Timisoara, Sunday, May 30

We started the day with a mini birthday party for Nora Ann. The hotel had spotted her birthday in her passport and arranged for a big slab of cake and some strawberries that she passed around to the rest of the gang.

The original plan was to travel to Weisskirchen this morning for Ray. But, after discussing it, we agreed that it would be more valuable to spend our time taking in what Vrsac (Werschetz) has to offer than spending our morning on the road. We first went to St. Gerhard’s Cathedral. By chance, the organist who had played for us in Zichydorf and again in Vrsac in 2008 was there. He remembered our visit and was happy to see us. He said the organ wasn’t in very good shape and needed reconditioning, so he couldn’t play for us, but soon changed his mind and played a short piece. Sounded pretty good to our untrained ears! When he put the pedal to the metal, the whole building shook!

From there we drove up the Vrsac Mountain to a 500 year old Serbian lookout tower. We drove almost to the top, but had to hike the last 100-200 metres up a steep path. The tower was undergoing major renovations, so we could not actually climb it, but the view from the top of the mountain was spectacular. It would have been even better if the high humidity had not caused a haze over the area.

On the way back down, we stopped at another small church with a view of the city below.

Our next destination was Kudritz, but we made a short stop on the way. Lee’s uncle had died a couple of days ago. His mother was born in Gross Srediste and, in his later years, he had developed a longing to visit her birthplace. Lee bought some flowers and tied them to the village sign in his honour.

In Kudritz we were able to tour the church, which has deteriorated to such a point that it is no longer in use. Instead they have furnished a small chapel in the parish house next door. The paintings for the Stations of the Cross were taken from Deutsch Zerne, the crumbling church we visited a couple of days ago. There was a new lady looking after the church, but we met the lady who was looking after it on our last trip. Her husband has the same surname as my grandmother, but I have not yet established our connection. The lady was quite surprised and pleased to see us again and thanked me for sending her pictures. We went on to the cemetery, but did not spend much time, as we have been here twice before.

From Kudritz, we returned to Vrsac, where we dropped off Stasa before proceeding on to the Romanian border. The crossing was uneventful, but time consuming as our passports all had to be checked back in to the European Union. We drove on to Morawitza where we met Sorin, our guide for the next few days. From there we drove to Deutsch Stamora for a cemetery search. We have visited here before and I don’t think anyone made any earth-shattering discoveries. Here we ate the first of the two sandwiches each that we had ordered from the hotel.

Next stop was Dolatz, which we have not previously visited. Pat and Kathy’s grandmother came from here and they had a family picture of the church. They were quite thrilled to be there in person, even if the church was all covered in scaffolding. We were told that a local man had a book about the village, but, when we tracked him down, he had loaned it out to someone. They will have to find another way to get it. At the cemetery, they were not able to find the people they were really looking for, but they found several names of interest that they will have to try to tie in later.

We then went on to Ofsentiza. Although virtually all the roads we have been on, no matter how bad, have been hard surfaced, this town is connected to the main highway by a potholed gravel road. The church there is the worst we have seen on our three trips. The roof has caved in in several places and there are bushes growing on the floor. The cemetery sits just outside the town, surrounded by a ring of bush, but surprisingly open inside the ring. There was even still a small plot inside that was still being tended by someone. The rest was tall grass and a few bushes.

From Ofsenitza we drove on to Timisoara for the night. When I booked the hotels, I tried to look for elevators or as few stairs as possible. But often a five or six story hotel will not list an elevator among its features, so you assume they have one. This is not a safe assumption! Our hotel tonight has four floors of rooms on top of the ground floor – total five – and no elevator! They put Trevor and Betty and Frank and Nora Ann on the first floor of rooms (second overall) and the rest of us all ended up on the top floor. Getting some of those suitcases up there was a challenge!

After settling in, most of us gathered on the hotel patio to eat our leftover sandwiches and relax a bit. We found that the schnapps that we could hardly drink on its own was actually quite pleasant when mixed half and half with the carbonated water that the Europeans love so much.

Today was another warm, pleasant day.