Gene, "that is Rudy's brother!" Rudy Wiemann is one of our MN members and his brother and wife had attended a meeting last year. Gene disagreed, but I questioned "Herr Wiemann?" and he turned around and recognized me. You can guess who is the most extrovert of this pair, right? We were invited to tea later in the afternoon. I had made salads so we could eat in the car and not waste any time in a restaurant — time is a precious commodity when we are in Ostfriesland — so we had plenty of picnics in the car. Then we quickly visited the new Bunting Tea Museum in Leer after lunch and then headed for a visit with Hilke Steinkrauss, who I had only meet by email. I won't tell you why we got there late, but it was not my fault
Her cousin was also there as he is interested in genealogy and before we left, he had discovered we were researching two similar lines — Yes! Frau Steinkrauss is interested in helping with newsletter articles. After tea (again) with the Wiemann's, we headed back to Emden, another successful day. Herr Wiemann has very generously donated many history books to OGSA and we are very grateful! One of them is a larger set that I have coveted for years! That set came home with me — I did not send those in the other four boxes I sent back.
We met with Heiner Swieter and his wife later in the evening. He has an extensive collection of Sweetier/Swyter information — all four lines found in the Krummhörn area. While we found we were not related on the Swyter line, we were related on two other lines.
Lots of tea and torte everywhere! But no complaints from either of us! Good thing we did a lot of walking, too! I actually am not supposed to eat these things as I have so many allergies, but I do cheat once in a while. Finally had to quit drinking tea every day as my allergies kept getting worse. That's awful — the tea is sooooo good. I drank lots of tap water — I was called the cheap guest as they didn't have to feed me and I only drank tap water!
APRIL 4 — Wednesday morning we met with Günther Tholen who I had also met by email. His family is also Swyter and we found a close connection — Hilda Bruns had completed a lot of work on this family and I shared it with him. We also found another line we were both researching and he had a LOT of information — YES! We had tea with him and his wife and a very nice visit.
We had called and made an appointment with the Ostfriesische Landschaft. I'd had contact with them earlier in the year by email about translating some of their books in English. Gisela went with and we were served tea first — always on porcelain, usually the one with the folk art Ostfriesen rose pattern. They were very receptive to our ideas, so we have plenty of projects for the next couple of years. I keep kidding Gene that he won't have time to spend in the bars for a long time, but he doesn't do that anyway so it works out well — we don't want him to be bored!
APRIL 5 — Thursday, Then on to Weener and tried to meet Hans Coordes, but he was out of town. It was pouring rain so we dropped in at Jan-Dirk Zimmermann's home and surprised his mother, who hurried to make tea for us. Jan-Dirk and his sister Karen came home to find us there. Gene borrowed a book and then we hurried to Tergast by back roads so that we could meet with Pastor Faßbender and his family. She served a typical Ostfriesen meal which was absolutely delicious. We talked about the conference and what he will talk about. We are looking forward to his visit. We left very late and headed for Emden and Upleward.
We took the back roads between villages whenever we had a chance. Our running joke was that the Reformiert was better at finding places — however lost they seemed to be. That meant that Gene (the Lutheran) had to drive most of the time so I could navigate. We saw so much wonderful country that way!
APRIL 6 — Friday morning we were in Wittmund meeting with the Mayor at 9 a.m. (for tea!) — Wittmund is one hour from Emden, so we were up and running very early! The archivist met us a bit later and took us down to his workroom. It was so clean and organized, it put me to shame! What a treasure trove of material. If you are in Wittmund on a Friday, be sure to visit if your family if from this area. Fantastic collection.
We went to Aurich and picked up 200 copies of Seven Seelande, an English translation that you will love! We also spent a couple of hours at the Upstalsboom-Gesellschaft library in Emden and met Paul-Reinhard Peters from the "List". What a treat to finally put a face with a name. I was looking for info. from several older Deutsches Geschechterbücher and he offered to find them for me, as the books were not in Aurich. Again we detoured through back roads and ended up in Simonswolde where we picked up eight more copies of the Dorfchronik Simondswoldmer.
