Europe 2018

The End

2018-05-18T13:28:00.001-04:00

You may be wondering why no post? What’s happened? Well we have changed our plans and are flying home Saturday afternoon.

Delia seems to have caught a virus and we feel it’s best to come home. But we had a wonderful trip and the visits to Frankfurt and Amsterdam have been amazing and unforgettable.

Boat Ride

2018-05-16T10:29:00.001-04:00

Today we took a boat tour thru the Amsterdam canals. Great way to see the city.

Oh my goodness!

I was just told this next to last post had no photos. Well, I guess it’s just about when I started not feeling well. So here are the photos.

It was a great ride! Amsterdam is a lovely, clean, friendly and historic city.

Leiden

2018-05-16T02:50:00.001-04:00

Today we decided to take a trip outside of Amsterdam. Leiden was our choice. Recommended by Rick Steves, our go-to travel advisor. A quaint university town with windmills and churches. We visited both.

De Valk Windmill (1743)

A very large rotating windmill museum in the middle of town. We climbed up to the tippy top. This windmill is much taller than Jamestown’s because it had to be above the houses that surrounded it. The miller and his family lived on the first floor of the windmill.

Here’s a video!!

(You may have go to the web version to view the video — click on the top of the email)

Leiden is also known as the birthplace of Rembrandt van Rijn. However, he left in his late teens for Amsterdam.

A statue of Rembrandt as a young man painting his self portrait as an old man.

The Pieterskerk

This is a late-Gothic church in Leiden dedicated to Saint Peter. It is known today as the church of the Pilgrim Fathers. It was built in 1121 and was a Catholic church and then a Dutch Reformed church.

So, we don’t just visit synagogues and cemeteries. This church, although, not in use now, is very impressive. Many families are buried in the floor of this church, including the Van Rijns, although not their son Rembrandt. They are just not sure exactly where.

We had lunch at a small cafe in the church. Just right for two tired pilgrims.

More Anne Frank

As I was writing this blog, Ralph told me about the following article in the NYT

“Researchers Uncover Two Hidden Pages in Anne Frank’s Diary” https://nyti.ms/2GhNTHO

We were just across from the Anne Frank House after dinner tonight watching a school group leave the building.

De Hortus

2018-05-14T07:44:00.001-04:00

It hasn’t all been history. Monday afternoon we visited the de Hortus. It is a horticultural park near the Esnoga, founded as a medicinal herb garden in 1638. Just like the Palmengarten in Frankfurt, it contains a palm house. Amsterdam’s palm house was built in 1912.

Esnoga & Anne Frank

2018-05-14T07:29:00.001-04:00

Two days in Amsterdam, visiting two more sites related to World War II. It seems hard to get away from it in Amsterdam.

First, the Esnoga, or the Portuguese Synagogue.

Touro Synagogue is its twin, only 100 years younger, lighter, smaller, and in Newport.

The Esnoga, built 1675, survived it all. It’s still standing and still an active synagogue.

The Anne Frank House.

In the 1930s, some Jews left Frankfurt for America; others went to Amsterdam. Anne and her family left Frankfurt in 1933. The same year that Frieda sailed for America.

I must have read The Diary when I was 11 or 12, late 1950’s. Today, walking through the front store (called The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam) and climbing into The Annex, where the Franks lived for two years, Anne’s words came back to me.

Amsterdam

2018-05-13T03:33:00.001-04:00

Very different from Frankfurt!

Canals, bicycles, interesting old buildings, and lots of young people ....

Our Last Day in Frankfurt

2018-05-11T16:46:00.001-04:00

Just when you think you can’t top the days we’ve had, here’s another amazing day.

We started at the Judengasse Museum. It’s difficult to describe this museum — it is on the first floor of a new municipal building. The building was built on the remains of the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt. This ghetto dates back to 1460. I’m afraid this is one of several old Jewish ghettos in Europe that we have explored. Here, the remains have been unearthed and reconstructed. For more info, click on the link above.

After viewing the displays and walking in the reconstructed areas, we visited the next part of this museum, which left the greatest impression on me.

Pictures first and then some explanation.

The first two photos are of the unearthed foundations of the Judengassen. Outside the museum (which contains these foundations) stands the remains of the first (or oldest) Jewish Cemetery in Frankfurt. Surrounding the Alter Jüdischer Friedhof (or Old Jewish Cemetery) not be confused with the other Old Cemetery we visited Tuesday which only dated back into the 19th century is a wall. This is a memorial wall with stones remembering all the Jews of Frankfurt who were murdered by the Nazis. (It’s okay to say this, although here in Frankfurt, most discussions say National Socialist Party.)

After this emotional visit, we had lunch. On Heidi’s and Rick Steve’s suggestion we went to the Sachsenhausen This is an old area of Frankfurt south of the river Main. Not to be confused with the Nazi concentration camp of the same name but in a different area of Germany. It is known for restaurants with outside communal tables and Apple Wine. We sat at the restaurant suggested by both above mentioned guides and we ate our last schnitzel of the week. Ralph saw a sign on the restaurant next to us and said “Do you see the sign with the boy with long fingernails?” I thought he had too much Apple Wine.

This was a book, Struwwel Peter that Frieda read to Ralph when he was a young boy. He hadn’t thought of this in 70 years! Frieda spoke again to Ralph on this visit to “her Town”. Remember, she spoke to me when we saw the Philanthropin.

