This post describes our visit to Karlsruhe, Germany, 21 to 24 August 2017.
The reason for visiting Karlsruhe was to see my cousin Laszlo Trunko and his wife Erika. My father's mother's maiden name was Gisela Trunko and Laszlo was from that side of the family.
Laszlo had started university when the Hungarian Uprising took place 23 October to 10 November 1956. When the Soviet Army intervened and it became obvious that the revolution would fail Laszlo fled to West Germany (an estimated 200,000 Hungarians escaped to the West at that time). He was given a scholarship to study German, and then took geology at university. He did a PhD, became an academic, and attained the rank of Professor (now retired).
Laszlo married Erika; they have two children and four grandchildren.
They live in the village of Pfinztal-Worchbach near Karlsruhe. Lazlo met us at the station. We stayed in the 'Alexander Pension' around the corner from their house.
The following day we had lunch with, Istvan Noszvai and his wife Maria, who live nearby. We found out that Istvan and I are related via our Great Grandmothers on my father's side, so distant cousins. Amazing, I have two cousins from my father's side living about a kilometer apart, near Karlsruhe (we don't know of any in Hungary itself).
Istvan looked around 50 years of age; a mechanical engineer. They moved to Germany a few years ago, after Hungary became a member of the European Union in 2004.
The next day Laszlo and Erika drove us to the Black Forest - we explored the beautiful town of Baden Baden, and had a walk around the Mummel See.
The following are some photos of our time with Laszlo and Erika.
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| Map of Germany showing Karlsruhe. The map is from a Spanish website, hence some different spellings. |
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| Erika and Laszlo Trunko - now 80 and 81 years old. Their passion has been travelling; they have visited almost 70 countries - amazing - love Asia. One of the few places they haven't been is Australia. They have slowed down in the last year or two, because of health issues; instead of long trips they now do short ones - next week will visit Rhodes. |
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| We had lunch with Istvan and Maria Noszvai who live about 1 km from the Trunkos. |
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| We had lunch at the Hirsch Restaurant enroute to Baden Baden. |
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| A walk around Mummel See in the Black Forest. |
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| A view across the Black Forest, from Mummel See. |
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| Saying goodbye to Laszlo at Karlsruhe station. It was good to see Laszlo and Erika again and they looked after us very well. |
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| Vera having a nap on the train from Karlsruhe to Munich. |
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| The countryside between Karlsruhe and Munich was lovely - rolling hills. |
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| Lots of corn fields in the countryside. We were blessed with good weather for most of our month in Germany. |
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Our next (and final) stop in Germany will be Weilheim, near Munich, to see my German relatives. The next post will describe our time there.
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Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.
Alex & Vera Olah
Canberra, Australia
Sunday 12 March 2017
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