[This series of posts comes directly from the journal I wrote during our vacation. Most entries were written on the date noted. Some were written a couple of days later. I'm not editing them significantly, except where noted. The full collection of all posted pictures. Germany Flickr Set.]
6/22 continued
[Written 6/23] The flight to Hamburg went very well and arrived on-time. We then went through immigration with only one question – “Here on holiday?” We then picked up our luggage then walked out the “Nothing to Declare” doors.
Anne was able to get train tickets from the airport all the way to Luneburg, transferring in the central station in Hamburg [Hamburg Hauptbahnhof]. However, we were told in Hamburg that our connection was canceled due to a strike. After 20 minutes of standing in line and talking to a police officer (for information) we made a connection to Luneburg where A and R were waiting for us. [We then hopped on a bus for the remainder of the journey to their house.]
6/23
[Written 6/25] We relaxed much of the morning, then wandered into the center of Luneburg, Am Sande. After exploring a short time, we took buses to pick up A and R at school, then back to Am Sande to have ice cream for lunch [Related post, giving context of ice cream for lunch].
Explored the lovely town center a while longer, then went home for dinner. We picked up a one liter bottle of French Merlot for only 2€ (~ $3) and drank most of it with dinner.
While making dinner, Kristin turned on the wrong burner on the electric stove. There were two glass stove protectors over the hot empty burner. She realized the mistake and turned off the wrong burner, but a minute later, one of the glass protectors exploded, throwing glass all over the kitchen and into the hallway. I was barefoot and one piece burned my toe, and another poked a small hole in the sole of my foot. Some of the glass melted into the vinyl flooring. It took us 30+ minutes to clean up all the shattered pieces.
6/24
[Written 6/25] We headed toward a nearby town, Celle. We got moving a bit slowly and missed our bus by 1 minute (we saw it drive away). Waited 20 minutes for the next one. Then at the train station in Luneburg we missed our train connection while we tried to figure out which ticket we needed. So we waited another 40-60 minutes for another train. Connected in Ulezen (with some difficulty, I think) and arrived in Celle around 4PM. We then learned that the only train heading back toward Ulezen/Luneburg was at 9:06PM [later than we had planned to stay; another option would have been to have left Celle 10 minutes after we arrived].
Walked 20 minutes to a small museum about the history of Celle, but all the signs were in German. Fortunately, since it was Friday, it was free.
Went into Old Town Celle, exploring shops and eating dinner. with time to kill, we took the kids to a playground in an old french park.
We got to the train station and got on the 9:06 toward Ulezen. When we got there, we learned that our connection [to Luneburg] was cancelled ['Zug fallt aus' means the train was cancelled] and the next train would be 11:22PM. A taxi would have been ~ 60€ [$84 each, and we would have needed two] (I asked a driver who spoke no English). so we waited 90 minutes in the Ulezen station. The bathrooms were all closed, so the kids had to pee in the bushes. They were completely slap-happy goofy by the time the train arrived. We made it back to Luneburg around 11:45PM, after buses stopped running. So two taxis took our group home for ~20€ [$28] total. It was a pretty long boring day, but the kids handled it well.
6/25
[Written at 7PM] We traveled into Hamburg today–trains have been so screwed up I’m not even sure what happened anymore-maybe nothing. We got to Miniatur Wunderland where we were told (via info screens and in person) several times to expect a two hour wait [before getting in] and that we should buy tickets for a later time. We decided to wait it out in a waiting area–no queue, no way to know whose turn it was, and the woman behind the desk made no attempt to explain the process, even in German. Another visitor explained that you’ll get in when its your turn, but then said “She’ll recognize you” referring to the woman behind the desk [who was intently watching a computer screen, ignore everyone around her]. Since it seemed all the previous people in the waiting area had gone in, I waited standing in front of her. She let us in after only 20-25 minutes waiting. The queue process was chaos and a complete farce.
Once inside, the displays were magnificent, but I tired quickly of looking at all the detail, trying to find bawdy scenes (there were several). Instead, I stared shooting the crowd, looking for interesting, intent expressions.
We met up with Tom after we were done and toured a little bit [of Hamburg] seeing where the great fire of 1830-something started, the Rathouse, and a great cathedral that was almost flattened during WWII. Then we went to Planten und Bloomen to visit a great playground.
