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German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents

SEEKING OUR GERMAN ROOTS

Chapter I    
May 11 - 13, 2003

From Portland, Oregon to Hamburg, Germany

Sunday, May 11

Lufthansa’s daily flight to Frankfurt left at the civilized hour of 4:20 p.m. so we did not have to rise before the crack of dawn to get to the Portland airport. Karen came down to Salem the day prior to deliver her elderly cat, "Kanchi" into the care of Glenn, who declined to join us on this 3-week trip to various locales in Germany. We left Salem on the HUT airport shuttle, with our printed itinerary in hand and with a pretty firm idea of where we would go, who we would see and where we would be staying each day.

Lufthansa’s Airbus plane left right on time, at 4:20 p.m. This was a BIG PLANE with four seats in the middle and two on each side. We had the two side seats and were grateful not to have elbows poking us from both sides! The service was great--beer and wine with dinner, cognac or Bailey’s Irish Cream afterwards. BUT as with all other planes today, if you aren’t in Business or First Class, you are scrunched into a narrow seat with almost no leg room. Ten hours in the fetal position proved uncomfortable.

Leaving in late afternoon on a sunny day, we had wonderful views of the Canadian Rockies--probably Banff and Jasper Parks, as we flew the polar route to Germany.

One oddity at these higher latitudes was that the sun never set! According to a map that was projected on the TV monitors, we stayed just above the "dark zone" for the entire trip. Once fed and night-capped with our Baileys, the crew asked everyone to pull down their window shades so we could pretend that it was night. Every so often, I peeked out the window and there was the sun--perpetually setting! We flew over Hudson’s Bay where the ice WAS starting to melt and over Greenland where my peeks revealed rocky, black mountain peaks jutting out of the blanket of ice and snow.

We never succeeded in sleeping, and about two hours before arrival in Frankfurt, along came our breakfast. It was midnight in Oregon--who wants breakfast at that hour??

Hamburg

Monday, May 12

The plane touched down at the Frankfurt airport at 11:30 a.m. This is one of the busiest airports in the world and it took careful study of the signage to be sure we were heading for the right gate and our plane to Hamburg. At one point we ended up in a long, long tunnel with a "moving sidewalk" to get us to our new gate. To keep the passengers amused during this long ride, they were playing "tinkling" music in the background, and the lighting on the tunnel walls kept changing from one pastel color to another. A very pretty effect. We had to go through a passport check before getting to the next gate. We sailed right through, and no one said, "go home, Yankee Warmonger" for which we were grateful.

Our concern about how Americans would be treated in "Deutschland" was not unreasonable. Since we first planned this trip last fall, the world's opinion of our country was significantly altered by President Bush's unilateral invasion of Iraq, over the protests of most of Europe, and most especially, the protests of the Germans. Just a few days ago, Mr. Bush had arranged to land on the deck of a US aircraft carrier, returning from Iraq waters. Decked out in flight suit garb, the President triumphantly declared the Iraq War over and won! Yes, this was a ticklish time to be an American in Germany.

Emerging from the baggage area at the Hamburg airport, there were Friedrich-Franz von Pressentin and his friend, Chris Wallis, waiting to greet us. They provided a taxi for the four of us to our hotel, the "Baseler Hof," conveniently located near the train station, and lovely Alster Lake. After getting us settled, Friedrich-Franz and Chris went back to his apartment with a promise to return later in the evening for dinner.

By this time, Karen and I had been without sleep for well over 24 hours, but it was a sunny afternoon and we decided the best thing was to stay awake and try to adjust to our new time zone as quickly as possible. We also needed to change some US dollars for Euros and did that at the nearby Dammtor train station. Not a pleasant experience as we saw our $200. melt into only 164. Euros! The exchange rate is not at all favorable to US travelers in Europe right now. We also purchased our train ticket for tomorrow’s short ride to Luebeck--about 50 miles away. Karen is willing to tackle driving in Germany but not in the big cities. So, we’ll pick up our rental car in more driver-friendly Luebeck.

