The Fritz Rosburgs and Celia and I had started planning the trip over a year ago. On July 4, 2000 we began our travels, including Fritz, Marilyn, Lyle and Karen Rosburg, Mabel and Ruth Busdieker, Margie Dieckman, Minnie Holt, Celia and me.

Tuesday, July 4, 2000:

Carl picked up Celia and me and took us to, and dropped us off at, the St. Louis airport. While Celia and I were at the U S Air ticket counter, the four Rosburgs arrived as well. The trip to Philadelphia had some surprises in it for us. First of all, it was announced that it was a "regional" jet and anything larger than a small briefcase had to be "checked" into a special carry-on luggage section of the plane, which meant we had to drop our hand luggage off as we were walking on the pavement in the open air to the steps leading up into the aircraft. Then in Philadelphia, as we deplaned through a set of stairs rolled up to the plane, we picked up that "carry-on" luggage from a baggage cart at the base of the stairs. We were also surprised that food was served on the plane because our travel agent had told us no meals would be provided. At Philadelphia, our group of ten worked together to help Minnie find a place at the airport to buy some motion sickness medicine she thought she might need.

After settling down for our five hour layover at the gate from which our plane to Munich was to take off, we had waited an hour when our departure gate was changed. When our plane arrived, it did not park next to the terminal gate. Rather, the passengers walked from the gate area onto a "people mover". It could be called a gigantic bus on which over 150 passengers could sit or stand. After the people went from the terminal waiting area to the "people mover" , it was lowered to travel level and then, when arriving at the plane, was raised a number of feet to match the door of the waiting plane so the passengers could enter the plane. Two such trips filled the plane. Finally the time came for departure and the plane, a Boeing 767, left on time for Munich.

We were not all seated together, Lyle, for example, was seated in a location befitting his size, and Mabel, Margie and Minnie were seated a number of rows behind the rest of us. Ruth switched seats with me so that Celia and I could sit together.

On board with us were 63 students from Colorado Springs, comprising a symphony orchestra, along with over forty adult sponsors or family members.

Wednesday, July 5:

After landing at Munich, we were met by Elisabeth, who had just flown in from Zurich, Switzerland, who will be our guide for the next week. We also met Heidi, who was our local guide, who described the sights (in English) that we were seeing as we rode the tour bus through Munich. There are to be no others on our tour bus for the week, just the ten of us. That will make things a lot nicer

. We stopped at the Nymphenburg Palace, where our local guide gave us a brief tour and we also stopped at the Marienplatz where we were able to hear the chimes and spend two hours browsing around the area and having lunch.

We were taken back to the hotel with the strong recommendation by our guide to not take a nap, since that would make it more difficult to overcome any jet lag problems we might have.

At 5:30 we were taken by our bus to the Augustiner Restaurant for supper; afterwards we walked back to the hotel.

On the way back we noticed an elderly frail woman asking (in English) for directions from a person who was clearly not an English-speaking person. Celia and Elisabeth noticed it and took her under their wing. The lady was from Tennessee and was looking for the City Hotel; she had left it to go shopping in the area and could not find her way back. She was only a block and a half away from the hotel. We walked with her until she saw it on the street a half block away. She gave both Celia and Elisabeth a big hug.

Thursday, July 6:

