Peter’s sister Ilse lives in Berlin. In 1999 she came to visit us here in Australia. She stayed for two months: From the end of February to the beginning of April. Caroline, who was twenty at the time, had already given up her studies at Sydney University. She had a job as a waitress in a Pizza Restaurant in Kiama. Being already a good car-driver, she had no problem driving home in the dark after work. Ilse was very fond of Caroline. We went on a lot of outings with Ilse, and Caroline did often come along with us.
Ilse was still in mourning for her husband who had died a year previously. But she liked her stay here with us. I thought it was great to have her around. She is a beautiful person to get along with. She was happy to meet all our family during her two months stay here. She very much cared for all of them. When she left, she said she’d like very much to come back for another visit.
Peter and Ilse at Manly Beach
We went with Ilse and Caroline up to the highlands, parking the car near an old cemetery –where we had a picnic on the lawns next to the old gravestones!Having a rest in the Chinese Gardens in SydneyThere are many beautiful things to see in these Chinese Gardens in Sydney.Here we are on a walk with Monika and her three daughters to the playground at the back of our property.
Krystal turned two on the 5th of April of that year 1999.This picture with Ilse and Gaby was taken on the 18th of April 1999.I think David probably took this picture of all of us with the Opera House in the background.
A bit of an introduction to North Queensland and our holiday there in August 1998 is in my previous blog. I actually have a number of photos from that holiday, but some photos I was looking for I could not find.so far. For instance there are no photos of crocodiles. We saw a lot of them lying near the edge of the water while we were travelling in a boat along that river with a tourist group. I was sure we would have taken some photos of these creatures seeing them lazing sleepily so very close to us.
Also, I could not find any photos of our lovely resort in Port Douglas. Our travel agent had booked a very nice flat for us in that resort. There was a swimming pools, tennis courts, bikes for hire, as well as some night-time entertainment outside on balmy nights. Every morning we had breakfast in a lovely open air restaurant. Most days we did some pre-booked bus tours with morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea provided. One night we had a pizza in our resort’s restaurant. We went there for the early evening session when a menu at lower prices was available! I think for the other nights we had bought our own food to prepare in the kitchen corner of our flat.
For the first two nights we had been booked into a very beautiful hotel with breakfast included. On the day after our arrival we did a bus tour to the LAKE BARRINE TEAHOUSE. We enjoyed morning tea and lunch there. We were very happy with all the bookings our travel agent had done for us. From Cairns we travelled by boat to Port Douglas where a courtesy bus picked us up to take us to our resort.
I think it was probably Friday when we were taken by bus along the coastal road to the airport at Cairns to fly back to Sydney. As far as I remember we arrived in Queensland Sunday night and on Friday we had to depart. That means we had two nights accommodation in Cairns and three nights in Port Douglas. (To book a weekend holiday would probably have been somewhat dearer.) It sounds like a rather brief holiday, however we did an amazingly lot of things during these 4 and 1/2 days. Everything was well organized. So we could relax all the way. It was marvellous to spend a few days in such an environment without any stress involved. 🙂
After our arrival at Cairns Peter contemplated whether he should take a dip into our hotel’s swimming pool.After two nights in Cairns a boat like this one took us up to Port Douglas.
The LAKE BARRINE TEAHOUSE was in the Atherton Tropical Tableland. It was a beautiful area for a walk and we saw there this amazing Curtain Figtree.
In front of the entrance to our resort in Port Douglas was a stop for a cute tourist train. This train took us all the way into town.
In those days I was still fit enough to ride a bike. We were able to cycle along the beach and could get into town that way. Alternatively we took the path next to the road that lead into town. The before mentioned tourist train went beside the road that lead into town.
The Kuranda Scenic Railway, that we boarded during one excursion, was full of tourists. The train stopped in the middle of nowhere and everyone was allowed out and walk around a bit to take pictures.
We were on the Crocodile Express going in the other direction.This is what the edge of the river looked like with crocodiles lazing about.Our tourist guide made sure that we did not get into any danger.Where we had a lunch break Peter found a lovely little pool to refresh himself.We went as far as Cape Tribulation.
For afternoon tea we stopped at a very remote place in the rainforest.
There were no modern conveniences in this remote place near the Daintree River.
In August 1998 Peter and I did fly to Cairns. 60 km north of Cairns is tropical Port Douglas, where we stayed at a Radison Reef Resort. Our travel agent had booked everything for us. Quite a few coach tours were included during our wonderful five day stay in North Queensland.
Views of Cairns and the lush coast from the famous Kuranda Scenic Railway
One of our tours led us to this beautiful Scenic Railway.
This is an aerial view of Cape Tribulation where two World Heritage areas meet, The Grat Barrier Reef and the rainforest.
One of our bus tours took us as far north as Cape Tribulation.
My children and grandchildren had the idea we could celebrate my 80th birthday at Sussex Inlet. We always loved to go to this place. Peter, I and the children have such lovely memories about it and often talk about it. I have stored some memories about Sussex Inlet in three of my ‘Pages’. Today I opened Sussex Inlet Page’I’. I thought, maybe some other bloggers might want to have a look too. So I copied one of the photos and the text to the first page. (I noticed nobody had actually looked at this page so far!)
