Thursday, July 21: Essen-Kettwig

On the last day of our trip I went with Billy and Uschi to Essen-Kettwig which is just north of Ratingen-Hösel.   First we went through an antique store which has since been torn down.  It had some really cool things, but the prices weren't so cool, especially with the poor exchange rate.

Then we walked along Baldeneysee which is a dam of the Ruhr-river. The Ruhr gives this area the name "Ruhrgebiet."  There were many different kinds of birds in the water and ripe blackberries along the other side of the path.

Uschi made spätzle with vegetables and meat for dinner--it was really good; we've started making it for dinner here.  Then we packed and got ready to leave for the airport.

Originally we were scheduled to fly nonstop to Atlanta and then after a several hour layover there and at another airport, get home late at night.  However, the plane was overbooked, and they flew us home on a much more direct route, a city hopper to Amsterdam and a direct flight to Detroit.  The only downside is that they didn't give us any flight compensation.

We had left our big suitcase at Billy and Uschi's house and had only had one backpack each.  Both of our backpacks expanded quite a bit, and we bought quite a bit.  We filled up both the suitcase and the extra bag in order to get our backpacks down to carry-on size.

Wednesday, July 20: Dortmund

On Wednesday, July 20 Uschi took us to Dortmund where her daughter Susan lives. We went shopping

and out to lunch.

Dortmund Old Town Hall

City center

Main Square

One of the stores had dirndls for sale; I liked the detail on this one. 

Dortmund has really cute statues of winged rhinos all over the city. 

                                                                                                                                                                                               











                                                                                                                                                                                                   

I think this was the store window for a bread store.  I believe the goat was cut from Swiss cheese. 

 In the evening we visited Simon and his girlfriend.

Tuesday, July 19: Wiedenest

In the morning Regina took us to visit Onkel Karl and Tante Friedl. Onkel Karl is Ama's twin brother. Then we went back to theBibel Schule and looked around. We went inside the Wiedenest Church which had been pastored by generations of Trommershausen, vorebears of Ama's father's mother. On the door is a huge brass relief of the apocolypse in Revelation. On In the afternoon we looked at old pictures. Regina had a postcard of Wiedenest from 1919 of the two buildings belonging to the Bible school--it has multiplied many times over since then. We also went for a walk in the woods under the train bridge. Usche came for tea. We visited Onkel Karl and Tante Friedl one more time and then went back to Düsseldorf with Usche.









The view from Regina's balcony.





Johannes Warns' writing desk which has come down to granddaughter Regina.

























Map of the Bible school in 2012







Postcard from Wiedenest in 1919 with the two original bible school houses circled.














One of the original Bible school houses. The top level was added in 1920.










The dormitories right next to the house where Ama grew up.















This is Erich Sauer's house across the street from Ama's house which was a bookstore for a while.











Wiedenest Lutheran Church











Door with Apocalypse






















'


















Offering box in foyer

















Old house right next to Kirche





















The woods.















The house where Ama moved after her dad died in 1937.

Monday, 18: July: Part 2: Wiedenest

We took the train to Bergneustadt where we looked around the city a little and ate lunch. Then we called Regina who came and picked us up. We did discover that we could have taken a bus either to Wiedenest or to the Bibel Schule. Regina had just retired from the Bibel Schule and had moved to Wiedenest. She has a nice flat on the upper level of a home complete with a balcony and a great view.

Regina inherited this writing desk from her grandfather; it originally came from Fraulein von Blucher.

After tea we went for a walk even though it looked like rain, but the rain cleared up when we started out.

We went to the Bibel Schule in the afternoon where we viewed the new building, the curved white building . The picture of the founders had been moved to this area and a new picture of Fraulein von Blucher had been added. The last 3 pictures are of Johannes Warns (Ama's dad), Christoph Kohler (Ama's grandfather) and Erich Sauer (Ama's uncle). We slept at the Bibel Schule dormitory that night.

We also walked past the house where Ama was born and past the house across the street where Ama's family moved after her dad died. The garden is considerably smaller, but the garden house is still there.

We also walked past the abandoned train track which Ama had taken to school and back into the forest.

And through the cemetery where we looked at the graves of all the relatives.

Next we went into the Wiedenest Church which had been pastored by generations of Trommershausens. (Ama's paternal grandmother's family name)

The door of the church is bronze with a scene of the horsemen from the Apocalypse in it.

And a trip to Wiedenest is not complete without a visit to the quelle and a reminder of the proverb: Whoever drinks from the well will return again.

hazelnuts!