Today my destinations were two small towns, Wingen and Wintzenbach. My dad's dad's family was from the first, and his mom's family from the second, going back several hundred years. My last name is all over the place, including on a castle.
These were the last two places to visit on my ancestral voyage, and presented some special problems. Basically, they are little tiny villages, and I couldn't find any way to get there. I tried renting a car, but they didn't have a single automatic car anywhere around here. I even looked into hiring a driver, and it was going to be 200 euro. I was getting stressed out about it yesterday, and decided to quit for the day. I was losing my sense of flow.
What I realized during that morning was that the only way this was going to happen was by diving into the deep end. There was a train to a city about 10 miles from where I needed to be. I knew I would just have to take one step at a time, and assume things would work out. No fore-knowledge for this trip. I feel like it was a good final test.
So I set out at seven this morning. Two hours later, I had arrived in Wissembourg. I was hoping to rent a bike, maybe even a motorcycle. I walked around the train station, looking for a bathroom. Instead, I found a bunch of old German tourists standing in front of a bus with "Chateau Fleckenstein" on the marque. Literally, exactly where I wanted to go. I knew at that point that I was back in the flow.
to be continued...
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