Day 9: Himmelfahrt

Today is Himmelfahrt (Ascension) and is a public holiday. We travelled to Buchholz church, where our travelling companions' ancestors were married and baptised. The church was undergoing some restorations. The organ was very old and built by a famous and rare organ builder. It was recently restored. The old leather bellows were cracked and the church had to save up a long time to be able to restore it. I played it a little.

We also climbed to the top of the bell tower.

We then went to an open air church service followed by lunch. The hymns were accompanied by brass band - unfortunately it was very cold (about 12 degrees) so the tuning wasn't fantastic. Chris gave greetings from our congregations as the oldest German settlement and the oldest Lutheran church.

On we went to Brookhusen, where our companions' ancestors lived. There was an orange house there.

We then went to Schwasdorf where their surname originated. Along the way we saw very bland appartment buildings that were built during the communist East German division. There's lots of wind turbines to catch the wind off the Baltic Sea.