On our way home we again dealt with multiple train cancellations. We tried to get a connection in Hamburg-Harborg–two were canceled, then one showed up 25 minutes late. We’ll get to Luneburg after the buses stop so we’ll have to pay for more cab fare. The consensus now is that we’re staying in Luneburg tomorrow. Thank God. [this entry was written on the platform of a train station after spending several hours in the past two days waiting for trains--I was a bit tired and frustrated.]
Misc observations: Germany has lots of drinkers and smokers. Open container laws don’t exist and single beer is as cheap as pop. I’ve seen some folks walking around with half-consumed wine bottles.
6/26
[Written 6/27] We spent a lazy day relaxing at the Koontz home. Around 2PM the adults left some euros on the table for pizza, then headed into Luneburg. First we went up a hill which gave a decent view of Luneburg and surrounding area. Then we split up–women to the Salt Museum, men to the beer museum.
The beer museum was 2€ [$3]each, but the host couldn’t break a 20 because he’d had so few visitors. When I asked if I could take pictures, I was told that would be an extra 3€ [$4.50], so I declined. Tom and I looked around for a bit–it was an old brewery that was cleaned up and signs added (many with English!). After looking around, Tom and I had 20 minutes to kill [before meeting with the wives] so we went to a neighborhood brew-pub [Malzer is evidently the only brew-pub left in Luneburg].
We met Anne and Kristen and headed toward the river. When we got to the ancient wooden, human-powered salt-crane, there was a tour guide explaining the crane’s history to a group. The guide invited us to join them inside the crane building. Fortunately, the guide was speaking entirely in English.
After the crane tour, the four of us went to a restaurant that had seating on the riverside. Anne had a very nice pork tenderloin dish with potato and hollondaise sauce, but she was very jealous of my pesto gnocchi with shrimp. It was rich and delicious. When Tom ordered a 0.3 liter (10 ounces) beer before dinner, the waiter asked “Are you sure? That size is normally for girls.” Tom persisted. I, on the other hand, got another 1/2 liter (17 ounces) and we had fun comparing the sizes of the glasses.
As it became clear that we were done with dinner our (new) waiter asked, in English “Are you finnish [sic]?” To which I replied “No, we’re Americans.” Big laughs all around.
After we paid, I asked the waiter what the customary tip was and he replied “typically 8%”. Our share of the bill was 42€ [$63] so I handed him a 5€ note [$7.50] (which felt like a bargain) saying something like “Is that fair?” He replied with a big grin “Oh yes, that’s very nice.”
6/27
Today we packed our bags, and cleaned up after ourselves as much as possible. We headed to the bus stop 40 minutes ahead of our original plan catching the 8:55 AM bus. We had planned to get an Intercity Express train [which hadn't been under strike] because of the Metronom strike, but we learned in the morning that the strike was over. So we got a “group card” on the bus that was good for our whole trip to the airport.
The first train that we took was delayed 25 minutes, causing a bit of nervous dega vu. We got on around 9:55AM and it was supposed to take us to the central station, Hauptbahnhof. However, it stopped on the tracks for 5 minutes, then we were told that the route was ending in Hamburg Harborg and that we should take the subway to Hauptbahnhof. We did that and the rest of the journey was fine.
The line to check bags was long but moved quickly. We stopped in a gift shop so that we could spend our last euros and a 1/2 liter of Coke was 2.75€ ($4.10) while the same quantity of beer was 1.40€ ($2). Absolutely insane pricing.
Border control checked our passports without any questions and we were soon at our gate. Now we’re on the flight back to London.
Germany was fun, with the exception of the train strike. The kids had a great time together playing with O, make a movie, etc. We really seemed to with in with their family dynamic pretty well. I felt like we were welcomed without it being a huge burden on them. At one point while eating dinner on the riverside, Kristin pointed out how wonderfully unique the experience was and how a year ago we never would have predicted that scene. It was a lovely culmination of that leg of our trip.
[Related: Kristin's post on our time there.]
When I checked last night, we’d spent $2200-2400 out of savings and available credit. We still have a lot of room in the finances for the remainder of the trip [which was just over half over]. I don’t want to get stupid about money, but if we spend 30£ on lunch rather than 20£, we’ll be OK. And Capital One has been as good as gold so far-no problem getting cash or charging anything and we’re getting bank rate conversion, no fee. That arrangement has saved us 5-7% on the trip, easily.
