Tuesday, May 27 Strasbourg

I was up until about 9:30 with administration and blogging and woke up at 2:30 am. After tossing and turning, I finally got up at 4 for a shower and was down in the lobby posting the blog by 5. The combination of jet lag and a very warm room that we could not cool down made for a pretty short night. Others reported the same situation.

After a very good buffet breakfast, our bus arrived at 8 and we were on our way by 8:30. All the participants from the 2006 tour were curious whether Helmut, our driver from that tour, would make an appearance. Although the official reason is that he is on another tour, we suspect it has more to do with the problems we had at the Serbian border last trip. He said he never wanted to go back to Serbia and I guess he meant it. Our new driver, Johannes seems like a good replacement and I am sure we will come to enjoy his company as much as we did Helmut’s.

We stopped in Trier for a short tour and quick lunch. Trier is the oldest city in Germany with ancient Roman ruins and many other historic attractions. Unfortunately we were running a little late and we had an appointment at 1 pm for Mary Ann, so we did not stay long. Next time I think we will go back to the guided tour for this one.

Here is our group beside the bus in Trier: (l to r) Mary Ann, Celeste, Glenn, Betty, Miles, Diane, Nora Ann, Dorothy, Frank, Dixie, Carol, Delores, and Dean.

Mary Ann had made an appointment with the parish priest in Mensdorf, Luxembourg at 1 pm. He was running a little late, but when he arrived, he gave her an excellent tour of the church and cemetery with lots of historical information. Then, she hit the jackpot. Father Diedrich invited us back to his home (built in 1690, renovated in the last few years, with attached stable for goats) where he presented Mary Ann with several generations of birth and marriage records researched for her based on a letter she had written earlier. Furthermore, her family’s ancestral home was right across the street, information that he knew just by chance. She was grinning from ear to ear all day. Meanwhile he served wine to the rest of our group gathered around watching. On our 2006 tour, Jim had hit a similar jackpot, finding several family headstones and some written records in some villages near Metz.

We had stayed a little longer than planned in Mensdorf, so we skipped our planned stop in Metz and went straight to Strasbourg for the night. Our hotel room was pretty small, but clean enough and cooler than last night. We had a very nice meal on the outdoor patio. It was calm and warm with no bugs.

Weather today was overcast with temperatures up to about 20 degrees C until Strasbourg where it was 29 degrees and sunny, closer to what was forecast. I guess their forecasting here is much like at home.