a family history lesson

The past few days we had the privilege and pleasure of staying with some of our distant relatives in Northern Germany.  the long and short story of it is that our maternal grandmother's side of that family is from Germany (Beltz family name) - many of those distant relatives live in Germany due to the fact that our great-great-Grandfather was only 1 of 8 siblings who came to the United States.  We spent 2 nights with Henner Beltz and his family in Bad Zwischenahn, which is about an hour and a half north of Bremen.  Henner and his wife Ulrike are both in horticulture - gardening is a family trade-hobby that dates back many generations.  Our time with the Beltz family was wonderful.  The first night we were there we enjoyed picking strawberries (erdberre) and blueberries (blauberre) in their huge garden with Christa and Stefan (their children).  We enjoyed these fresh berries with eis (ice cream) after dinner!  Yummo!!


That evening Henner shared some family "facts" or stories with us.  He wasn't totally sure about the truth of it all, but some things he did know for sure.  There was one story of a distant relative getting burned for being a witch.  Another relative was a coachman (driver) for a brother of Napoleon Bonaparte who reigned over Kassel, Germany.  And the story that he knew of our great-great-Grandfather is that he was in job training to be a baker here in Germany.  The family had 8 children and they were very poor.  Ludwig, our great-great-Grandfather was supposedly caught stealing at his bakery job training and so they threw him out - sent him on a ship towards England.  He was apparently shipwrecked on this trip, but pulled out of the water to safety.  The story goes that he was again on a ship over to the Americas, shipwrecked, and pulled out of the water.  A final shipwreck was off of the West Coast of the United States, where he then made his way to the Portland, Oregon area, found a pretty lady - Emma Johnson, settled down and worked as a gardner in the Washington Park area.  If only we could have more facts and fewer questions - reminds me to keep a good journal!       


Nothing like a little family history lesson! 


On Mondaz the kids had to go to school, but Henner graciously took time off of work to show us around for the day.  He and Ulrike took us to the Nordsee (North Sea), which is about an hour away from their home in Bad Zwischenahn.  We had a great time checking out this part of the ocean.  The sand is very different than our sand at home - much finer, more like mud than sand.  There are multiple small islands just off the coast and during the low tide you can actually walk to the different islands with a guide.  The tides take 12 hours to go from high tide to high tide.  We walked and walked and walked on the beach and the water just kept getting farther and farther away from us.  The weather turned out to be quite nice for us, a very pleasant day.  


After dinner that evening we had the opportunity to go on a bike ride around the lake that is in Bad Zwischenahn.  The tour was about 14k and we got to ride on the sweet "cruiser" bikes that are EVERYWHERE here - big wheels, basket on the back and all.  I want one.  Seriously.  Mom and Dad, my birthday is August 25th... :)  Ulrike and Stefan took us on this ride as the sun was setting, totallz schön (beautiful)!!  The bike ride has seriously been one of my favorite things of our trip thus far.  It was so relaxing, beautiful, and surreal to be "just going on a casual bike ride" with our distant German relatives. 


On Tuesday morning Henner's older sister, Elfriede and her husband Heinz, who live about an hour outside of Bremen came and picked us up in Bad Zwischenahn.  From there we drove to Bremerhaven, which is the main city that German immigrants went through to get to the U.S., South America, and Australia.  Elfriede took us to the Deutsches Auswanderer Haus (Germany Emigration Center) Museum.  This was a very unique museum as you take on the identity and the story of both an immigrant and an emigrant.  As you travel through the museum you swiped your "iCard" and were able to hear details fromt he specific stories of "your" immigrant-emigrant.  The museum was set up as if you were walking the steps of the immigrant-emigrant.  On the immigrant side of things you stood at the dock, waiting for the ship to come - many people grew fearful when they waited at the docks, some even turned back, but many pressed onward with the hope of new beginnings.  We then walked through the ship, seeing what it was like for the first, second, and third class passengers.  All Ican say is that I'm thankful I didn't have to take an 8+ day ship to get over to the U.S.  Yikes.  After the ship, you exited onto "Ellis Island" and the "Office of the New World", waiting for paperwork and approval for entrance into the United States.  What a nerve-racking adventure that must have been.  We really enjoyed our tour through this museum and the history of it all.  


After Bremerhaven, we took a trip into Bremen, which is a very old German town.  Old churches and many historic buildings.  We walked down one street which had the oldest house in Bremen on it, built in 1409.  Wow!  Another beautiful sunny day to walk around an old town.  


The rest of our time with Elfriede and Heinz was great.  That evening we enjoyed a lovely sit on the patio - just soaking in all of the German culture.  :)


We are currently in Berlin and heading to Dresden tomorrow.  I'll write about Berlin later and hopefully put up pictures soon.  We're currently using a computer at the house we're staying at and therefore no luck with getting pictures up.  Will update as soon as possible!  


Ciao!