I was happy to see that the breakfast buffet included scrambled eggs this morning because many hotels don't include that item. After breakfast, we boarded the bus and went to the former Dachau concentration camp , a former munitions factory, looking much like a very well kept military base, with a large iron sculpture in its courtyard, showing abstract bits of hands, arms, legs and feet! Medical experiments were performed there. So called "Undesirables" were housed there. There were 206,000 prisoners registered there at some time between 1933 - 1945. Many were taken away without being registered. There was a Surname/Photo Records Museum; 34 barracks; an office building. Two barracks were infirmaries. There was a a canteen & workshop (each barrack had been divided into 4 units: living rooms & dormitories). Each two units shared a washroom & lavatory (208 prisoners per barracks). Disease & epidemics caused the infirmary to be expanded to 13 barracks. Many German young people groups filed through the museum & grounds this morning. There weren't too many individuals or families visit- the site. It looks now like a well manicured military base! We then drove on, stopping about 9 kilometers from Oberammergau for lunch at a roadside restaurant just off the autobahn. Then on to Bad Kohlgrub where Elisabeth had "cancelled" our hotel reservations in favor of a "better" hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. After leaving Bad Kohlgrub, we stopped in Oberammergau and spent two hours roaming the town in our respective groups, shopping for souvenirs, getting German money, walking around the town or just sitting in the shade on a bench by the Ammer River with the Bavarian Alps in the background.

After another ride on the bus we arrived at the Post Hotel in Partenkirchen, our lodging for the next two nights. The penthouse room that Celia and I stayed in was quite large and showed internally and well as externally the half-timbered construction used when they built it over a century ago. It was recently remodeled but retains the old style construction and furnishings. The ceiling of our room contains a roof window that we can open, hinged in the middle, about two feet by four feet. There is currently a gentle breeze coming in. Through the window we can see the mountains in the distance.

Supper was at 7 p.m. So far, the food we've been served for those meals provided for us has been more than ample.

Friday, July 7:

It began raining this morning as we got up so we had to close our ceiling window. After an early breakfast at 7 a.m., we boarded our bus to head for the Passion Play. We parked in the bus parking lot and walked at least 20 minutes to the Passion Play Theater. We arrived just in time to make use of the rest rooms before the Passion Play started at 9:30 a.m. Actually, the rest room visits took quite a while, with lines extending out the rest room doors and extending 40 feet into the sidewalk area. The play was presented in German, but each of the over 4,000 spectators at each performance got a copy of a book (from one end written in German and from the other end written in English) that gave the history of the play since the seventeenth century, and the word for word dialog of the actors. There was a choir and a narrator. At times there were hundreds of people on the stage, at time there were sheep, goats, and even a donkey and a horse. The intermission came at 12:30 p.m. after three hours. We had reservations for lunch at a restaurant a few blocks from the Theater. We finished lunch with lots of time to spare so we spent time browsing in the area and even buying some souvenirs. The second half of the Passion Play performance lasted another three hours. The dramatic parts of it were, of course, the crucifixion scene, and even Judas' suicide by hanging occurred on the stage. When the play ended, it was raining rather hard. We dashed for the shuttle busses, crammed in like sardines, but unloaded an a few minutes back at the bus parking area where our bus and driver were waiting. After a few minutes we were back at our Post Hotel in Partenkirchen and supper. Our driver had heard that the weather forecast for the next several days was for rain. We'll see.

Saturday, July 8:

What a day! First the bus driver forgot his luggage at last night's hotel and we had to go back for it; then our group got separated on the Neuschwanstein "mountain" and didn't get together again until three hours after the rendezvous time, and then only with the help of the police.

But back to the morning! We left Partenkirchen with a deadline of needing to arrive at Neuschwanstein by 10 a.m. when we were scheduled to tour the castle. After traveling a short while, the driver suddenly stopped, backed into a narrow alley and headed back to Partenkirchen because he had suddenly recalled he had not brought his luggage. He made up the time by speeding along narrow mountain roads. We got there in time; not everyone in our group wanted to tour the castle with all its steps. Those that wanted to tour the castle waited in the light rain in the castle courtyard until our turn came.

At this point the tour guide left us to find those not taking the tour.

It was an interesting tour, but a bit shorter than the ones Celia and I had experienced in previous visits to Neuschwanstein. The kitchen and related items were not included in the tour this time. We had agreed to meet at a restaurant after the tour, so after the tour was over we went there and had lunch, but no one else showed up. Finally we went to the bus parking area further down the "mountain" but only the driver and bus were there. Soon the guide showed up, and after waiting another hour, during which time Lyle, Ruth, and Karen went back up the mountain to make contact with the rest of our group, we finally contacted the police. After another hour, we were all together again.

