15 Sept.

I neglected to mention how well I slept after the dinner at the Greek restaurant. My mind was going a mile a minute in anticipation of the coming week, so I decided to have some wine to help get to sleep. What I didn't know was that this restaurant serves complimentary ouzo, an anise flavored liqueur. So I had that, too ... and I slept very well that night!

We had our first leisurely breakfast at the Hotel Ambiente and it was delicious and ample. We enjoyed the view from our room and from the breakfast room as the ships passed by frequently. I'm sure the Weser River was at least as busy when Dad and Opa had their business in Brake.

At 11:30 we were going to Ovelgönne to the Jewish Cemetery, which is now a preserved historic site to meet the people I'd been emailing. If you open the link, you will not see much information because Ovelgönne is a prosperous small community with a few nice shops and a handwork museum, also very nice. We wandered around and found a very nice clothing shop which we were told draws many people from far and wide, with an large wedding department.

We went to the cemetery a little early and I was upset with myself because I had some stones to lay on the grave stones of my ancestors, but I left them in the USA. It is a very small cemetery and the oldest Weinberg is Hanna Weinberg, but I don't know anything about her. She could be the mother of Samuel, my great-grandfather, who is buried there along with his wife Marie (Cohn) and my Opa's first wife, Magda and their infant daughter.

Then Lesley came along. She was the translator and as we got acquainted she said, "I like your jacket. I have some of that Jinny Beyer fabric, too." I've been looking for quilt fabric, but couldn't find much, but meeting a quilter is much better.

Next came Ulla Bernhold and we were so glad to finally meet this author who is a so thoughtful, a joy to be around and a wealth of information. Next was the Burgermeister (mayor) of Ovelgönne, Thomas Brückmann. I was beginning to appreciate that my coming back to Germany to visit was not an ordinary occurrence.

Ulla brought some stones for us to put on our ancestors gravestones which she gleamed from a field in the region where Opa was born, north of Brake. We listened as Herr Brückmann told us a little of the more recent history of this cemetery. It seems a developer wanted to buy up the acreage around the cemetery to build a new housing area, but the dispute was settled in 2001 to leave the cemetery and a significant amount of surrounding land as it is in order to "preserve the open view of the cemetery." Behind me, there is a plaque that we couldn't read because it was in German and there was dew covered plexiglass over it, which told the history of the cemetery.

We drove into town where we had the most delicious lunch (dinner) at a hotel that was staffed by handicapped adults. Their cooking skills were not lacking. The table was beautifully set and the first course was a wedding soup. Then came the rouladen, red cabbage, parsley potatoes and cucumber salad ... just like Mom fixed! It was SO good. And for dessert? Rote Grütze! All the recipes I found for the rote grütze use cornstarch as a thickener, but my mother used tapioca and any of the fresh red fruits that were in season. All were excellent.

Then Herr Brückmann presented us with a framed translation of the plaque at the cemetery and a book about Ovelgönne. The hospitality shown us made me think, again, how special our visit was.

Here we all are: Pat, Lesley, Bernd, Herr Brückmann, me, Ulla & Chuck.

After our leisurely lunch we were off to the Landkreis Wesermarsch, which is like our county offices. I rode with Ulla and she was going over what we would be do in Oldenburg. Again, I was impressed with the amount of work Ulla had done to prepare for our visit and how unique this visit was. She said that my coming back was unusual. When we got settled in the office I got out my flash drive and transfered my copies of original documents that I thought might help her with future research to a computer. Meanwhile Bernd gave Ulla a copy of the German journal that Opa wrote. The one part of the journal that we could never prove was the part where Opa states he was a part of the town council. Now Ulla had dates and could look it up.

By 5:30 we were back at the hotel and starting to process all that we had seen, heard, eaten and experienced ... and it was only our first day! We did some of this during a walk where we went past the house I lived in. I did not recognize any of it.