Flensburg | Crazy Chinese Family

Over half of the year 2017 is over and much has already happened. Untill the birth of our daughter in May we were very busy trying to “stabilising” our little business. From January till the beginning of May we were investing so much time into our business that we had no time to do anything else. We did not travel anywhere, we didn’t visit any neighbouring towns, we did not even go shopping or eating in some nice restaurant (with the exception of birthdays and the weekend Family Gathering in March).

Basically all we did was work and spend the little free time with Nathan. Due to our work we do not even have any free weekends which can be sometimes very hard when the work seems to have no end. By the time our baby girl was born we had reduced the workload already in order for my wife to find some rest. However it was just reduced workload and thus just two days after Nathalie was born I started working again. Now two months after our family grew by one we started to wonder what we can do to enjoy life a bit more once again after those hard months.

No, we won’t have any big travels planned such as last year. However we have some smaller trips planned already within Germany. For one we want for Nathan to have some more fun by going to a little theme park in the next few weeks. That theme park is perfect for little kids like him as he can pretty much go into every amusement ride as there aren’t any “wild” ones and there is also a deer park! Besides the theme park we will go to a few cities this summer such as revisiting Lübeck and Flensburg for some day trips. In August we have then our “biggest” trip which will lead us to the dark East of Germany.

That big trip developed only because I got an invitation for a Class reunion from my high school in Chemnitz (East Germany). As my wife had no interest in going there at all just for some reunion I had to come up with some plan. So now we will be driving first to Quedlingburg which is a very old town first mentioned in the records in 922 AD. The old town, the church and the castle are on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1994. I was there already once back in 1994 or 1995 with my parents and brother but I do not remember much of it anymore. There we will stay for one night right in the historic old town and then on the following day travel to Chemnitz. Except meeting with some friends and then having later on the reunion I have not planned anything yet. The problem for me with Chemnitz is just that I have no clue what to visit there even though I lived there for two years from 2005-2007.

My father on his way to his old home in 1991

In the late summer we will be trying to travel for a weekend to Poland to revisit my father’s birthplace Kołczewo on the Island Usedom. That trip will be especially important for my father as he had revisited that place only twice before, both between 1990 and 1991.He has not much memories from that place as he was very young when his family had to flee back in 1945 and become refugees till settling down in my hometown (they were living in camps for the first few years here). After that trip we will have only a few more day trips in mind. For us it is only important to get out of the daily routine from time to time. Next year shall be different again for us and I will write about it at some point towards the end of this year.

1990 My father carrying me in front of the old family house. The child standing there belongs to the “new” residents, let’s see if they are still there this year

What are your plans for the second half of 2017?

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As we had finally sunshine here in Germany we decided to have a day at another city. My task was to decide which city to visit and I quickly came up with Flensburg. I had been very often there over the years as a very good friend lived there and so I knew at least a bit about what places to check out. Flensburg is roughly one hour away by car from my hometown and is located just a few kilometers away from the Danish border. Initially we planned to have a short stop in Denmark but decided against it as there was just not enough time.

The day started pretty troublesome as we overslept and could not leave till 12 which meant that several hours of precious weekend time were lost. However once on our way everything went well, no traffic jams or the like and we arrived after less than an hour in Flensburg city center. I parked in the harbour area and from there we walked by the sea-side searching for a nice place to eat. Basically we did not even search as we just took the first restaurant with many people sitting outside and a good choice it was. The restaurant was the “Hansens Brauerei” and some of you who might understand little German can see from the name it is a brewery. In fact it is also Germans northernmost brewery as it is a bit more in the north than the bigger Flensburger Brewery. So this place did not only have superb food but also great beer, double yay for me. This food was especially great for as it meant one less lunch served by MIL…

After being stuffed to the brim we continued our trip through the city. The inner city (Altstadt) is very beautiful because there are so many old structures still standing unlike many other cities here. The reason for this is that Flensburg only suffered small damages during WWII through the bombings. For example my hometown has barely any old buildings left as most of the city was destroyed during the war. I must admit that my hometown looks like a grey ugly thing compared to this city but then again there is also a reason why my hometown has been voted before the ugliest city in this state but that is stuff for another time.

flens13 — One of the many historical buildings

Both my wife and my crazy Chinese mother-in-law were fascinated by the Old Town in which also the long shopping street is located. Not only it is full of historical buildings but it is also the place in the city with the most people due to the shopping area and has many sightseeing spots such as several churches, museums and other points of interest. What else makes this city so interesting? Well it used to be a major trading port after the collapse of the Hanse in the 16th century and thus many special things started such as the local Rum production. Here you can find a so-called Rum and Sugar Mile in which all Rum/ Alcohol and sugar production sites are listed and can be visited by eager tourists. We did not follow it but saw several shops selling Rum and the Hansens Brauerei were we had our lunch is also part of this Rum and Sugar Mile.

As we had only limited time due to us oversleeping in the morning we could only have a short tour through the Old Town including a short stop for some nice ice cream and then headed out to visit Glücksburg, the northernmost city in Germany. The only reason for going there was to visit the Glücksburg Castle which was built from 1582 to 1587. It is certainly not the most impressive castle in the world but I wanted to see it already for many years and this trip to Flensburg was the perfect opportunity as it is just few kilometres away from the city. The castle is nearly entirely surrounded by a huge pond which was created as a defence system back in the day. Sadly we could not enter as it was too late when we arrived and thus we started our tour back home after taking few pictures there.