Sunday, June 6 - Trebsen, Neichen, Doeben, Grimma

Sunday is our last day in the Oelschuetz area and we don't really have a plan.  There is a hike/bike trail that passes through our village, so after our 3rd "mega-breakfast" of the week, we drove first to Trebsen for bottled water for the hike.  We drove around the midtown until I spotted a sign showing a lunch special.  I found the door into a small bar/restaurant where a couple of guys were having a beer and persuaded the barmaid to sell me a large bottle of water.  We also stopped to get photos of a stork on a nest with a couple of young. 

Then back to Neichen to park the car and start our walk.  Unfortunately, it was by now noonish and quite warm, but we managed to walk to Doeben, about 8 kilometers or 5 miles one way, which took us most of the afternoon, stopping several times to rest and once for a snack at an imbiss on the trail.

I also still wanted to see more of Wurzen, so after returning from our walk, we drove to Wurzen, stopping at Burkhartshain and Nemt on the way. 

In Burkhartshain we also found some Winklers and Buchheims in the cemetery and a sign noting that the Famile Buchheim could provide access to the church. 

Since it was getting late, we opted to go on to Wurzen.  At Wurzen, I was a bit surprised to find many of the buildings in the center of town to be pastel in color. 

We found Wurzen to be a very pretty town.  We parked near the center and walked around, finding two churches to visit, the first, Dom Marien,  and the second Wenceslaikirche.  There has been a church on this site since 961.  The current building dates from 1673, but services ended here in 1975.  Today half of the Wenceslaikirche had been restored to a church, the other half is used for concerts and exhibitions. 

We were fortunate to find a exhibit describing the end of WWII, when Germans living in Poland and Russia were expelled and returned to Germany with only what they could carry with them.  Since we were heading toward a part of Poland that had been settled by German people, this exhibit gave us background for the rest of our trip. 

After seeing this exhibit, we drove back to Grimma to the Pferdestall restaurant in Hotel Goldenes Schiff in Grimma for a fabulous dinner.  We have had quite a day and it was wonderful to relax on the patio and the meal - salmon and white asparagus, followed by chocolate sundaes - superb!

Saturday, June 5 - Oelschuetz

Saturday we had arranged to visit the Winklers currently living in Oelschuetz.  So, how did I know there are Winklers living in the village?  Several years ago, when I first had the idea to visit Oelschuetz, I used Google to search for an online telephone book for Germany and found http://www.dastelefonbuch.de/ .  To search this "white pages" you enter the last name and then in the second field, either the Ort (village - in this case Oelschuetz) or the PLZ or postal code (04808 - which I knew from my research).

I had brought pictures and documents I wanted to share with them, so I spent Saturday morning organizing that material so I could quickly find the Kansas pics, the relative pics, the genealogy files, etc on my PC.

Fred drove to Trebsen for waters and a small gift for the family. When we arrived, they invited us in to visit. We realized later they probably didn't know what we really wanted and we didn't know what to expect from them either.

We started by sharing family records, then to put them at ease, I showed them photos of the area in Kansas where our ancestors built a grist mill in late 1850 or early 1860, followed by photos of our home and surrounding area. The son found us on Google Earth and I exclaimed "Fred, we're home - and you're double parked!" referring to his car parked beside mine in the driveway. That seemed to break the ice a bit. We still did not find a common ancestor, but our ancestors and theirs both with the name of Winkler lived in the small village of maybe 15 houses at the same time in mid 1800s.  I am still thinking there must be some connection. 

Anyway, then we toured the huge family garden, followed by coffee and cake back in the house.  After that, they showed us around the village so we could get some photos of the former Sun Mill area.   The mill is in ruins today, but so is the Winkler mill in Kansas. 

Following that excursion, the husband worked in the garden while the wife drove us to some surrounding villages where we explored the countryside and visited some local churches and cemeteries. 

Remember, in Germany cemetery lots are "rented" for say 20 years and if the family is not around to pay for a second "lease" the lot is re-rented to another family.  We did find some related names, both family names and other surnames we recognized of people who came from Germany after our relatives and settled in the same Kansas village.  Here are some of the names:  Winkler, Kunze, Buchheim, Wetzig, Heller, Kuhne, Oehmichen. 

When we returned to the house we were invited to rest in the shade and then to stay for BBQ supper.  We visited in the garden over a beer or two and learned lots about life in this part of the world during the lifetimes of our new friends. 

So how did we communicate?  They had some english and we have some German language.  Complex ideas were diffcult and the dictionary came out fairly often, but simple questions and illustrations worked well.  (Note:  In our B & B, the children were younger - middle school and high school, and the younger folks had quite good english language skills acquired in school in the last 15 or so years.)  Older folks grew up in the post war era and have little english. 

For supper, the son cooked brats on the grill accompanied by potato salad (cold), and home grown tomatoes and cucumbers. 