We traveled by autobahn to Rothenberg, arriving just in time for supper at 7:30 p.m. Some of our group had an after supper walk on the city wall; others recuperated in their rooms.

Sunday, July 9:

After a continental breakfast at the Prinz Hotel in Rothenberg, we were given a 90 minute walking tour of Rothenberg by a very knowledgeable young man, who was a part-time tour guide and full time student at the local university. Included in his presentation was the legend of how hundreds of years ago Rothenberg had been saved by a man able to consume three liters of wine at one time. After the walk, most of us had lunch at McDonalds, then a bit more time to shop or browse before boarding the bus around 1 p.m. and leaving Rothenberg for the trip of several hours to Heidelberg. The mood on the bus was much lighter than yesterday. When our tour director played tapes over the audio system of the bus that included songs such as Old Man River, Singing in the Rain, Waltzing Matilda, Clementine, When Irish Eyes are Smiling, You Are My Sunshine, and songs from the Sound of Music, many of us joined in the singing as our bus rolled through the Cocher River Valley from Heilbrun to Heidelberg.

The light rain continued as we arrived in Heidelberg, had supper and eventually turned in.

Monday, July 10:

After a great breakfast, we had a tour of Heidelberg from 9 to 12. We saw everything from a spot where centuries ago horses went down to drink; a student jail; the remains of the Heidelberg castle whose construction and destruction spanned several centuries; a cathedral; lots of shops around the base of the cathedral and a McDonalds restaurant (where Celia and I and others had lunch).

Then we hit the road again, stopping in Speyer for thirty minutes at an institution where one could do family research. Then on to Worms where we saw the famous cathedral and also the supposed exact spot where Martin Luther had defended the 95 theses he had presented in Wittenberg.

We arrived in Ruedesheim, had a chance to explore the Drosselgasse as well as some other quaint streets before supper. It was a noisy supper; not our group but the hundreds of other guests eating in our general area and various kinds of live music for entertainment. After supper, Celia and I went for a walk along the street bordering the river, found a money machine and got a new supply of German money. As I write this we can still hear the noise of music and people celebrating.

Tuesday, July 11:

We had approved our tour guide's idea to go up the Rhine instead of down the Rhine, thus releasing our bus driver several hours earlier. He first took us to the 125 foot high Niederwald Monument, 750 feet above the Rhine, a huge monument designed to symbolize German unity and the reestablishment of the German Empire. Thirty-two tons of bronze were required for casting the statue.

The bus then took us to St. Goarshausen where we boarded the K-D cruise ship heading upstream back toward Ruedesheim. We traveled past the Lorelei rock to the singing of the Lorelei, "Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten, dass ich so traurig bin...." . We briefly docked along the way at the towns of St. Goar, Oberwesel, Bacharach, Assmanshausen, Bingen and finally Ruedesheim.

We spend the rest of the afternoon doing our own thing in Ruedesheim, including watching T.V. , shopping, walking, visiting a bank, spending some time on the internet, and seeing the sights of Ruedesheim, including the Broemserburg castle, Drosselgasse (a famous, very narrow shopping street), St.Jakobus church and even our hotel, the Ruedesheimer Schloss which was built in 1729,

Supper at 7 p.m. ended the day for some of us.

Wednesday, July 12:

We left Ruedesheim at 8 a.m., dropped our tour guide off at the Frankfurt airport at 9 and shortly thereafter were at the Intercity Hotel next to the Frankfurt main train station. As we were crossing the street from our hotel back to the train station, we noticed a woman on the pavement who had just had a seizure and fallen. Another woman immediately rushed to the train station to get help - before we had time to cross the street, a police officer had come to assist.

Five of us: Lyle, Ruth, Mabel , Celia and I used our rail and bus pass from the hotel to take the S-Bahn to Friedberg, then changed trains and took a train to Nidda. There we took a bus to Ulfa where the Holt family's ancestral church that Ruth had discovered and wanted to see is located.

