Steintore
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Steintore
We flew from Beijing to Hamburg via Belgium. The first flight was long and was delayed and we didn't get going until 02-30 in the morning. We were already tired and didn't get much sleep. We had a 2.5 hour wait for the short second flight and were picked up from the airport by Kirsten's mother.
We stayed with Kirsten's youngest brother Göran, his wife Sabine and their two children Kilian, 16 and Chiara 14. We stayed in Chiara's room and she moved into her brother's room whilst we were there.
We caught up with the family and a number of friends and went to see Kirsten's grandmother several times. Sadly she died 5 months later. She was a wonderful woman and we will miss her a lot so we are really happy we could see her again.
Kilian played the piano at a music performance of all the teachers students and we went to Chiara's ballet performance - she is a student with the John Neumeier ballet ensemble and you have to be really good just to be accepted. Kirsten and I had to borrow clothes from Sabine to go to the performance - our travel clothes weren't good enough!
Two of Kirsten's nephews Kilian and Torben, were preparing to go to America for a year as exchange students and we drove with Kilian and Göran into Berlin so that Kilian could get his visa from the American consulate. Whilst we were there we did some sightseeing too.
There was a lot to see - Bellevue, the president's palace; the fan mile for the World Cup where there were a lot of Dixie toilets; the Brandenburg Gate; a monument built for the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Second World War; Hitler's bunker; Parliament and Chancellor's building; and Checkpoint Charlie.
Day trip Berlin.
Of course, we couldn't resist going into the largest chocolate factory and shop in the world - Fassbender and Rausch - looking at all the buildings made out of chocolate and buying some for us too!!
It was a very long day and we had to get up at 4am to get to the consulate in time. We didn't get back until almost 7pm.
We also had various doctor's appointments. I was still having problems with diarrhoea from India and, after various tests, ended up having to go for a colonoscopy. I banished myself down to the basement toilet as I had to take medication to empty me out! Not a particularly nice experience and nothing was found to indicate a bacterial problem - but at least it stopped the diarrhoea!
I also had MRI's done on both knees because the French doctors had told me last year that should give up walking. They were wrong! Nothing was found and the only explanation for the swelling last year was that my knee caps aren't quite in the right place which may have led to the swelling after so much walking. So I had a green light for the second Camino walk I was planning.
Our time in Hamburg coincided with the soccer World Cup (Germany won, in case there is anyone out there who doesn't know!!!) So there was always football going on. We had already sent off our tips for each match result and were playing in a group of family and friends. Each player has to pay a fee and this is divided up amongst the winners. I actually came fourth and won 35 Euros. Not bad seeing as we haven't watched any of the national teams since the last world cup 4 years ago!
Soccer World Cup in Hamburg
After Hamburg Kirsten flew to Canada and got Winnie out of storage. He'd been standing in a former cow shed for 8 months and although he was absolutely filthy on the outside, everything else was fine. Good old Winnie!
I flew to England to see my family and then flew to France to do the parts of the Camino that I missed last year because of swollen knees and also to walk the Camino Portugues. See Camino website for the new report.
