Visitors

This past week began a round of visitors that stretches out for about a month. My cousins, Ben and Erica, arrived this past Monday for a couple of weeks in Germany. This past week we've visited the Black Forrest, Lake Constance (the Bodensee), Neuenstein, Wuestenrot, Schorndorf, Schornbach, and Beutelsbach. Well, we only spent about 10 minutes in a few of the cities, but they still deserve a mention.

I have put new pictures up in My Photo Gallery that chronicle our time spent in Neuenstein, Schorndorf, Schornbach, and Beutelsbach. If you want the rest of the story, you'll have to talk to Ben and Erica. I didn't have my camera along on the rest of the trips, so no pictures were taken.

Most notable of these trips was the trip taken to Schorndorf. For those of you that didn't know, my maiden name is Beutel. I've been spending some time corresponding with another Beutel that I met online, talking about our family trees (I think that he and I might be ninth or tenth cousins!). So, just yesterday, Ben, Erica, Elena and I headed out to our ancestral village, Schorndorf, to see if any Beutels remained.

We strolled around the downtown area, ate some delicious pizza, and visited the Old Cemetery. While we didn't find any Beutels in the old cemetery, we did find a lot of other names that we recognized. Made sense, as most of the people in our hometown (in the States), come from the same area in Germany that we do. Afterwards, we took a little drive out to Schornbach (a 'burb of Schorndorf), and there hit the jackpot. The more modern cemetery had graves from several Beutels. In fact, when I stopped and asked for directions to the cemetery, the man I asked laughed when I asked if there would be any Beutels there. He said, "Oh yes, and I could get several live ones on the phone for you, if you're interested!" At that point we were hot and tired, so we declined, but it was interesting to know that Beutels are living on in Germany.

Finally, we had to swing by Beutelsbach on the way home, just because the name of the town is so lovely. They had a beautiful church that we photographed, and then went home. A long, but interesting day tromping through the family tree.

NOTE: I'm guessing that no Beutels were left in the old Cemetery because of the German practice of reusing graves. Because of space limitations, after twenty or so years a grave becomes 'recycled' if you may. Only important people, or those with enough money to keep paying to keep the grave, remain in the cemeteries.