Last few days in Germany

A lot of time has been spent enjoying the daily routine of morning breakfast of yoghurt, cereal and chopped fruit.  I would get into writing quite early, while S would catch up on news and emails. Initially he would go out on his own on the bicycle and find the local supermarket either in Wedel or Holm, but I started to miss the fresh air, and exercise so opted to join him as well for the last week. By Tuesday I was  feeling things had moved quite  a way with the projected so wanting a gallery.. we did some research. It turned out we’d walked right past an enormous one the previous Friday. 

The Cube (which we’d seen) is about a quarter of a huge complex  housing Hamburg’s finest art collection. We spent around six hours wandering the floors enjoying both the old and modern masters. There were surprises too like the huge room with the Marilyn Munroe and Campbells Soup Warhol prints, some great photography in the basement of abandoned apartments in Mozambique and there were of course the Impressionists and Expressionists.

 Probably the highlight was in in the Cube with a delightful exhibition of art in response to the story of Alice in Wonderland. This encompassed  everything from old silent movies, original illustrations, book versions, toys, soundtracks, and paintings including some by Dali who had a film made as well. We ate a lovey lunch in the Cube except I gave a dramatic gesture at one point and managed to splatter coffee everywhere.

On Wednesday after a few hours work at home we took to our bicycles again and rode to the Wedel smoked fish supplier.  On the way home we stopped into one of Nadja’s favourite cafés for a second time. We’d already made ourselves known to the proprietor and she was more than pleased to see us again and in fact quite surprised to find we were still around.  In the evening we enjoyed our smoked mackerel for dinner with smoked salmon and crackers for starters.

We started to make plans for Friday. S discovered, when reading through all our material, that there’s an Arts and Crafts gallery opposite the Hauptbahnhoff (Central Station) in Hamburg. We’d passed it before and  had wondered about “that interesting looking building”.  Looking through it was yet another six hours of bliss. This gallery was filled with all sorts of objects dating back as far as 7000BC. It included some fascinating artefacts from the Etruscans and Romans; the Renaissance period with its furniture and lavish walls and ceilings; the Art Deco period with its Tiffany glass and  a marvellous musical instruments section with video and audio examples of how these were used and played. There were well-placed artefacts that drew your eye in to look more closely and everything was labelled impeccably with both German and an English translation.

This look through the Arts and Crafts museum was our last full day in Hamburg. We’d found the transport really reasonable from Wedel (a group ticket which could have accommodated 5 people) cost us only €9.80 return as long as we bought it after 9am There were no restrictions in the evening as well (as long as we didn’t take a bicycle!)

Saturday was clean up and pack up day. It felt very strange doing this and we were feeling quite sad around how quickly the last three weeks have gone. We were also realising how much we’ve loved the company of Anja especially. We invited her and her Mum for dinner that evening and we were able to sit out in the sun room (they call it the winter room) as the weather that day had been a bit warmer.

 Anja picked us up early the next morning to take us through to the town of Lubeck. In the evening Dirk asked, “which town did you like best? Lubeck or Lueneburg?” We couldn’t answer that one. Lubeck feels bigger, we had coffee in the famous marzipan store, and wow..the churches are awesome and the story of their rebuilds after the War tell a story of determined townspeaple; we visited 4 of them and an old hospital with a chapel attached. Throughout Germany there’s a religious (harvest) festival in progress at the moment and one of the churches was making the most of it with a market inside the church, with people in period costume…but Lueneburg is charming. The climb to the top of the water tower that evening was something very special. Our answer was simple…Both had their own charm and interest for us. We are pleased we have visited them both.

In the evening we were shouted dinner at the Fish restaurant in front of the smoked fish shop. They are not connected apparently except by trade but it made the fish taste fresh fish. It was a special night being able to farewell our Wedel “family” who have all been so generous and kind and welcoming throughout our three weeks stay.

Very early this morning Anja was up again, and very kindly drove us into Hamburg to catch a 5.45am bus to Amsterdam. We were there by 5.30 but already the bus was jammed packed with people who appeared to have slept the night on the bus! There was one spare seat for the two of us and I squeezed behind a man who had stretched his seat right back. I was just able squeeze my legs in and sit down. Anja stood along the platform and we were able to give her a big wave as we sailed past.

The bus made good time. We made it to Amsterdam half an hour early. We’d managed about two hours in, to secure a seat that gave us more leg room. Getting out to Schipol and finding our hotel was relatively easy. Tonight we had an all-too-short catch up with Cathy again at the airport. Great seeing her again. Next time we must make it longer! This was, after all, our farewell Europe dinner to Europe for a while. How quickly time has flown. It’s been such a privilege to have this time to relax, write and live a little. It’s been fantastic catching up with old friends and meeting new people and seeing everything.