Almelo was stupendous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are here in Schwerin, Germany, sitting in a cafe shop using the internet. I have one hour for one euro. Hold onto your hats because a whole bunch of letters are in different places.

Our time with my family in Almelo was more than great and more than could be expected. It is such a beautiful town, more than beautiful, and the hotel that we stayed in was all-inclusive so that it made our visit so easy to deal with. We didn't need to concern ourselves with food, activities to do such as swimming, bowling, dancing to great music, playing in a fair-type atmosphere or even worrying about alcohol. All was there and all was free. I would recommend this hotel to anyone, even if they do have to fly across the world to get to it.

The staff were so helpful to us as we landed there with no idea of where to find my family or how to go about looking in the different places in an unknown land. Immediately, the girls behind the desks contacted other people within the hotel and town to obtain lists of people to call and places to go to in order to find files and names of my family. After unpacking and resting for a bit, we set about calling around 30 people in our efforts to become detectives. The very first call that I made was to my uncle Mannes (or Mans, as he is known.) In broken German, Dutch and French, I made it clear who I was and that we wanted to visit. He was more than happy to have us over and the next day we were there for tea.
The next group of numbers I gave to Gerhard so that he could try out his German on the town - which a lot of people seem to understand. Eventually we found a lady who once upon a time lived next door to my Aunt Dinie (Dinie and Wim speak very good english ). This was a good thing because all the info that I had received from my brother Ray was incorrect due to changed addresses and phone numbers. This lady, named Sennie, had her husband drive his car over to my aunt's house in order to obtain her phone number. Such lovely people. Our trip throughout all of Holland was totally like this - people who were ready to help you no matter what. Eventually, again, we obtained her number and we called to be invited to her house for the evening.
I was so overjoyed at having contacted my relatives that I was so emotional. It didn't take much to get me exhausted after that. We visited yet another aunt, Aunt Truss, the next day as well. Included in our sluthing was a trip to the city hall where two men took us into the basement, where we humans from the ordinary public are not allowed to go, and showed us the actual documents from the history of my family. They even gave me copies. We pretended on our way out that we didn't actually have anything and we thanked profusely the wonderful gentlemen that so wanted to fulfill our dreams.
We were having such a wonderful time that we decided to stay an extra night and so we had a chance to go out for dinner with Dinie and Wim to a Chinese restaurant. It was wonderful as well.
I can't tell you how amazing it was to sit across from the siblings of my mother and watch as they have the same facial features and little nuances as she had. They all look very much alike. It was a life-changing experience to finally look upon some of the people that my mother had talked about as I grew up. Living in another language and visiting with family some of whom spoke little english can be very stressful, but we loved how we were filled with love after each visit and how just to hug them and be with them for a short time filled us with so much understanding and information. It was very sad for us to leave and to go so far away after only just getting there but we knew that it would be like that. Gerhard's family awaits!

Even tho' only one of my relatives over there will get this, it is universally sent out to them all. Thank you so much for opening your hearts to us and for making us feel so welcome. You have no idea how special you all are and how wonderful it has been for me to finally find that other part of myself that I knew was out there somewhere.
Love JoAnne und Gerhard
xoxox