News from Juergen and Edeltraud Thewes

Dear former Classmates,

It’s so great to have you keeping contact with all of us! Thanks a lot for enclosing Edeltraud and myself in your round robin letter and the invitation for 2014. To summarise our thoughts about it: In case we’ll be still alive and in acceptable shape, i.e. in good health, we would like to participate in that great event again. For us the time of the year you’ll plan our meeting will not be very favourable because of short days and mostly undecent weather, since we plan to continue our sightseeing in the U.S.. Another aspect will be whether I’ll be able to rent a car or not. In some European countries you won’t be able to do that when you are older than 70 years by now.

To give you a quickly on our past months: In March Prague again with a wonderful cultural program (operas, a symphony concert, sightseeing). A three weeks’ stay at our vacation home in Carinthia, Austria, followed in April. At the end of May a week’s flight trip from Hamburg to Dublin and a sightseeing tour across the center of Ireland with great landscapes and early Christian settlements like Clonmacnoise or Enalough. In June we had 10 days on the Baltic Sea in Northwest Mecklenburg (one of the new federal states in East Germany) exploring former no-go area of the German Democratic Republic very close to the German – German border. Besides we went sightseeing at old villages with their very old brick-built churches.

In July we had booked a ten days’ bus trip to Scotland via Europoort (Rotterdam, Netherlands). The car ferry took us across the North Sea to Hull on the mouth of the Humber in the middle of England. We then started a sightseeing tour via Glasgow, the Caledonian lochs like Loch Ness, went north to the northern tip of Scotland (Thurso). From there our bus took us to the Orkney Islands via ferry to see Stone Age settlements (Skara Brae, Ring of Brodnar) and their capital Kirkwall.
Via Inverness, Edinburgh, and York we returned to Hull to get the car ferry to the Netherlands again. It was the greatest trip we ever made. Such lovely country with cosy little villages! We were lucky to have had an almost rainless period.

We had to stay home for some time to look after our site in August. Our garden needed care.  However, at the end of that month we again went down south to Austria. On our way we stopped at Nuremberg to visit the exhibition of ‘The younger Albrecht Duerer’, one of the most famous European artists who had lived during the transition between Middle Ages and Renaissance. His works are 500 years old and of inestimable value. Approximately 265,000 visitors admired Duerer’s art to draw, to paint, to cut copper- and woodplates.

Finally, we are home again. Don, please excuse me for being so late in answering your survey. Marlene and Fred, I wanted you to participate in this answer to Don, because you always kept us informed. We very well estimate your work for us! Edeltraud and I do hope that you and your beloved spouses are in good health. As you know we are exchanging news with Trudy regularly. At the moment the Delaware Saengerbund celebrated its annual October festival with potato salad, fried sausages, and a lot of German beer.

Thanks for your efforts to keep the Class of ’59 together. Have a great time and please say hello to all classmates you will reach in the future.

With many regards and good wishes

Juergen and Edeltraud Thewes