As I said I copied only one of the photos. If you look at this post and would like to see some more photos, then please go to the above mentioned post in my pages about Sussex Inlet. There are many more photos to be seen in that page and two more pages about Sussex Inlet.
Uta with daughter Caroline and grandsons Ryan and Troy (the twins!). It was a wet morning.
This was our first time at Sussex Inlet. Caroline was six and the twins were still five. The rain lasted only for one day. After this we had beautiful summer weather again. When our son Martin came to visit with his wife Elizabeth the Inlet looked gorgeous in lovely sunshine.
It was March 1985 and in July Martin and Elizabeth had their first child, a boy named Tristan. After daughter Monika’s twins, Tristan was to be our third grandchild. (The following grandchildren were all girls. Monika’s three girls and Martin’s two girls. So we have eight grandchildren ; the last one of them was born in 1997. In the meantime we are also blessed with three great-grandchildren. )
After having experienced Sussex Inlet for the first time in 1985 we went back there lots of times. The children and grandchildren always loved it. Only our first born child, daughter Gabriele, was never able to join us at Sussex Inlet because she needed an Iron Lung for the night to sleep in.
We were happy that our youngest daughter had the company of the twins. The three of them did get on very well together. When people saw us with the three of them, they often thought they were triplets! The twins would ring their mum from a public phone near the office of the camp-site. The place was still called a ‘camp’ but it had newly built units which could accommodate up to eight people each.
In March 1985 the unit we were in had only just been built. Everything looked brand new. The best thing about Sussex Inlet was that it was very secluded. We called it our little paradise.
This is a picture that Peter took with his tablet.He also took this picture of me. I had a good rest at this lookout before we turned back towards the Visitor Centre.I would have loved to see the Twin Falls. However I felt to walk that much further would have been too much for me.
In our memory sticks another walk more than forty years ago when we went all the way down to the Grotto with our children. Old age is definitely creeping up on us now. Still, we are happy to be able to walk at all and go on outings like this one. It was so rewarding for us to spend last Sunday walking up to at least the first of many lookouts. I think this is also going to stick in our memory, especially since we did take a lot of pictures. It was a Sunday, and naturally because of this there were lots and lots of walkers about, many with very happy, lively children. Everyone was overtaking us! We are used to this by now that everyone is faster than we are. At most places we go to we are usually the oldest and slowest people around.!
We had to walk through the souvenir shop to reach the walking tracks. When we left the shop we to start our walk we noticed a construction site. A little bit of the beginning of the track was closed off. Some renewal of the wooden board walk had been started. The wooden boards are being replaced with a less slippery cover. Presumably some recycled material is used for the new track cover. Something that does not rot like wood does.
Not far from the entrance to the falls we had actually seen a dead wombat near the road side. It had probably been hit by a car.
Soon we could get a glimpse of the waterfall and the vast, vast gully.
Termite Architecture
I tried to capture a few of the signs along the track.
Another glimpse of the waterfall at the other side of the gully
Peter found a seat next to some more signs.
The following is the sign that greeted us near the beginning of our walk. Well, we made it to the Jersey Lookout. I took a rest there while Peter walked a little bit further. When he came back, he took a lovely picture of me (if I may say so) with his tablet. I have to ask him to give me this picture so I can publish it.
So we never made it to the Twin Falls or to the Grotto. More than forty years ago we actually made it to the Grotto with two of our children. We think it was Monika and Martin who were with us at the time. I wonder whether they can still remember that we went to the Grotto with them.
This is a passport photo of my mother Charlotte before she got sick. We do not know for sure, but she may have suffered a certain kind of memory loss later on.A few Years later another Passport-Photo was taken of her.
We did fly BRITISH AIRWAYS in 1994. We departed London/Heathrow Airport on Saturday, 19th of November at 12.45 and arrived at Tegel Airport/Berlin less than an hour later.
We moved in with my brother Peter Uwe who lived at the time with our mother in a spacious apartment in Berlin-Charlottenburg. For about ten days we stayed there and of course saw Charlotte every day. Once every day a woman would arrive to see after Charlotte’s personal needs. Peter Uwe was still a teacher and had to leave his mother on her own during the day.
Towards the end of November we left Berlin in a rental car. We had planned on going again to Windischgarsten, Austria, where Peter’s sister Eva lives with her husband Harald.
Our tour down south led us first of all to Wittenberg for a break at lunchtime. There was a Christmas Fair (Weihnachtsmarkt).I remember we were able to buy there delicious freshly baked potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer). A bit further on we noticed to our delight at some building our Australian flag! There happened to be an exhibition in that building about Australian aborigines.
From Wittenberg we went on to Radebeul near Dresden. This is were famous author Karl May had lived. We knew that they had a Karl May Museum in this town. So we went there for a visit. It brought back to me old memories about the noble Winnetou and his friend Old Shatterhand. Soon it was nighttime and we booked into a small hotel at Radebeul.
