From: Rainer7735@aol.com Subject: Rainer's Europe Trip 1998 -- part 15 Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 04:31:37 EDT Okay, here comes some more. I got caught up a little, Cheers, Rainer Thursday, 10/8 -- part 15 Today the plan was to drive to Pasewalk, a small city not far from the Polish border, where my father grew up. Vera and I had scoped out the map yesterday and figured that from where we were in the southeast corner of Berlin it would be easiest, since Thomas was joining us for the trip, for him to drive to Bohnsdorf, rather than for us to pick him up from his apartment in downtown Berlin. He showed up promptly at 9 and we headed out. Thomas told us that it would be faster to drive the autobahn through the city and then take the ring north and east of Berlin. So we practically drove past his apartment on the the way around the city. The traffic was heavy, but it kept moving. Pasewalk is about 130 kilometers from Berlin. I'd figured that we would be there in about 90 minutes. Well, the autobahn in what was formerly the DDR, is not in good shape. Where traffic is moving in both directions, the old, original cement plates have shifted enough that the speed limit is reduced to 80 kph. The bumps played havoc with the Sony Discman being used in the back seat. It was even difficult to read the map with the constant bump, bump, bump, bump. Many stretches of the old autobahn are under construction. Here the traffic was reduced to two way traffic with only one lane in each direction. The scenery was mostly farm country and forested areas. We learned from Thomas that all of the forests we saw, in fact all of the forests in Germany, are replanted forests. The forests we saw were mostly deciduous trees -- quite a change from what one thinks of as forest in the Northwest. Most of the trees still had their foliage, and many of the leaves were starting to show fall colors. A light rain fell most of the way to Prenzlau. We left the autobahn near Prenzlau and continued the last 30 km on a small country road -- also under construction in places. We passed one area with at least 14 huge, high-tech windmills used to generate electricity. The mills looked like big airplane propellers. Even though it was not very windy, they all turned together in mechanized synchronization. We arrived in Pasewalk around 12:30. I parked the car near what appeared to be a central market square on the southern side of town. Even here in Pasewalk one had to buy a parking permit from the dispensing machine at the end of the street. We walked around visiting the remnants of the old city wall and gate. The Pasewalk Historical Museum in one of the gate towers was closed until 1400, so we looked for a place to eat. We found the Kartoffelkeller, or potato cellar, in the basement of one of the buildings around the market square. We were the only customers at this point and found a cozy table in one corner of the keller. We ordered a very potato-ey lunch -- potato soup, baked potato, fried potatoes, potato pancakes -- all very good. The waitress would not part with one of the menus that we asked to take along. I left her a good tip anyway. We walked past a bakery and got some cheesecake to go plus a copy of the local daily newspaper; then to the tourist information booth and an acquisition of more Pasewalk brochures and pamphlets to send to my father. The museum was open by now and featured drawings and paintings from a local artist. A Mr. Wieland, unrelated, with whom my father had been in contact, only works on weekends, so we were not able to say hello. We toured the museum anyway and took some more pictures. We drove to a garden center who's address my father had given me. Mr. Zimmerman was supposed to be the owner. Mr. Zimmerman and my father, although several years apart, grew up in this city and several of the people they knew were in common. Well, the garden center was owned by a Zimmerman, but not the right one. So we got directions to the flower shop, close to the market square where we started, where we could find Mr. Zimmerman. At the flower shop we met the wife of Karl Otto Zimmerman. She said that her grandfather was probably at home and called him when we told her who we were. We got directions again -- right next door to the garden center from which we just came -- and went back. Mr. Karl Zimmerman welcomed us at the door and invited us in. His wife hurried back from somewhere, set a table cloth, made coffee, and offered us some crumb cake she's made. We delivered greetings from my father, received greetings to pass back to him and well wishes for my mother and her recovery from her hospital stay. We chatted some, tried to find out if my father was good in school, found out that Mr. Zimmerman and my father were not in the same year (Mr. Zimmerman said, "We were probably neither one good students"), and received instructions on how to find the gas station that was owned by my grandfather. We also found out that Mr. Zimmerman's father purchased his first car from my grandfather who, in addition to running the gas station, ran a garage, driving school, apparently sold automobiles, too. We said goodbye after taking a few pictures. The gas station is not very old compared to the age of the town wall, tower, and gates, but it is under a "Denkmalschutz", or historical building protection program. The automobile workshop across the street is not standing any longer. Mr. Zimmerman said that it was torn down a few years ago. The gas station itself is covered with posters and graffiti as you'll see from the pictures. You can still see were the gas tanks were and some other structures. I took pictures from every angle to bring back. It was already after 1600 and we remembered that it was a long drive back, so we took one last look and left Pasewalk. The Landstrasse to Prenzlau wasn't as busy as at noon. Once on the autobahn, the steady bump, bump, bump became very mesmerizing. Thomas switched off with me as driver and he drove the rest of the way to Bohnsdorf. Traffic in Berlin was pretty heavy in every direction. Although we were glad not be headed in the opposite direction at one point where we saw two large trucks stuck in a very narrow two-lane section of highway. The lanes had been narrowed because of the detour, and traffic piled up behind the stuck trucks for miles. The rain and clouds had mostly left and we got to watch a pretty sunset on the way into and through Berlin. Once back in Bohnsdorf, Thomas had to turn around almost right away, just enough time for splitting a Schwarzbier, and drive back into Berlin to go home. It was 2030 now, we made a simple dinner and fiddled with our respective stuff until the soon-to-come end of day.