A little regional background

I have been to Germany three times before moving here (visiting Leipzig, Munich, and Cologne) and have visited Plön twice, last March (2007) to interview for a job and last December with my wife. I have never been here in the summer but I am told it is a popular German tourist destination. I can believe this. The area is surrounded by lakes and farmland. The water is crystal clear and the air is very clean. The town of Plön itself is almost an island. It sits between three main lakes with three isthmuses connecting it to the mainland. It has a Schloss, which the Germans translate as a castle (literally it means "lock" as in "to lock up"), but Americans would be more likely to call it a mansion because it's not in a medieval style. Plön is the the northernmost German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark. The area has changed hands between Denmark and Germany and the Danish make up a large minority here. In the past Schelswig-Holstein has also included part of southern Denmark. The landscape here was shaped by glaciers in the last ice age, creating a multitude of small lakes across the countryside, similar to northern Minnesota. Being virtually in Scandanavia, Plön has a slightly higher latitude then Goose Bay, Labrador. One of the most striking things to me is how low the sun is in the sky. On a clear day if you look toward the south the sun is in your eyes. It can be noon but "feels" to me like it is earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon because the sun is so low. Also, when we were here last December (closer to the solstice) the sun set at 3:45 in the afternoon! The days in the summer should be equivalently longer. The local dialect of German spoken here is known as Plattdeutsch (low German) but it seems to be being replaced by standard (high) German, which is taught in the schools. Today there is more Plattdeutsch spoken by communities outside of Germany than within, such as the Mennonites. The largest of these Plattdeutsch communities appears to be in Kazakhstan. It seems that there was a migration of German farmers to the Soviet Union and now some of their descendants have returned. In fact, I'm told Plön has a "Russian" community of repatriated Germans that often speak Russian at home and to each other. There is also a small Turkish presence in town. Last December I spoke with a man from Turkey that had lived in Plön for 13 years. This last week I grabbed lunch at a döner kebab place, and several people inside were having a Turkish conversation. At one point the woman sang part of a song and her voice went up and down in a Middle Eastern "sound". Plön is also a small town. Already I am recognizing people as I walk through town and bumping into people I know.