We had a great time and the family was very gracious to us.  We thank them for taking the time to help us get to know the village and the region.

Getting It Back Together

Well, we finished the trip and I was either too busy or did not have good internet connections, so did not post daily while on the trip. I am going to start posting again, and will try to provide a daily account of the trip. Here goes......

Thursday, June 3 - Leipzig, Neichen
After WWII, one of my dad's cousins here in the US received a series of letters from cousins in Leipzig, Germany (written in German). I now have copies of those letters. Leipzig was at that time part of the communist German Democratic Republic. Times were difficult then and the letters reflected that, asking if the US cousins could please send coffee, eyeglass lenses, shoe soles, etc, all items they could not obtain in Leipzig.




On Thursday, before leaving Leipzig, we walked around the train station to find Ehrensteinstrasse 22, where our Kunze cousins lived at that time. Today, the neighborhood appears prosperous and well maintained.

After the walk, we picked up our bags and hiked to the Avis car rental shop to pick up a car and head to the country. We had a nice drive through the village of Oelschuetz, where the Winklers lived before coming to the US. Just 2 kilometers south of there we found a Pension (B & B) in Neichen at a family home. It was typical for the area, a courtyard with houses on two sides, several generations of the family living in one location. They also had a huge garden. The price was right, 20 euro per night for the room and 10 euro per person per day for breakfast. That is about $50 per day for room and a HUGE breakfast.

That night we drove to the Grimma, a larger town in the area with restaurants and ate at K House in the older part of the city. Fred had Salmon with potatoes and I had Schnitzel with fried potatoes and mushrooms - wonderful! We finished with a specialty of the house, an ice cream sundae with eier liqueur - yes, it is made with eggs, and the dessert was wonderful as well. So far, we have not lost ANY weight, despite walking miles per day. Till next time!

Dresden Day 2

Perhaps you are wondering what we are doing in Dresden. Our Winkler ancestors came from a small town in Saxony called Oelschuetz, which is near Wurzen, which is near Leipzig, which is near Dresden. Dresden is the capital of Saxony and a wonderful historical city, so this is where our journey began.

Yesterday started off great with a good cheap breakfast at the Imbiss below our room. Sandwiches on hard rolls with salami and lunch meat, boild egg, great coffee. Then, to save time and our legs, we took the bus to the Altstadt, but got turned around when we got off the bus and walked almost all of the way back to the hotel before we realized that. Anyway, we started the Frauenkirche, originally completed in 1763. It was destroyed in 1945 and after German reunification, was rebuilt and reopened in 2005. It is a Lutheran church, and very beautiful in pastel colors with lots of gold. The cost to rebuild was more than 100 million euros.

Next we walked past a mural called the Parade of Nobles, 24,000 tiles of Meissen procelain on the back wall of the royal palace, depicitng 700 years of Saxon royalty, constructed in 1871. As I walked past this mural, I see the people our Winkler ancestors were named after, Johann, August, Frederick, Wilhemina.

The mural led us to the Catholic church, the Hof Kirche, another beautiful church, all light and airy with a wonderful pipe organ that someone was playing. We sat and just listened for a few minutes.

Around the corner is the Zwinger museum, which is a beautiful place, built around an open square, somewhat like the Louvre. We spent an hour touring the collection of Augustus the Strong's chinese porcelain collection, then realized there was another hour of Meissen porcelain from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, beautiful stuff.

After the Zwinger, it was back to the fischhaus for lunch, grilled trout for me and the Captains plate for Fred.

After lunch, we walked and rode the bus along the Elbe river. There is a bike/hike path along the river, going all the way to Meissen. Lots of people out, even on a rainy day, walking, biking, rowing, etc.

Gotta go - breakfast calls.

Back from France and Back into Poland Trip

We have just returned from a 2 week work/exploring trip to France. True to form, I was depressed on the way home as I did not have my next trip finalized. Sunday we bought our tickets for Poland and eastern Germany! I have been using http://www.kayak.com/ to monitor ticket prices and had been a bit dismayed at the prices.

Saturday I got notice that some of the German cities had dropped in price, while Poznan has been increasing. Sunday we bought tickets from the midwest to Dresden, Germany for $927 each, the lowest prices I have seen in a couple of months.

With Kayak, I was watching all possible cities, from Milan to Hamburg, and from Stettin to Warsaw. Kayak monitors multiple travel sites, including Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, CheapTickets, etc. Once I saw the lower price, I went directly to http://www.usairways.com/ to book the flight and got it for the same price as reported by one of the above travel sites.

Today I adjusted the itinerary to reflect the flight into and out of Dresden. The flight goes through Charlotte and Frankfurt on the way to Dresden, which is near my dad's Winkler ancestral home in Oelschuetz, Germany.

Lots still to be done on this trip. Now that we are back in the country, I will try to update you more regularly. Till next time! Auf wiedersehen!