My cousin's husband was having a 65th birthday party that evening, so I headed back to Rysum for the party. That was great, I could meet many cousins that way that I could not have met otherwise, as our schedule was too full. What a treat to see all of them again. There were at least five or six tortes — plus the other food. They all seem to be such very good cooks! One thing that always amazes me is that the people in Europe eat very well — very plain and not usually too fancy, but they are not as overweight as so many Americans. But junk food is coming there, too! They also walk a lot more than most Americans — and they ride their bikes more than we do, too. They have to, as gas is so very expensive there. DM 2,08 per liter (about $4 US) when we were there.
APRIL 7 — Saturday morning we picked up Hilda Bruns early and headed for Hage and the meeting of the Upstalsboom-Gesellschaft. It was very interesting. Gene understood almost everything as he speaks fluent German — I actually understood quite a lot. Very interesting presentation on the Burg Berum near Hage.
Weert Meyer was there — he is also from the List, but he doesn't write often
We met so many interesting people, people I had corresponded with, but never met. We also ate lunch there and then brought Hilda back home. This meeting was one of the highlights of our trip. Everyone there was so interesting and we met so very many nice people.
Saturday evening we had tickets for a concert at the Johannes aLasco Bibliothek. What an evening! First a concert by the Krummhörn Brass Band — if you have a chance to hear them, be sure you go — they are fantastic! Members are all ages and they are as good as I've heard anywhere. Next was an orchestra of young people 11 to 24 years of age from all over Niedersachsen. They, too, were absolutely wonderful. We could have listened to them for hours.
APRIL 8 — Sunday, we left Emden early and traveled to Norden to the large Lutheran Church, as Gene wanted to hear the organ. Very beautiful interior in this church. We angled our way to Wittmund where we would stay for the next four days. We ate lunch in Westerbur at a bar/restaurant that happened to be open for a family celebration. On our way to Wittmund we found a group playing boßeln so I have pictures for the July issue of the newsletter! We found Hotel Rademacher in Wittmund and were very pleased with our rooms.
If you need a place to stay in that area, we would not hesitate to recommend the facilities. We each had a double bed in our room and a desk and chair — really great so we could get our brief cases organized. Then out to tea with Gene's cousin and husband and out for supper.
APRIL 9 — Monday morning we wend to the Lutheran Church Archives in Oldenburg as Gene needed some research done in Sandel and that is where the records were supposed to be — no luck! But we did find Ernst Völker Verlag and purchased 100 Ostfriesen maps and I bought some very expensive old maps — I'll go home very broke, but happy! We then headed to Westerstede to buy some books for Donna Walker — nice town.
Then up the back roads back north near the area where Gene's ancestors came from. The pastor in Claeverns was not home, so we headed for his cousin Beera's farm. This is the family farm where Erick and Beera have always lived. What a wonderful couple. Tea and torte again and such wonderful conversation and so much love in this home — you can feel it. Abendbrot (evening bread) was at Edo Müller's home. He is the author of the Ardorf OSB and I've had lots of contact with him during the past couple of years. We have the last five copies of that OSB that are still in print. Everyone is so nice to us here, really hard to leave their homes!
