A class 642 Siemens Desiro pauses to let passengers detrain at Neuendettelsau. This small town of about 8,000 people was one of the main destinations for my father and I on our journey through Germany. Back in 1847, my great great great grandfather was trained by pastor Wilhelm Loehe as a Lutheran missionary here before being sent to America to be a parish pastor among German settlers in Michigan, Ohio, and eventually, Missouri. The railway here wasn't constructed until the 1870's, but it was pretty special to step off of this little train into a place my ancestor walked over 170 years before.
