Dear Friends and Forum members!
I returned late Friday evening from Frankfurt, Germany. Due to the very disturbing happenings in the United States all travel was totally disrupted and no planes travelled after September 11. The airports were full of people from flights that turned back, so I could only get on a plane on Friday the 14th. I was very lucky to get out. There were few planes flying. I worked very hard to arrange passage back, for which I had to take a Lufthansa plane with a waiting list. Finally I managed to get on. I was one of the lucky ones. Of course I spent yesterday mostly resting, checking at the office, preparing a payroll, seeing an orchardist. (A farmer growing apples.)
I slept a little, but I still suffer from Jet lag. This is caused by travelling through so many time zones in a short period. It makes you tired, when you should be awake, and wakeful when others sleep. It is now 4:30 am home time, so I thought I would write an article for the forum.
As you have probably heard, I was visiting my aunt, (sister of my late father,) in Luebeck, a picturesque old town in North East Germany near the Baltic Sea. It has a long history of trade which was based on the fish (herring). Herrings were preserved by salting them in barrels and in Luebeck they managed to have salt from further inland, so it was an important port of call on the Baltic. Herring was a staple food item for the people at that time.
My aunt lives in a little farming village on the outskirts of Luebeck. When she moved there fifty years ago it was away back in the country, but now the city has expanded to actually include the village within its borders. The advantage is that they have a very good bus system available and I made use of it. My aunt's husband was a medical doctor, and therefore, she has a nice comfortable house in which there were rooms for the practise of medicine. These are not used at this time. My uncle died several years ago and she is my only living relative from that generation. She is going to be 89 years old this year. I am now the head of the family, and it is my responsibility to see that she is well looked after. This is why I went on the trip. I also visited my sister who lives in another little village between Hamburg and Hanover in Northern Germany where I also visited the graves of my parents.
I had found out by email that it would be best to see Dove in Cobenhavn on Sunday.(that's how the Danish spell it. In English we spell it Copenhagen and in Germany it is spelled Kopenhagen.) So I arranged for a railroad ticket and a seat reservation. Dove emailed a couple of picures of herself to my sister, but I had already left. My sister emailed back: "He is at his aunt's, but he has a big dark hat, like a cowboy, and in Germany they do not wear hats now, so you will recognize him." Dove also phoned me at my aunt's, and I said I would hold a sign with "Dove" printed on it. I often see such signs at airports.
Early on Sunday morning I took the bus to the railroad station. I arrived in time, and went to the departure platform for this train, that starts in Hamburg, the great seaport. My first surprise was how short the train was. Very modern. Only two long cars, but no locomotive. The engine was in the front car. Almost like you find on a streetcar. Fuel was electicity. In Germany this is called a "Triebwagen" or in English, a self-propelled car. It was a comfortable little train. After about an hour we arrived at a ferry terminal, and the train drove directly onto the ferry. We were then allowed to go abovestairs on deck. I noticed that the rail for the train was a part of the floor, and set in, so the floor was flat. Trucks went on to the ferry behind and alongside the little train. Later, when we landed in Denmark, the train got off first and continued on its way.
It was nice to see the water. We crossed an arm of the Baltic Sea, which is narrow here. The water looked dark and deep with a few white caps. It was a rainy day. The trip across took about 3/4 of an hour. The time on the ship went fast, but I did have a coffee, looked at the duty free shop, and all the rest of the decks that were open to passengers. There was a booth to exchange currency. I had already changed Deutsche Marks into Danish Kroner in Luebeck, because I wanted to take Dove out to dinner and I also got coins for trams and busses. We travelled for another two hours to reach Cobenhavn. The countryside and the houses all looked similar to the ones in North Germany. It could have been the same country except for the language and the signs.
Finally we arrived. I was one of the last to get off the train. And there on the platform stood a smiling lady who looked oriental. It had to be her! She held a beautiful flower in her hand. I did not need to show the sign, but I had worked hard to make it, so I held it up just a flash as she already said "Hi Uncle Ben!" and gave me a nice sisterly hug. Well, what a surprise! She came out onto the platform, not waiting inside the station as most people do. That was smart, too, because she could more easily see who got off the train. Well, I was surprised to get a flower. But then, her name is Morning Flower. A nice name for a nice lady.
I was somewhat in awe, to meet her. After all, she was one of only fifteen professionals who had been chosen by China to go on this European study Tour about Justice Systems. I know and deal with Canadian lawyers as part of my work, but I do not think any of them would have been chosen to go to a foreign country to represent Canada. So I was most impressed. But she did not have any airs, and we got on like the true friends we had become through the forum. By bus she took me to the place where she is staying with two other women lawyers in a small hotel. Actually it was more like an apartment house. They shared a flat, consisting of a small kitchen, a living/study room and three bedrooms, which I did not see. All very Spartan, but clean, and I could have been happy there, too. But what impressed me was, that on a tour like this they took moderate accommodations, and not big flashy hotels, as our people might have felt entitled to have. Well, lesson one learned: If you represent the people, be an example.
to be continued....