APRIL 10 — Tuesday, back at Claeverns, no one there for office hours even. So we head north up to Caroliniensiel for a look at the coast area. Found the tourist office and picked up some pamphlets and then headed for the ShiffMuseum. This is a total of three museums all for a 5DM cost — good deal! The main building is five floors of everything you want to know about the ships and their culture. Wonderful displays including the heights of the dikes during different years. Many pictures, many model ships and too much for a short visit. We headed for the Kapitan's house which was also excellent — so many beautiful pieces of furniture, ceramic tiles, stoves, etc. We never did find the Alte Pastorei which was the third museum, but we had to head out. Found a place to stop just outside of town to eat our salads — Gene has never eaten so many salads. At 1:30 p.m. we arrive in Schortens and Doris Reuter's home — many of you know her from the list. She has a nice husband and two children who were not too sure about the Americans. After looking through Gene's ancestry charts, she found that Gerhard (her husband) and Gene are related which made Gene's day. We had wonderful torte and tea with them and then headed for Wilhelmshaven and Karl and Adele Swieter's home. I met them last year with Helmut Fischer's tour — Karl and I share a Swyter ancestry several generations back. After tea and torte and abendbrot, they took us on a tour of Wilhelmshaven and we walked along the harbor.
APRIL 11 — Wednesday we spent with Hans-Jürgen Adams (from the List) and his wife. They have a very nice home in Wiesmoor and took up to the Dorf Museum in Weismoor — a small moor farm that has been recreated along with a small canal complete with boat. Then we headed for Friedeburg and the original site of the castle that used to be there. After that it was on to Aurich to view a Cirksena Castle and to go to the Upstalsboom monument. That is a must for any traveler to Ostfriesland! It is located in Rahe, just south of Aurich. Then back to their home for lunch — homemade lentil soup that I could not eat because it had ham — I'm eating lots of rice bread, tomatoes and cucumbers! Time for Gene to take a nap when we return and me to go shopping! I heard there was a curtain shop in Wittmund and found it! I bought my curtains for 65DM and am thrilled. Walked all over town — even though it is cold. Am so glad I have a warm winter coat and a headband to cover my ears — the gloves also help! It says it is 9 degrees C, but it feels as cold as winter in Minnesota and maybe colder.
APRIL 12 — Thursday we drive to Großefehn and meet with Lisa Buß — a really sweetie. She is a teacher that I first met by email, then when she came with her students to Minnesota and we toured Clara City. I spent a day with her last year and Gene wanted to meet her, too. We had a typical Ostfriesen noon meal of pork, boiled potatoes and brussel sprouts. And then we had Rote Grutze — is that wonderful! It was so good that they went and got a couple of packets for me to take home
As it is not so sweet, I could even eat it. Most of their desserts are not as sweet as those in the US. We visited Timmel and the lake with her and the small museum and then had tea and torte — of course! After that, it was time for me to drop Gene off in Wittmund as his daughter, son-in-law and his mother were arriving for Easter break. I drove to Emden and did some banking with Gisela before we headed to her house — home again!
Thursday evening we spent with Gisela's sister and family — Hiltraut and Ervin Schoneboom and their wonderful Amalie (three). We visited the OGSA website on the internet and Ervin showed me a couple Ostfriesen sites that I didn't know about.
APRIL 13 — Kar Friday (Good Friday), time to do some serious visiting! First cousin Adelbert Cornelius, my father's first cousin and the guy who has been so interested in family history. He lives in Woltzeten with his wife; his son lives next door. Then to lunch at cousin Lene's — she is a very good cook! In the afternoon, I visited with Adelbert and Janette Ackermann in Pilsum. We are distantly related on my Poppinga line and my parents met them in Grundy Center at Acter der Sunn An. We found out years later we had a common ancestry! Small world in the Krummhörn where everyone is related! Then back to Hilda Bruns where we had a short visit and she gave me some Wigchers information for my cousins.
After abendbrot at Lene's, we went to Gisela's brother Reiner, wife Silke, three year old Mirja and newborn Fenna. I do love the babies! I again find myself explaining Ostfriesen history to Ostfriesen residents. I really do feel that we as American descendents with Ostfriesen ancestry have more pride in being Ostfriesen than the Ostfriesen in Germany do. A bit sad as I think their culture and heritage is so wonderful.
