Click on a photo to enlarge it.
The flight from Mexico City to Amsterdam was quiet. We even got some sleep. Must have been all the swimming in the German Club! In Amsterdam we had to race through the airport - only
40 minutes time to get the next flight. But we got to Hamburg on time and were picked up by Kirsten´s parents.
We spent the first four weeks in Hamburg visiting family and friends. But the main event was of course the soccer world cup in Africa. England and Germany both had a few
difficulties to get through the first round. Unforgettable is the mistake of England´s goal keeper during the first match. And of course both teams were playing each other in the next round.
The emotions in our family were divided - only one of the teams will go through.
We watched the match with 70.000 German fans in the city centre of Hamburg. Only about 10 English fans dared to go to the Heiligen Geistfeld. It was all very peaceful and after the match a German fan
said to Helen "Look, there is one of the two English fans!". Before the match the guy on stage welcomed two English fans standing right in front of him.
It was boiling hot - approx. 60°C in front of the big screen. No shade and lots of dust. Thank God, the match didn´t go into extra time and penalty shooting. We would have died in the heat!
If you have watched the game, you will remember how dramatic it was. Germany leading 2:0 and then within one minute England shot two goals. The whole world saw the second goal behind the line, only the referee
didn´t. Nobody knows how the match would have ended if the goal had counted, but in the end England lost 4:1. A great and very entertaining match and even Helen had to admit that Germany had been the
better team so far in the tournament.
Germany played another super match against Argentina (4:0) but lost the semi final against Spain 1:0. Again! We were still very proud of this young team and are looking forward to the next
world cup. Spain won the final against Holland 1:0. Kirsten´s tip before the tournament was the same final but Holland winning. Watch the video to see our ups and downs during the world cup.
Moments during the Soccer World Cup
Two days after the final, Helen flew to England. She first went to see her family in Birmingham and then continued by train onto Wales. She´s a long distance walker and wanted to do
Offa´s Dyke again. The 300km hike goes from North to South through Wales and it was pissing down with rain. Helen carried all her belongings in a small backpack. To keep it as
light as possible she had left a second pair of long trousers and a fleece shirt at home. Big mistake! It was a lot colder there than in Germany. On Helen´s last long hike through England
in 2006 there were record heat temperatures with an average of 35°C in the shade. Well, you never know what the weather will be like! But even with wet feet and lots of blisters, Helen managed to keep
her spirits up and somehow enjoyed the long hike. Thank God, Kirsten wasn´t there!
But Kirsten wasn´t lazy either. She worked nearly every day for 5 hours on a strawberry farm and sold fruit. Hence, freshly picked strawberries and raspberries were for dessert every night. Something we
can´t get in North America! She also moved into her brother´s house for two weeks. Ralf and family were on holiday in Austria and Kirsten had to feed the cat George and the two guinea pigs Max and Moritz three
times a day. Due to the sunny weather the huge garden had to be watered every night for about 45 minutes. Thanks to the fast internet connection downstairs, Kirsten also used the time to work on the computer.
Among many others there were two special highlights. One was the cruise ship parade in the harbour of Hamburg. The artist Michael Batz decorated ships, houses and containers with 3500 blue lights and converted the harbour to
the so called "Blue Port". On July 31st, 150.000 spectators watched the parade at 9.30pm. Kirsten and her family enjoyed this event on board the sailing ship Rickmer Rickmers. It was wonderful to watch the cruise liners
and big sailing boats - accompanied by fireworks and fog horns - parading through the harbour. Majestic! And the poring rain had stopped in time for the parade.
Cruise Day parade in the harbour of Hamburg
People who had come to the harbour by public transport got jammed up in the subway station after the parade. Only one week after the Love Parade disaster in Duisburg we were aware of the danger to get knocked out and nobody started pushing. All went
very safe and smooth.
The other highlight transported Kirsten back in time. Months before our return to Hamburg Kirsten received an email from her former school friend Astrid. We went to school together in grade 1 and 2 before Kirsten´s family moved
to Rahlstedt. We lost contact after the move and now Astrid was knocking on Kirsten´s door again after 36 years. She had googled Kirsten on the internet and ended up on this website.
Our first meeting took place in Barsbüttel and Kirsten´s parents were present as well. Amazing - we didn´t really know each other but there was an instant connection. If we would have met accidentally somewhere we certainly would not have recognized each other.
Surprisingly we had both developed in similar ways. Both of us did a lot of sports (Kirsten played volleyball for 25 years, Astrid handball and later a little volleyball as well), both of us loved travelling and have done a lot of it, we are independent, have no kids, are down to earth etc.
Astrid organized another two meetings afterwards. The first one included Thomas - another school mate from the first two grades. We spent hours talking until 1.30am and Thomas woke up the
whole neighbour hood when he started his Harley Davidson in the early morning hours. The second time we met up with our first school teacher Mrs. Roloff. She still looked the same!
Same hair style, same openness and fun to talk to. She had never met any of her other students after they had left for high school. Wow!
A huge THANK YOU to Astrid for these amazing experiences!
We will come back to Hamburg in two years, so, Astrid, you have enough time to get all the others class mates together for a meeting! :-)
10 weeks in Hamburg went by really fast. Now we are looking forward to seeing Winnie again. Hopefully he survived the rainy season in Mexico. After putting him back together we will head north to spend another 3 months hiking in the
South West of the States. Can Kirsten keep up with the super fit Helen???
