july 26

July 26th (sunny and cloudy)
It was a lovely morning and we were able to have breakfast outside. We drove into Magdeburg because George was interested in seeing the famous church which had its origins around 800 AD. The cathedral was immense in stature and lots of renovations underway including a couple of archeological digs around the alter base. We have also noticed in the city a definite eastern European architecture similar to what we saw in Bulgaria 35 years ago.
From Magdeburg, on our way to Uetersen to visit Georg’s cousin Irmgard and Rudolph, we made a couple of observations about the old “east” German region. First of all, it seems that the big corporations are taking advantage of the cheap land prices and are building enormous factories everywhere and also, the number of wind generators are more than we have seen anywhere. Furthermore, the land holdings here are not small parcels like in other parts of Europe – they are extensive tracks of land as a result of the communal philosophy of the communists.
About ten minutes outside of Magdeburg, we were stuck in a traffic jam on the autobahn that lasted two and a half hours. Georg also noticed that in the five hours that we were on the road today, we must have encountered over 2,000 large transport trucks. These are the only vehicles that we ever pass on the highway. Most cars are going passed us at more than 200 km/hr.
We arrived at Uetersen around 4 pm to see Rudolph at the front of their lovely home saying that he was expecting us the day before. We seem to have a habit of confusing people about our arrival times. We had a wonderful evening trying to catch up on almost thirty years. Their home is outstanding and very interesting in that it was a prefab home from Denmark which has technological elements in it, i.e. heating, ventilation and plumbing that were way ahead of its time. The house still remains in pristine condition with a beautiful garden which has a stream running through the property. We have our own living quarters, the run of the house and we are extremely comfortable here.