Whenever I had a free minute, I was shopping! Looking for good books, maps and other goodies! I really did help the Ostfriesen economy
APRIL 14 — Saturday, shopping at the OsterMarkt in Emden — lots of fresh meats, vegetables and flowers. You absolutely cannot believe the flower costs in Europe — they are soooo cheap! You can get a dozen roses for 10DM — that is $5! I purchased lovely bouquets for cousins for 20DM. Tulips and daffodils were everywhere — I want to go back just writing this! After lunch it was over to Bernd and Ilse's and a too short visit with them and their four children. Again to the computer and showing them our website and all the other Ostfriesen sites available. After many hugs and tears, it is off to Pilsum to pick up Adelbert Ackermann and a visit to a newly found Cousin, Enno Cornelius, the mayor of Greetsiel. He was interested in the family information I had found and wants a copy! So many are not interested, so it is a treat to find someone who is. We had tea and torte and could have talked for many, many hours. But my time is running down and there are too many things to do.
Back to Gisela's for abendbrot and then to the Oster (Easter) fire at Conrebbersweg, a suburb of Emden. The weather is icky to say the least. It snowed and rained all day. Not too many people there, but the ones who were there enjoyed brats and beer and the very large fire. I have always wondered why our ancestors never brought the custom of Easter Fires to the US? This is an important part of their Easter celebration and every village has a fire, even throughout the county these fires are found.
APRIL 15 — Oster Sunday — Church at Upleward, the church where my grandmother, Ariana Janssen, was christened and attended. Very plain interior, all white with the only decoration being the more ornate pulpit. There are some round discs under some of the windows and Gisela explained that there are paintings from pre-Reformation times under these discs. The Reformiert church does not want the ornamentation, so they covered them — at least they did not paint over them like too many churches did. These churches were all Catholic before the Reformation. The only thing I feel badly about is these charming large old churches have only a few people attending church — 30 people f6r Sunday services! Lene has the noon meal ready and it is, of course, very good. She also made Rote Grutze for me — fantastic! After a walk through Upleward, I head for Loquard and a final tea with cousins Martha, Alma, Ihno and Hannah. Heard earlier in the day that a friend of our family, Seido Mennenga had died, so spent a few minutes with his wife Klara — so very hard to lose your spouse. So very hard to say goodbye each time — I always leave a few tears, too.
Back to Lene's where she has more company — her son and family and a neighbor's son and family also are there. They also had tea, torte and then drinks before I returned. After abendbrot, we head back to Emden so I can finish my packing.
APRIL 16 — Monday, it is so hard to leave Gisela. She always makes my trip go so much smoother. She takes care of me and keeps me healthy. I am so blessed to have family over there. I pick up Gene about 9:30 and we head across country where we have to leave a book Gene borrowed with Jan-Dirk Zimmermann. He shows me a new book he had just purchased, makes a call and off Jan-Dirk and I are to find a copy for me! Even though there is NOT one inch of room in my case, I purchase three of the new Deutsches Geschlecterbuch and another DG addendum. Jeanee (in MN) had told me not to come home without the new DG — so guess I can go home now! I was so excited, I was dancing around and entertaining a few people!
After our last Ostfriesen cup of tea, we are off to Doorn, south of Amsterdam. This was the last palace of Kaiser Wilhelm after he lost WW I. Gene had read a book on his life and he wanted to see Dorn. It was filled with many treasures and was very interesting. After that it was north to Amsterdam, the one and only time I will ever attempt to travel by car into the city — yes, it was stressful! Even with maps, we finally gave up and just followed signs to "Centrum". Amsterdam has a population of 760,000 people and I think they were all out on the road or as pedestrians trying to cross the road. I thought downtown Amsterdam was very dirty and was not too impressed. We found the hotel and what a trip to park the car!
