During my 2007 Germany trip, I took an overnight trip from Berlin to Pila, Poland. Among my ancestors on the Gensicke side was Friedrich Ottomar Kruger, who came to the U.S. from this town. Only then it was Schneidemuhl, Posen, part of Prussia. The town had changed hands between Poland and Germany a handful of times over the years, ending up in Poland for good after WWII. (Schneidemuhl means 'saw mill' in German; Pila means 'saw' in Polish.)

I had some limited hope of finding possible relatives in the two old German cemeteries in town, but the town was a major railroad center and munitions site, so most of the town's historical core was bombed into oblivian during the war. After the war Germans were expelled and the cemeteries were no longer maintained.

Pila has no major tourist attractions, so my visit ended up being an exploration of an ordinary Polish city, which has its own value if you want to learn about a country.

Mark Wasson, http://www.markwasson.com > Trips has detailed summaries of my trips

http://www.markwasson.com/u2007g07agermany.htm