We had learned by phone that the pastor would not be able to be at the church until after 5 p.m., so we started to walk around the streets of Ulfa. We found the church immediately, but found it locked. After strolling for about an hour through the virtually deserted streets, it became important to find public rest rooms or, alternatively, a restaurant, which would provide both food and rest rooms. All such businesses were apparently closed. We finally asked a man just coming out of his house about locating a restaurant. He indicated that on Wednesday afternoons, all places of businesses were closed. By then we had already told him of our reason for being there, of our waiting to see the pastor, of our coming by train and bus and thus not having a car. When we told him that what we really needed were "Toiletten", he and his wife invited us into their house to use their facilities. Then they offered us a variety of drinks; we sat around their dining table, drinking and visiting. Ruth brought out her genealogical charts and we chatted about families they knew whose names were on the charts. They told us about friends and relatives who either lived in the U.S. or who had visited there. He worked in the local bank.

After leaving them we continued walking down the virtually empty streets, occasionally greeting and speaking with the quite friendly people we met, sharing with them our reasons for being there.

Apparently at least one of them must have spread the word because as we were crossing an intersection, from a hundred feet away a couple of ladies were calling for us to come. One lady introduced us to her mother, an 89 year old lady who had some information to share with us and who invited us into the home she shared with her husband and with her daughter and son-in-law. A sharp lady at the age of 89, she shared what she knew of the genealogical information we were seeking., but she also shared her ideas of things important in life. At one point in our chat we talked about flags of the various German provinces. I wanted to be sure that they meant flags and not coats of arms, so I asked about that. The German word for coat of arms is "wappen" and the lady thought I had said, "Waffen", the word for military weapons. She said Oh No, that she had lived through two wars in Germany and she didn't want that to happen again. Her daughter let her know the word I had used, but we continued with her topic for a while. I mentioned that people from different countries getting to know each other would help avoid war. She said "Yes" and the we all have the same God. After covering a variety of topics we thanked them for their hospitality and moved on down the street.

Shortly after 5 p.m. and four hours after we had arrived in Ulfa and had these several remarkable experiences, the pastor of the Ulfa church arrived and opened the church for us. More picture taking followed as well as chatting - this time in English.

At a quarter to six we caught the bus to Nidda, then the train to Friedberg and then the S-bahn to the main Frankfurt train station.

Thursday, July 13:

It was a day of mostly travel. Up by 8 a.m. for breakfast at the hotel and by 10:30 we were on Track 7 of the main train station waiting for our Inter City Express train. It arrived on time. Five of us had a terrible time wading through mobs of people and luggage in our car to find our reserved seats and courteously eject the people sitting there. After that is was a breeze traveling to Hanover, with the video display at the end of the car occasionally registering speeds of over 250 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour). We changed trains at Hanover and headed for Osnabrueck, arriving there just before 3 p.m.. Herr Michels, who had arranged for our rental cars, was waiting for us, took us to the dealer to get our two five-passenger rental cars, then led us to the Rieskamp-Goedeking guest house, where we settled in. Then we arranged for a meal to be prepared for us by 6:30 p.m. I invited Guenter and Friedhelm to join us for dinner. It was a delightful evening with people trying hard to communicate across language barriers and having lots of fun doing it. We made tentative plans for the next few days before we retired for the evening.

Friday, July 14:

Today was a "Melle" day. All ten of us in the two cars headed for Melle soon after breakfast. Lyle and Ruth negotiated the local roads and the autobahn in good shape and we arrived at the AmBusdiek Road near Melle in one hour rather than the two we had allowed. So we had an extensive picture taking session at the Am Busdiek sign, then drove on to the Martini church in Buer. We found it open, had a chance to explore it and chat with the custodian. We learned that the custodian had a grandmother with the maiden name of "Freese" who had lived in the area east of Westerkappeln, but she could not recall the first name.

