Leaving for "Home"

The trip to Hamelin (Hameln here) did not take place. When we awoke on Friday and Karin went to work, Joe and the two of us decided to tackle some home chores. We got a taste of everyday German life as we took the car to be washed, bought groceries and did some organizing at home.

Dinner was a stir-fry combination of chicken, vegetables, the ever-present spinach and Indian bread wraps. After dinner we had a walk to the train station to buy our tickets for Sunday's sojourn to Bremen to catch our plane back to England.

Despite forecasts of rain and overcast weather, we awoke on Saturday to sun. After breakfast, the four of us hopped on our bikes and headed for a lake nearby to relax on a beach. Even with two native guides, the route was elusive and many stops were made at intersections to determine the best direction to take. We were rewarded finally with an interlude on a grassy beach, and a lunch of the fruit we had brought. Bob and I decided to supplement ours with a wurst from the concession stand, since we thought we shouldn't leave Germany without having consumed at least one.

We set off to circumnavigate at least part of the perimeter of the lake, and then head home. It was during this part of the trip that we noticed Joe's rear tire losing air. Since we had no patches with us, we had to keep stopping periodically to pump up his tire. Poor Joe got twice the workout of the rest of us, pedalling a soft tire most of the way home. As soon as it was possible, we hopped on a tram with our bikes and rode the rest of the way home that way. Bob and Joe patched the offending tube as soon as we arrived home, so Joe will be ready for his commute on Monday.

We had a breakfast feast this morning of Chef Joe's special egg, pepper, cheese and (of course) spinach mixture. We feel rather guilty leaving before the spinach supply has run out, but what can we do? In a little while, we'll head for the train station and after many dealings where we'll be sure to be missing Karin, interpretor extraordinaire, we'll end up at Bev and John's in Stevenage. Tomorrow the plan is to visit Cambridge, and then at some point make our way back to London, specifically Honor Oak Park, to finish visiting and organize for the trip home.

Randy tells us that we'll probably need to restock groceries when we get back, and there have been several minor repairs made while we were gone. As always when we travel to Europe, we'll have plenty of good ideas to implement around the house.