Kiel.

Well today was an interesting day... I left Joey and travelled north to Kiel, via Hamburg, on the Baltic Sea.
Why? One might ask...
An insight into some family history; I have a great-uncle who was killed in action during the Second World War and is burried there. From what I could find on the internet before this little day trip was that he was a flight engineer for the RCAF. In 1942 he was part of a fleet of 24 Halifax bombers that were attacking the Kiel-Flensbourg U-boat docks. Sadly only 12 of the 24 planes returned to the UK, my great uncle's being one of the MIA.
The trip was long and it was raining cats and dogs when I got to Hamburg, so obviously I was questioning this decision to go. And in all honesty I wasn't sure why I was going... But the skies cleared when I arrived in Kiel. Took me a while to figure out what bus to take there, but the tourist bureau was super helpful! Soo I managed to find the War Cemetery, which was actually not just the Commenwelth Cemetery like I'd thought. I actually got lost cause it is huge. The first part I walked through was German war graves from the First World War. The average age was 18. Astonishing. After I wandered that for a while, realizing I was totally in the wrong place, I walked the other direction and ended up in the German Second World War Graves, but I could see the Common Wealth ones on the otherside of a hedge... Finally I found the entrance.
Very different 'look' and smaller than I had imagined in my mind. I knew his plot number before arriving, so that made it easier than walking row by row to find it. Though it was so much smaller that I had anticipated that it wouldn't have mattered. It was a shockingly intense experience. I am so emotional. I brought flowers, but his stone was surrounded by them that you couldn't even tell I had added some! It was so... I don't know. Their ages were so young, most under 23 - younger than me, same age as Patrick. I can't imagin him doing that... I'm still shocked at how I reacted. I had absolutly no connection to him, other than he was nana's brother... Regardless I'm glad I went, regardless that I have no connection to him, unlike others who are visiting their fathers or known relatives. It feels like something I needed to do.

Location:Berlin