Kelsterbach, Friday, June 4

Our first stop today was the Technik Museum Speyer. It has a huge collection of cars, airplanes, motorcycles, railway locomotives, etc. featuring a Russian space shuttle (I don’t think they ever flew an actual mission), a submarine, a Boeing 747 mounted on stilts, and so on.

From Speyer we drove to Helmut Kaiser’s in Otterberg. As usual Helmut and Hannelore were fabulous hosts. First, he poured us all some sherry, then they fed us some vegetarian chilli and beer, followed by sandwiches and cheese and fruit plates with wine, all topped off with a round of Schapps and desserts. Their kindness and generosity is unmatched. We were joined by Helmut’s brother Erhard and his wife Leta, and friends Giesbert and Renate. Despite some language difficulties, we had a great visit. We stayed longer than planned and could have stayed longer still.

Helmut once again told us stories of his time as a young boy in Rudolfsgnad camp. He says that people tell him to forget about it. But how do you forget being a seven year old boy thrown into a prison camp for three years? How do you forget being shot at and thrown in jail overnight for trying to get a cup of water from the river? How do you forget sleeping on the floor with twenty other people in one room with no heat in winter? How do you forget that some mornings not all the people woke up and you had to help carry them outside where they lay for two or three days until the wagon came to cart them off to the mass grave? How do you forget stretching your arm through the fence to its maximum reach to grasp at grass because all the grass in the camp and that within easy reach had already been eaten? No, I don’t think you forget those things.

We next went on to Burstadt, about half way to Frankfurt. Miles has traced his family back to here. He did not expect to find anything in the cemetery, and he was right, but we took a few pictures there and at the church. This church was built in 1732. I think that is the oldest one we have seen in a village on our three trips. Of course, some of the big churches in the cities are much older.

Finally, we drove on to Kelsterbach. We gathered in one of the rooms to say our good-byes. Trevor had a bottle of wine and some scotch. Frank had a bottle of wine given to him in Zichydorf and most of a bottle of scotch. We had a great time recalling our adventures together. Frank and Nora Ann are staying on for an extra day, but the rest of us depart tomorrow at scattered times. And that will be the end of this Banat tour.

Great weather today, about 30 degrees C and sunny.