Thursday, March 26, 2009

Today, we went to the end of the earth or at least that is what a lot of people in the Netherlands seem to believe.  We went to the northeastern section of the country to see where Carolyn’s ancestors were from.  We went to the train station to purchase tickets.  When I told the lady I needed four return tickets to Winschoten, she looked puzzled and questioningly asked “Winschoten?”  I think she thought I misspoke.  I showed her the paper where I had written the name down and she printed off our tickets. 

We then took the train to Winschoten.  We had a few changes but for the most part everything went smoothly.  We only had one minor problem.  At one of the stations we had three minutes to change trains.  We hurried across the platform and entered the train.  We were welcomed by the smell of smoke.  It smelled like the train was burning.  We were told to get off.  We did not have to wait very long for them to bring another train for us to use.  When we arrived in Winschoten, we took a bus to Finsterwolde because the trains do not go through this small town. 

As we walked down the road, I saw the name Kuiper on one of the houses.  Since this was one of the last names we were looking for, I pointed it out.  Tam knocked on the door.  A girl answered.  She was of course a little puzzled and said she didn’t speak much English.  She went to get her mother to talk to us.  When her mother came to the door she was a little shocked as well.  Tam had used an online translator to explain in Dutch who she was and that she was looking for relatives.  The woman said that she did not know any of the people listed on the sheet. 

We then went to the cemetery.  We looked at gravestones hoping to find some relatives.  We were able to find some people with the last name of Kuiper but none with the last name of Kolder.  One thing that I found interesting and very helpful was that women were buried with their maiden names on the stone.  We found some relatives but not all that Carolyn was looking for. 

It was a really rainy and cold day.  It was typical Dutch weather but made for a miserable day.  If it was nicer, we probably would have stayed longer, but we were all pretty soaked from being out in the rain.  We took the train bus back to Winschoten and then took the train back to Leiden.  The train from Leiden to Winschoten was about a 3 ½ hour journey one way.