Across Europe

London

Paris

Brussels

Amsterdam

Münster

April 2002, continued

All the time that I was a child, starting when I was a toddler in the Netherlands and continuing through part of college at Boston University, my maternal grandparents lived in the little town of Ahlen, Westfalen, Germany. (Back then, though, it was still the Federal Republic of Germany, as opposed to the [communist] German Democratic Republic.)

Each time we come back to Germany for a visit we return to Ahlen to look around and for me to remember going with Opa and Omi shopping each day for fresh bread (and almost everything else; refridgerators were small and fresh milk from the farmer was held in high regard). Here's the advertisment for the local kirmes (carnival). Oh, the joys of being a small child...

The other reason we come is to visit the graveyard where a number of family members are interred. The only one I ever knew is my maternal grandfather, Siegmund Spiegel, a horse trader. Perhaps my fondest memory of Germany is driving through the countryside each Friday afternoon with him, in his old Mercedes-Benz, visiting each family of farmers in their farmhouses. We'd be ushered in and fed potato latkes (pancakes) during the weekly meatless meal. Then we'd move on to the next farmhouse; more latkes....

Here's Omi at Opa's grave. The stones on top show that a visitor has stopped by; a Jewish custom. We've brought stones from all around the world to Opa's gravestone: from Hawai'i, San Francisco, Pike's Peak in Colorado, Gran Canaria and London, and many more. It's become something that I do with Omi when we're on a trip, by myself when I'm on my own.

It's almost time for us to leave Münster, so we have but a day or so to see some sights.

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