After a lot of picture taking, we back-tracked to the Am Busdiek sign and followed the road to the Busdieker residence. Lots of Busdieker pictures as well as of the whole group were taken outside their house. Then inside, Fritz took photos of several photos they had. After some time, we all drove to the church where the recorder/historian of the church told us about the history of the building and the congregation. I served as translator as best I could, translating every few sentences. Then we walked to the restaurant where our hosts had made reservations. On the way to the restaurant we stopped at a large shop that was repairing windmills. After lunch we were given a guided walking tour around the church neighborhood, which included eldercare, kindergarten, assisted living apartments, and apartments for women with small children.

Then we had a tour by car, going to three different Busdieker homes, taking pictures at all of them, and briefly going inside two of them. One of the families was very much into homing pigeons and had quite a display of the trophies they had won. We ended our auto tour at the Bussdieker Furniture Store where we were given "Kaffee", i.e., coffee and the typical galoptious German cakes, one a sponge cake with a strawberry gelatin topping the size of a large pizza, the second a pound cake with a vanilla center and cooked sliced apple and almond topping, the third a chocolate chiffon with slivers of dark chocolate sprinkled on top along with whipped cream.

After quite a while in the store, which included time for shopping and purchasing, we said our goodbyes to all the Bussdiekers. Ruth and Lyle had no trouble getting us back to Westerkappeln. We went to the protestant church, looked and chatted about it, then went to the cemetery, where most of us explored it, looking at surnames, and noticing the landscaping and care given to the grave sites.

After a brief stop at our guest house, five of us headed for the Schnell Restaurant at the Westfalen Grill on a main street through Westerkappeln.

When the five of us returned to the guest house, Mabel, Minnie, Margie and the Laumeyers (who had visited with Tom and Minnie Holt) sat and chatted until the Laumeyers said good bye, in anticipation of leaving tomorrow for several weeks of vacation tomorrow.

Saturday, July 15:

After breakfast at the guest house, Ruth made two trips with the car to ferry the five other of us to the shopping area around the Westerkappeln church. We had arranged with Guenter and Friedhelm that we would show up at the farm around 10:30 a.m. The six of us strolled the streets of Westerkappeln and did some shopping before arriving at Guenter and Friedhelm's at the appointed hour. We were given a tour of the farmhouse, barn and shown all the improvements they had made in recent years. After sitting and drinking and chatting in their living room we had a solid delicious noon meal with cooked potatoes with gravy, hamburgers, peas and carrots in cream sauce, tea and coffee along with vanilla pudding topped with cherries for dessert.

After lunch we went to the tractor museum near Westerkappeln. This included a display of old tractors, potato diggers, straw choppers, threshing machines and a 4 foot by 6 foot picture of Guenter's parents along with a 7 year old Guenter using a tractor pulling a harvesting machine. Then we returned to Guenter and Friedhelm's for a photo session with a newspaper reporter.

Then we had "Kaffee", including "Bienen Stueck", and "Schwarzfelde Kirch Torte" cakes.

There was more chatting and visiting until 6:45 when they got a call saying the Bentes were waiting for us to arrive for supper. So into the cars for a delightful supper, lot of picture-taking at this ancestral Freese home from which my great-grandfather had emigrated in 1842. By 10 p.m. we had said our good-byes and ere on our way back to the Rieskamp-Goedeking guest house.

Sunday, July 16:

Guenter picked up Celia and me from our guest house at 8:30 a.m. We visited with Guenter and Friedhelm until almost time for their church services to start. We then drove the one kilometer to their church and were joined by the other four of us visitors who were spending the day with the Wilhelm Erke's. The worship service, in German, was interesting and followed by cups of tea for all of us. Then Friedhelm, Guenter and Celia and I went to the Yugoslav Restaurant we had enjoyed in June when we were here. I had selected Bosniches "Halb und Halb" and so I ordered it again. The quantity and quality again were outstanding.