At the Hirschgarten

2018-05-11T03:10:00.001-04:00

Thursday was our last day with Heidi. We spent it with her family from her mother’s side —

Christof (Heidi’s second cousin), his wife Doris, their daughter, Carolena, and her boyfriend Christopher.

We had wonderful meal at the Hirschgarten. This a beautiful restaurant in a forest. Their specialty is venison.

Thank you and Heidi and your family for a wonderful day.

Jewish Frankfurt before World War II

2018-05-10T11:24:00.001-04:00

By Wednesday afternoon we were ready to visit places that were part of the lives of Ralph’s mother and Heidi’s father in the Frankfurt of the 1930s before World War II.

After lunch at the Palmengarten Cafe, we walked through the adjacent neighborhood. We passed the street where the Keller family lived. It was and is now a lovely neighborhood of graceful old Frankfurt homes. We were not sure which might have been the Keller’s, but we certainly could imagine area as it would have been in the early 1930’s.

We continued to walk in Westend neighborhood of Frankfurt. This was an area of many Jewish families of Frankfurt. We were in search of the only remaining synagogue of Frankfurt— the Westend Synagogue.

This synagogue was built in 1910 as a Classical Reform Synagogue. It was then badly damaged, but not destroyed, during the war. It is now run as an orthodox shul by Chabad.

The plaque, which hangs right outside of the synagogue’s sanctuary, translates as follows:

In memory of the members of our congregation who became victims of the terrorists of 1933-1945.

Honor their memory.

The next photo is of a “Frankfurt Shabbat Lamp”. We have one at home. It was Ralph’s mother’s.

Next we visited Frieda’s school. Frieda attended the Philanthropin (a place for humanity). It was and is now a secondary school for, then, Jewish girls and, now, Jewish girls and boys. For more information click here and here.

As I took photos of this building, I was struck that this was place that helped make Frieda the woman that she became and I knew.

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I should add that both the Synagogue and the Philonthropin were heavily guarded and barricaded.

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The Palmengarten

2018-05-09T15:32:00.001-04:00

We spent Wednesday morning exploring Frankfurt's Palmengarten. It is one of the largest public gardens in Europe. Right now garden's Rhododendron Garden is at its most beautiful.

Frankfurt

2018-05-08T17:02:00.001-04:00

Today was the day to explore the Frankfurt of Freida Steinhauer and Anni Ries Keller — Ralph’s and Heidi’s mothers who left Frankfurt before World War II. Both Freida and Anni were born in Frankfurt in 1911 and left for America in the 1930’s.

Freida Steinhauer Klingbeil worked at Karl Kahn on Kaiserstraße 68, right down the street from the Frankfurt Central Rail Station (Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof) before she left Frankfurt in 1933 to join her two brothers in New York City.

Anni Ries Keller often ate at the restaurant Zum Standesämtchen, across from the Frankfurt City Hall, in Frankfurt’s Old Town. We had an enjoyable lunch in the restaurant which dates from 1902.

Before our well deserved lunch, we walked along the Main River to our restaurant.

After lunch, we went in search of Ralph’s and Heidi’s grandparents’ graves. Frankfurt has many large cemeteries. Among them, is the Old Jewish Cemetery and the New Jewish Cemetery.

Louis Steinhauer, baker and veteran of World War I, died in 1936. He is buried in the New Jewish Cemetery.

Heidi’s grandfather, Heinrich Keller, is buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery. He died in 1935. Several other members of the Keller family are also buried and remembered in this area of the Cemetery.

In front one gravestone of the Keller family has been erected this plaque—

It remembers a cousin of Heidi’s father, Alfred Keller, who was “deported” in 1945 and “murdered”.

The translation is as follows:

In eternal memory of my beloved husband and our victimized father Alfred Keller born 16 August. 1872 in Offenbach [and] deported 1943 and murdered [Auschwitz].

This has been quite a day. While walking amongst the many gravestones of the cemeteries, I was struck by all these Jewish families of Frankfurt that were and aren’t any more.

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The Großer Feldberg

2018-05-07T15:11:00.001-04:00

We had dinner at the Naturpark Hotel im (in) Taunus, north of our hotel, in the Taunus mountains.

Wonderful meatloaf and white asparagus.

After dinner we visited the Großer Feldberg ("Great Field Mountain"). At 879.5 metres, it is the highest elevation of the Taunus mountains.

A wonderful first day in Frankfurt with Heidi, talking about parents from Frankfurt.

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A walk in the Taunus

2018-05-07T07:54:00.001-04:00

We arrived in Frankfurt on a Lufthansa 747! Our trip to Europe more than 30 years ago was on a SwissAir 747. Then, we were seated on the upper deck, this time no such luck — we were in economy class mid-plane.

We are staying with “cousin” Heidi in the lovely Parkhotel am Taunus. It is located at the edge of the Taunus mountain range in the town of Oberursel — about 15km northwest of Frankfurt. It is beautiful here at the edge of the forest. We took a walk in the forest and tried to get into the Frankfurt time zone.

We’ll have dinner tonight at a restaurant further into the mountains.

Tomorrow we will go into Frankfurt and start with a visit to the Frankfurt Jewish Cemetery where Ralph’s and Heidi’s grandparents are buried.

A Month In Europe

2018-04-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

Our Route

We will spend the month of May 2018, exploring parts of Europe, some of which we have never visited.

We will start in Frankfurt, Germany. The birthplace of Frieda Steinhauer Klingbeil, Ralph's mother. We will then explore Amsterdam, Dover (via Ferry and Chunnel), Lyon, Kandersteg, Switzerland, and finally back to Frankfurt and home.

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