Sindelfingen, May 19, 2010

We began the day with a guided tour of Strasbourg. Yves, our guide provided a very entertaining and informative tour. We had never looked around Strasbourg on our previous tours, so it was quite a revelation. It is an important centre in the European Union, with many government buildings. It also has a very charming old town with several waterways.

From there we drove to Zuffenhausen, a suburb of Stuttgart to take some pictures for the Giroux twins in Vancouver. The autobahn to Sindelfingen runs right beside Zuffenhausen. Unfortunately, we were delayed by bridge construction when we crossed the Rhein River and were late for a planned meeting with Tony Mai. By the time we got there he was gone.

We arrived at our hotel by about 4 pm and prepared for a busy evening. Mary Ann had arranged to meet with Anni Lorenz, who had done some translation for her. Over dinner it emerged that she had the same maiden name as one of the names Bob, Sandy, and Shirley were researching. Another one of those serendipitous moments on the Banat tour! After this detour and an exchange of email addresses, Anni and Mary Ann spent the rest of the evening working on Mary Ann’s research.

Meanwhile, Ray had arranged to meet with Karl Hasenfratz, his son Robert, and Robert’s wife Maria and son Alex. Ray has been corresponding with Karl for a few years about their family links. They were excited to see what Ray has done with the family tree and the Georgshausen book.

Meanwhile, where there is a Hasenfratz, Betty won’t be far away. She was pleased to meet Karl and discuss where their family trees merged. Altogether, it was an entertaining and informative evening.

The weather today was again approaching 20 degrees C with a bit of a breeze. The morning had some sun, but the afternoon was mostly overcast with an occasional sprinkle of rain on the windshield.

The hotel rooms are the nicest so far – spacious, with a small sitting area and a bar fridge. The evening meal in the hotel restaurant was also very good, with several of us ordering traditional Swabian food.