Bramfelder See

We shouted ourselves a lovely hotel breakfast, with the aim of keeping us fed through the four hour (432 km) from Cologne to Hamburg.

We made it to the main train station in miles of time - had to watch three other trains use our platform before our ICE arrived. As we found before, platforms at the main city stations in Germany are so long, that as well as its number, each platform is divided into zones A to G. Signage then tells you in which zone your carriage will stop.

For this train the Eurail planner told me when I looked that there was no need to reserve seats. So I didn’t - mistake! The first class carriages were packed.

Des & I eventually found a couple of odd unoccupied seats, and settled down. Half an hour and a couple of stops later, it turned out that the seats we were in belonged to a couple who had reserved their seats.

So we got booted out, but fortunately there were a couple of unreserved seats close by. We spent the rest of the journey back to back - quite peaceful, actually.

We arrived at Hamburg Dammtor station, built especially for Emperor Wilhelm II. As we were drifting along the platform, wondering if there was a lift to take us down to ground level, we were greeted by a wonderful smile - Des’s old friend Marie-Thérèse had come to pick us up!

Marie-Thérèse fitted us and all our junk into her car (another example of how accommodating and flexible a Honda Jazz is!), and we set off.

First we visited the cemetery at Ohlsdorf where Marie-Thérèse’s husband Gerhardt was buried 12 years ago. The cemetery is unlike any I have ever seen before, with graves surrounded (and mostly hidden from the road) by brilliant banks of mauve rhododendrons. We took a circular route to the grave, enjoying the walk, and in particular a couple of geese and their goslings’ antics.

Second stop was for ice creams - yum!

At home, Marie-Thérèse had cooked a lovely loaf of bread for our lunch.

As I began to write this, two beautiful ladies were in full flow catching up on years of unshared experiences interspersed with reminiscence.Read more