We drove to Erke's where we joined the other four who were going to Tecklenburg with Erke's. We rode there, saw the old fortress walls, the open-air theater, and did some shopping. While walking in the streets there, we happened to meet the former Gemeinde Direktor of Westerkappeln, who allegedly recognized me. He and his family are now living in Techlenburg. Then we returned to Erke's where we had "Kaffee". After sitting and visiting until 6:30, the group of six visitors were invited to Guenter and Friedhelm's. We went there and were having drinks when Fritz and Wilma arrived. More drinks and more chatting followed until nearly ten o'clock when I decided it was time to leave. With gracious good-byes we were taken to our guest hours Haven't heard from Fritz and Marilyn so we presume they'll be returning to Westerkappeln from the Hamburg area tomorrow.

Monday, July 17:

After breakfast, Celia and I waited on the highway in front of the Rieskamp-Goedeking guest house for the bus to take us to the Osnabrueck Hauptbahnhof so we could buy our group train tickets to Hamburg. The trip to Osnabrueck and back was uneventful. This time we got a 55% discount on our train tickets. Upon returning to the guest house, Celia and I bought some snacks for our lunch and then had a brief nap. Shortly before 1 p.m. the other eight members of our group showed up -- they'd spent part of the morning in Westerkappeln.

Our two cars and ten persons headed for Burg Steinfurt and its castle where a Bergfelt ancestor had played in the orchestra many years ago.

Lyle and Ruth drove there with no problem with Karen as navigator. Upon arrival we only had thirty minutes to wait before the next tour. We joined that tour and received a thorough narration of the history of the castle and its architecture. After the tour was over and we were leaving we mentioned why we were interested in the castle. The guide asked if the person might have played in the orchestra in the year 1805 because she had at home a book that would have that information. She offered to drive home and get it so we could find out. We agreed to wait for her at the restaurant across the street from the castle. The ten of us went to the restaurant and were seated around a very large table having drinks when she returned. The Bergfelt name was indeed listed; the guide offered to sell the book, saying she would buy another copy. Ruth did so and after some more conversation, we headed first for a brief stop at the nearby Bagno Concert Hall, a recent authentic reconstruction of the hall from the last century and then on to Westerkappeln.

We had an appointment with a reporter from the Neue Osnabruecke Zeitung. The manager of our guest house had set up a dozen chairs in one of their several banquet rooms. The reporter arrived on time and was conducted a lengthy interview of the ten of us. He was almost through when another reporter, this one from the Westfaelische Nachrichten, arrived. We went outside briefly where both reporters took pictures. When the first reporter left, the second one began her questions. Being interviewed was an interesting experience. After the conclusion of the interviews, we ordered our meals and were served in the same room where we'd been interviewed. Some three hours after our interviews started, we finished our meals and retired to our rooms.

Tuesday, July 18:

At breakfast this morning we decided not to travel as far into Holland as originally planned. We decided instead to go just over the border and then explore some small towns in that area of the Netherlands. It worked out well. We took the autobahn into Holland, got off at an exit that had a McDonalds, since it was time for a rest room stop. After buying some food, we asked the young lady at the counter for a recommendation of a small town in the area that would be interesting to tourists. She recommended the town of Ootmarsum, showed us on a map where it was located and how to get there. It was a quaint town with good shops with souvenirs. Virtually all of us found something to buy during our 90 minute stroll of the "down town" area. After our lunch back at the McDonalds, we decided to take the scenic route home, including stops at two windmills that Fritz had spotted on a map.

As we arrived at our guest house, we found Guenter there to invite the ten of us to their house after supper to have drinks and view slides of some of their trips. Some of us took a nap before leaving for supper at the fast food restaurant at the Westfalen Grill.

The evening at Guenter and Friedhelm's was pleasant. It included Friedhelm giving Fritz, Marilyn, Lyle, and Karen a tour of their farmstead. The evening ended with delicious dishes of ice cream served to us by Guenter.

