jfk

 Prologue / Introduction


















Reiseplanung
In October 2014, my good friend and Kennedy-expert Peter Engels and I were on a short trip in New York. During a daytrip to Washington, D.C. we also visited the tomb of John F. Kennedy, of course, at the national cemetery in Arlington. We made a short break in front of the visitor center on a bench before leaving the cemetery again. And exactly then the idea arose to do another trip in 2017 on the occasion of John F. Kennedy’s 100. birthday.

First we only thought about one week in Boston as we saw that as the „epicenter“ of the celebrations. It was Peter Engels who wanted to add New York to the trip because he just loves that city, just like I do, and likes to go back there over and over again. Then I brought the car into the game in which the president had died. I have always wanted to see it for real and he was just with me. However, it is exhibited in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit and thus not really „along the way“ ...

Who cares – Peter Engels just „squeezed“ in Dearborn as stopover of the flight from Boston to New York. And then I told him that I would also really like to visit Dallas again. We had both been there before in 2013, but not together. Thus we extended the whole trip to two weeks and a time of pleasant anticipation and intensive planning began that should last for the next 31 months. On the following pages there will not be anything about our time in New York as it has not really anything to do with the topic around Kennedy.



This planning accompanied us for the next 31 months between October 2014 and May 2017. One after another – slowly – the gaps were filled with new dates, flight data and other things. Over and over again we had to change, adjust and amend. We were aware of the uniqueness of this journey und it was thus very important to us to take the best advantage of the limited time and get the best out of it. Sometimes this meant to touch the limits of resilience. Still we tried to realize our plan within those two weeks as good as possible and we actually made it most of the days.

As this plan accompanied us every single day, it had a special meaning for us – also when looking back. So later I got the idea to immortalize it in that special way and put it in brass and mahogany for Peter Engels.

Next: Day 1 - Boston