Mark loaned us a "handy" (the local word for a cell phone) that can be used in Germany. We searched nearby shopping areas for the special SIM card needed to make our handy work. When we finally found the right shop, the cost for the card and a minimum amount of calling time didn’t seem worth it. Instead, Karen bought a German phone card for five dollars which proved easy and economical to use. Between the local phone card and our MCI phone card for calls to the US we got along fine and at minimal expense.

Later we found an Internet cafe and sent off a brief message to Glenn , saying that we had arrived safely in Germany. The German computer keyboard has some interesting differences: the "z" key is where the "y" key should be, there are two "alt" keys and you have to know which one will work to insert the "@" symbol--something absolutely necessary to use Internet e-mail. We quickly gave up trying to remember where the "y" key was, and just left it to our e-mail recipients to translate our messages!

Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 08:34:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: We are in Hamburg

hi glenn!

we got here just fine, but no sleep over 24 hours now! Going to dinner at 7 with Friedrich Franz. They brought us in bz taxi from the airport. you haveto figure out the y an z#s, o.k.? All is fine, we got some monez changed, but donät think the cell phone is worth $40 so will trz to check in bz Internet or mazbe the MCI card. And mazbe Iäll lern the German kezboard in 3 weeks!All for now, and we miss zou, but donät think zou would have enjozed the sleepless jet plane trip! We were above the arctic cirle (Hudsonäs Baz) and had perpetual sunset all the waz to Europe. We have our train tickets to Luebeck for tomorrow, and will take the harbor tour in the morning. Weather is just like Salem, partlz sunnz and pleasant rhodies and lilacs all in bloom here. Hope zou and Kanchi are surviving and sharing Cheetos.

Love, Barb and Karen.

One of the first things that we noticed about this new country was that everybody smokes cigarettes! The air inside any public room is usually blue with smoke. Cigarette vending machines are on every corner. Climate-wise, Hamburg is a pretty close match for western Oregon. We left Oregon with the rhododendrons and lilacs in full bloom--and were greeted by the same flowers as we drove into Hamburg from the airport. With the nearby lake and the Elbe River nearby it was a bit muggier than Salem--and no air conditioning in the hotel.

Before dinner, Friedrich-Franz and Chris gave us a good tour of the area around the Alster Lake. Hotels lined one side of the lake, a huge fountain played in the center of the water, and other important buildings of Hamburg lined the other shores, including the Dresdener Bank where Friedrich-Franz worked before his retirement.

They pointed out the boat tour dock in front of the magnificent "Rathaus" (City Hall) where we hoped to take a tour of the Hamburg harbor the next morning. Enroute back to the restaurant we walked through the equivalent of Rodeo Drive shops in Beverly Hills. Hamburg is Germany’s second-largest city and very wealthy. Shipping and banking are very big business here.

We all ate at a pleasant restaurant near the hotel and learned that it was "Spargel" season. This is white asparagus and apparently it’s an important gastronomic event when available in the spring. Throughout our trip, we were to see Spargel being sold in the market places, and listed as a special treat on restaurant menus. We happily joined the spargel season and enjoyed cream of asparagus soup plus a plate of Regensburger sausage (like some of our lunch meat), with sauerkraut, lettuce, and good German breads. Beer? Of course! Well, actually, Karen introduced me to her favorite--"alster" which is beer and lemon soda. Very refreshing and we were to ask for "alster" throughout our trip.

Friedrich-Franz and Chris walked us back to the Baseler Hof hotel at 10:30p.m., then they caught a bus back to their apartment. After being awake for over 30 hours, it took only a few minutes for us to fall into bed and be sound asleep under our down comforters. Every bed we slept on during our trip was made up the same way: a fitted sheet covering the mattress, then a down comforter and a down pillow. These look very charming and must be very toasty on chilly winter nights. Unfortunately, they are also very toasty on warm spring nights! And, they tend to slide around during the night. We spent a fair amount of time each night trying to adjust the bed temperature by keeping feet, legs, or arms on the outside of the comforter. As the nights grew warmer toward the end of our trip we resorted to removing the comforter from its cotton slip cover and just sleeping under the slip cover. The local arrangement certainly makes bed-making a simple operation, but it doesn’t allow for variations in temperature.

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