22 July 1998
We had a very pleasant drive up to northern Germany, to Schleswig. They have an extensive network of canals, so there is a lot of shipping. The autobahns, or freeways, go everywhere and are filled with trucks from all over Europe. The electric trains also go everywhere and are used heavily by both people and cargo. Schleswig was once a part of Denmark. There are a number of Viking settlements that have been discovered there. We were both very interested in those. There was a huge old church, which is pretty typical. Then there was a smaller and much older church near one of the Viking settlements. They knew it was more than 800 years old and suspect it is closer to 1000 years old. While we were there talking to the lady attendant, a man walked in and heard us. He asked if we were the Americans staying at so-and-so’s house. I don’t remember the name, but that was where we were staying. We hadn’t met him yet, but he was in the next room to us. We stayed there for 4 days. That was the only place we stayed where we had to go down the hall to the bathroom. The family had 4 guest rooms on the second floor, although they were not full while we were there. Then there was a toilet room, a shower room, and a kitchen, which we used frequently.
One of the first things we did in Schleswig was to stop and visit a couple of people George had known on his mission. We didn’t get to see the one George most wanted to see, even though we stopped by three times.