Gene drove into a car elevator and we had to sound the alarm to get out! Good thing we can laugh at a few things, as this was definitely not one of the most fun things we did! You had to drive into the elevator at an angle, pull forward, shut your car off and set the brake. It didn't matter what we did, drive forward, go backwards, we could not get out — you would be proud, there was no swearing! I was laughing so hard — we FINALLY found the hotel, drove all the way into Amsterdam and then get stuck in the car elevator! Finally got out, brought our luggage up and then headed out on a walking tour of downtown. Great people watching! Every nationality in the world appears to be represented. But, I have to admit to being a prude — sex shops, prostitutes in windows do not appeal to me ever! They are not on every street, but the downtown area has way too many to appeal to me. We did walk by the palace and some interesting churches. It was a long, interesting day. We had planned to drive to Lisse to Kuekenhof, the large gardens. After driving into Amsterdam, we decided to take a tour instead — driving into Amsterdam once was enough for a lifetime! Ate at the hotel as then we felt we could trust the meal. I cannot eat everything even though I would like to.
We are about two blocks from the Central train station and there is not a ramp for cars, but a ramp for bicycles! I've never seen anything like it. Everyone rides a bike, no matter how old you are. And these are not expensive bikes, either. Bikes are parked everywhere. Transportation is by trolley car, train or bike — it is just not feasible for everyone to drive and gas prices are just too high.
April 17 — Tuesday found us on the tour to Kuekenhof. We also visited a nursery which exports to every country in the world. We only had 1 ½ hours at Kuekenhof (pronounced Coke n haf) which was not enough. There are acres and acres of plants, gardens and wonderful scenery. And there are wonderful buildings filled with flowers of every shape and size. I never knew there were that many varieties of tulips, orchids, daffodils, crocus, anthuriums and many others! So many busloads of tourists — we were always looking around picking out the Americans — they wear the white tennis shoes! We returned to the hotel and watched very carefully which route the driver took, as we needed to bring the car back to the airport. Then we had to find enough coins to get out of the car park from hell — and it was not cheap! You have to take your parking ticket with you and pay BEFORE you try to drive your car out!
Made it out to the airport with very few problems and Gene only swore once
Even found a gas station on our way before the airport! One thing about travel is it is never boring. We brought all our suitcases out there, stored the ones we did not need and traveled back into Amsterdam by train — much less stress than by car. One tip, if you are going into Amsterdam and back, buy both of your tickets at the airport — much easier than purchasing one at the train station in downtown Amsterdam (that is experience talking!
After we returned, it was a walk to the Anne Frank Huis. I had wanted to go there for many, many years. Once you leave downtown Amsterdam, it is cleaner and much nicer. Plenty of shops for your US $, but I was almost broke by this time
The Anne Frank Huis is open until 7 p.m., so we had plenty of time to go through. Gene had been there before, so he walked around the area while I spent the next ½ to ¾ hour in this house with about a couple hundred others. I could not believe how many people were in this small area and how long the lines were. It's hard to describe the house, I had read the book many years ago and now here was the actual house where it happened. The rooms were so small, black cloth over all the windows. To live in this house, in these small rooms for years with no fresh air or sunshine is incomprehensible. No new clothing, no fresh foods for years — our lives are very rich compared with theirs. It was eerie to think of them living there more than 50 years ago. To have so many tourists interested in this house makes you realize what an impact Anne Frank had on so many lives. And the book had been translated into so many languages, so the impact is worldwide.
After that, a nice evening meal and then a harbor tour. All the bridge lights were on — highly recommend this! The tour was in Dutch, German and English and gave a lot of history in a 45 minute tour. Such a small country, all below sea level and such a rich history. The dikes are such an important part of their lives.
APRIL 19 — Thursday. Gene left early; he travels to England to meet his friend. He'll return to the USA next week after a real holiday. I walked around Amsterdam for about two hours — my trip was almost over and I didn't want to waste any fun time. I had lost my headband, so looked for anything to cover my ears as it was soooo cold. Found a small shop with stocking hats, but all seems to have marijuana leaf on them — finally found one that said Amsterdam with no leaf! I'm not going to advertise for pot!