Wednesday, July 19:

We were eating breakfast when the mother of the guest house manager came and showed us an article that had appeared in today's issue of the Westfaelische Nachrichten. There were actually two pictures, one of the group and one of St. Johns, Cappeln back home. We all decided we would want a copy, so since Ruth had agreed to take Celia and me to a grocery store in Westerkappeln so we could buy some lunch for on the train, we decided to see if that store had copies of the newspaper. At the store we found that it did; we bought all their copies. We saw copies of the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung there and with the help of a clerk, we found an article about us in it as well, including a photo of our group. We bought eight copies of that paper as well. Then back to the guest house for some last minute packing. We were all ready to go with our luggage in the cars at the appointed hour of 10 a.m. when Werner Michels arrived to lead us to the car rental place to drop off our cars. As it turned out, two drivers from that firm became our chauffeurs (two of our group joined Herr Michels in his personal car) and we traveled to the Osnabrueck train station. We went to the track from which our train to Hamburg was to depart, found where the train car on which we had reservations would be stopping and within twenty minutes, the train arrived and we boarded the train. We found our seats quickly in the two six-person compartments. It was the last car of the train and it was interesting to look through the locked back door and see the tracks receding into the distance.

I was sitting in one of the four seats we had reserved in the six-seat compartment when a man in our car, apparently having heard our English, asked us where we were from. After he learned we were from Missouri, he became quite excited because he had a good friend with whom he had lost contact, the man being on the faculty of the University of Missouri in Columbia. He asked if I might be able to make contact with that person and let him know of the result. He himself was a professor of History at the Max Planck Institute in Goettingen. When I told him I thought I could do that, he repeatedly expressed his gratitude. Our conversation of an hour or so ended when we arrived in Hamburg.

After our group got off the train, Lyle and I went out to find a place where we could get a city map and directions to the Dorint Hotel where we had reservations, and tickets to get there. We accomplished that, then Lyle led our troupe to the appropriate subway station. We traveled a while on the subway and came up a few blocks from our hotel.

After checking in and after a brief break, most of us left to go to the harbor, using the subway again, and took a one-hour cruise there. It is an impressive harbor with many ships and large, efficient cranes for loading and unloading ships.

After taking the subway back to the neighborhood of our hotel, we stopped at a quick food place and got some take-out food to have supper in our rooms. Some of us watched CNN for a while before turning in.

Thursday, July 20:

All of us decided to skip the breakfast in the hotel this morning - when I learned it was not included in the room rate, and was rather expensive, Celia and I just got ready that much sooner and were checked out and ready to get on the hotel's shuttle to the airport by seven o'clock. Not all ten of us were able to go at the same time. When the first group of us got in line at the appropriate ticket window, we were asked if we would like to take an earlier plane to Munich. That was perfect, because we only had had a scheduled one hour layover. We waited till all ten of us were in line and then made the switch, going to the appropriate new gate. With the extra layover in Munich, there was a bit less stress, and we found the gate for the flight from Munich to Philadelphia with no trouble. Conveniently, there was a fairly extensive shopping area adjacent to that gate. We were able to pass the two hours without much boredom. People were easily able to spend down their supply of German Marks if they so desired.

While flying from Munich to Philadelphia, there was a call over the P.A. system to determine if there was a doctor or nurse on board. That was the first time that Celia and I had experienced such a call in our flights hither and yon in the past ten years. It seems that a lady had developed a bad case of hives and needed care. She was sitting a few rows behind us and we could see that medical personnel did volunteer to help, directed a stewardess to go for a particular kind of medication in their supplies, which she found. After this was administered, everything seemed to be improving.

Our group had very little trouble going through customs in Philadelphia. During our several hour layover waiting for our plane to St. Louis, we had a chance to sample the Philadelphia airport food. The trip from Philadelphia to St. Louis was uneventful. After we arrived in St. Louis, I called Carl and, by occasional contact with his mobile phone, we were able to meet him at the dropoff point at the airport and quickly get headed homeward.

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