The following day we spent visiting Dresden. The Frauenkirche was still in ruins. Money was raised for its restoration. This is where I got my Swiss watch. The proceeds of this purchase helped towards the restoration of the church! There was a lovely Weihnachtsmarkt in Dresden too where we bought some food at lunchtime.
Our next overnight stay was in a hotel in Bad Schandau, a pleasant little spa town at the Elbe River near the Czech border. We took a walk through a wooded area and actually reached the Czech border!
I took this picture of Peter and Caroline where it said that this is the Czech border!
Well, we had not planned to take a direct tour to Austria. We first wanted to see on the way a bit of Germany . During the 1990s we did not have mobile phones. I guess we could have stayed in touch with Berlin or sister Eva via a hotel telephone. But we only rang Eva when we reached Trockau in Bavaria. It was 2 pm on the 2nd of December (I made a note of it!) Peter talked to his sister Eva, wanting to give her an indication when we might arrive at her place. “Did you ring Berlin yet?” she asked. “No, why?” And then Eva said to ring straight away. “Yesterday Uta’s mother has had a stroke and is in hospital!”
(My brother Peter Uwe had been ringing Peter’s sister Ilse who had been ringing her sister Eva.)
We did ring Berlin then of course and said to my brother we would straight away come to Berlin. We reached Berlin late at night. Peter Uwe was waiting for us and went with us to the hospital. My mother did not recover and died during the night from the 21st to the 22nd of December.
On the 13th of January 1995 we were back in Australia. My mother was to be cremated. Only there was a severe backlog at the time. The cremation could only be done well into February. And the funeral service could only be held after the cremation. Well, this was the German way of doing it. It upset me terribly. Yes, this was very difficult for me.
Peter Uwe, my brother, had been living separated from Klaudia, his wife, for some time. Peter Uwe had a new partner already. Her name is Astrid. At the time Klaudia and Astrid did not like each other, not at all. But over the years this has changed. I think they are at ease with each other now whenever they happen to meet. Peter Uwe and Klaudia have a daughter, Corinna, who was at my mum’s funeral, also Klaudia and of course Peter Uwe. Astrid was not there. Just two more people were there: Our cousin Wolfgang and his wife Gisela.
These are the five people who were at my mum’s funeral.This building is at the entrance to the cemetary (Städtischer Friedhof Schöneberg)
I guess the funeral service would have been held in there. We took the above picture in 2010 when Klaudia had the idea to show us the spot where Mum’s urn is buried anonymously amongst other urns on a beautiful lawn. The following pictures are the ones Peter Uwe sent us from the day of the funeral.
This stone we recognised in 2010 when Klaudia showed us the cemetery. Where these flowers are from the day of the funeral is presumably where Mum’s urn was buried.And here is the stone we saw in 2010.
When I published recently a blog about our adventures with the 2CV, Catterel made the following comment: “I love how certain makes of car can trigger memories – I once had a boyfriend in France, with this kind of 2CV. Canvas seats suspended from metal frames, like beach chairs! But we squeezed half a dozen students into it – don’t ask me how!”
I answered as follows:
“In the sixties we had a Volkswagen Beetle. Our friends, Karl and Marianne, had no car. So we invited them to come with us for an excursion. They had two children, a boy and a girl,, and we had two children the same age (Gaby was in long time hospital care already). Four adults and four children, we all fitted into this small VW. Seatbelts were not compulsory yet at this time. I think the children were between 4 years and 6 years, two girls and two boys. Behind the back seats there was room for two children, right under the back window of the car. I was the only one with a driver’s license at the time. So I was the driver!”
Our 2CV one morning in April 1990 near Ober-Ammergau
Today I discovered some more pictures with our 2CV that I had not published yet. This is why I include them in this reblog. We went with the 2CV from Austria to Berlin as I mentioned before. In Berlin we went in it to an outer suburb where cousin Ingrid and her husband Erhard own a little garden plot with a small cottage which they like to stay in during summer. They always love to invite us for a visit when we are in Berlin.
Cousin Ingrid holds onto her bike. The 2CV is already parked behind the gate, Erhard is to the left of the car, I can be seen on the right side.Here Caroline is trying out Ingrid’s bike/Doesn’t our 2CV look great surrounded by Ingrid’s garden? I think you can see where the side-flap on the side window in the front opens up!
In Singapore we went to the Zoological Gardens. Peter and Caroline had breakfast with an Orangutan.
This is a picture that Caroline took at Sydney Airport before our Departure.
Gaby had come with David. Also Monika was there to farewell us. This was 24 years ago, meaning that none of Monika’s girls had been born yet, but Monika had of course already Troy and Ryan. They were ten at the time.
Here, Caroline is in the picture too, meaning we are to be seen here with all three daughters!
In In Singapore we went to this Chapel.
We also went on a temple tour
Our Hotel had a Swimming Pool at the Top of the building.
This was the View from the Top of the Building.
I enjoyed our Stay in Singapore.
After Singapore our next destination was Paris. I already mentioned in Part One that we picked up a…
AuntyUta 