As we were taking our tour of a garden shop and Keukenhof (KEUKENHOF is where all the flowers are. It´s the old word for a kitchen garden!), I met an English lady standing in line at the women's washroom. That line was so terribly long and we were speculating about sneaking in the men's room and she told me she and a pregnant friend had once did that as the friend was nine months pregnant and could no longer wait. She told about the face of a guy who happened in the room and we were almost on the floor laughing. She then asked if I had walked through Amsterdam's red light district. I said we had walked on the fringe and she proceeded to tell me her experience the day before. She and her husband had ambled down the path unknowingly and all of a sudden there were women in bra and panties waving at her husband. She got all excited and made him stand and judge them "what do you think, dear?" - she said that even in her late 50's she felt she looked better than any of them! By then I was laughing so hard I was doubled over almost on the floor. She waved at all of them that they met - then she made her husband take her into one of the sex shops and he was finally so embarassed by her actions in there that he dragged her out - and hurried her out of that area! She said, "I didn't know you could buy things like that!" She went into graphic detail, but I will keep this family rated! I could hardly go to the restroom, I laughed so hard, but all that laughter made going to the bathroom a real necessity. My only regret is not getting her name and address - I want to travel with her! Life would never be boring with her around!
I leave for the airport at 1 p.m. as my flight is at 4:30. It took me about ½ hour to figure where to go in the train station and to purchase my ticket — frustration! Got out the box and suitcase from the locker and checked in and went to the gate. Lots of questions from customs about what I was bringing back, gifts, electronics, etc., but not as bad as my first trip in 1993 — that was enough to scare you off from traveling.
Pretty uneventful trip home, sat next to very nice people. Filled out the customs form and even added the code for books which the customs agent questioned me about. When I told him one of our members was a former customs agent and her name, he said I had found the only other Ostfriesen in customs in Minneapolis! God is good — this guy smoothed my way through customs. I was tired and did not need one more hassle! They checked the flower bulbs I brought along and nothing else.
My husband, his cousin and wife were waiting for me — yes, help with the suitcases. My husband's aunt was coming in from San Antonio, so I got to see her, too. Then home and bed — it was after 3 a.m. Amsterdam time, so I was beat. As I had to go to work the next day, ten hours of sleep was in order.
I see changes everytime I am there. More people than ever are riding bicycles because of the cost of gas — and we think it is high here! Emden has a new Dollart Center, known as DOC. It is a shopping mall with a large variety of store and two large grocery stores. Hopefully, this will not change the central shopping center of the city which is so charming. But parking in the downtown area is difficult and costs money, so many will just go to the shopping centers. WalMart is in Emden and always seems to be very busy. All of the larger cities have shopping malls on the edge of the cities or near the freeway.
The weather was quite cold to very cold when we were there. We only had a few days of sunshine. Lots of rain, great for the flowers and gardens. Dress in layers and be sure to bring something to cover your ears! When it is cold there it is a damp cold and we experienced the gamut of weather — sunshine, rain, hail, fog and snow!
They travel too fast on the autobahn, but stay to the right and you should survive. The speed limit on the autobahn in the Netherlands is 120 kilometers per hour which is not quite as dangerous. Everytime I come back from Ostfriesland, I seem to have an attitude problem! I don't really want to come home. You are back for just a few days and it all seems like a nice dream. Time just seems to go way too fast when you are over there. And I really enjoy the lack of stress.
One other tip some of you might need. I take melatonin for three days before I leave at 3 p.m. — just ¼ of a tablet each day. This information came from a newspaper magazine. When I get there I take one tablet before bedtime for three days. For three days before I return, I take ¼ tablet each day when I get out of bed, then for three days after my return I take one tablet each night at bedtime. Other than being tired for a couple of days, I have little to no jetlag using melatonin!
We accomplished so much in such a short period of time, largely in part to the help of my cousin Gisela. She also distributes copies of our newsletters to visitors in Ostfriesland — we are so lucky to have her!
Everybody wanted to know when I was coming again — only time will tell. Too much work, too little time.
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