Last days in Hamburg

Friday was one of those days that I expected to be a get-it-all-done day, but it was more of a slow day. We went to the big market again and I introduced my girls to paradise regarding candy: The market stand that I already stood in line at when I was 7 - yum. Friday and Saturday were marked by the typical time crunch that comes with an overwhelming power due to the awareness of leaving soon and no impending return. There are some last minute things to get while there are more things I remember all of a sudden that I did not get. Interspersed are the mundane realities of laundry, packing and organizing people. The kids kept themselves occupied with pitting cherries and blowing bubbles out of the window.


My mother took Sophie for another round of cherry picking, while Johanna and I went to a chorus concert. Consti and Peter are singing in the chorus Vokalcolorit, which is having its tenth anniversary. It was a very interesting mix of music from very old to modern and a good performance. To my surprise they had prepared a skit for the intermission and it was so funny, that I could not stop crying with laughter as it hit just the mark for singers. Another friend of mine, Lars sings in that chorus as well and I have known him for 30 years. I met his wife and is absolutely adorable and cute little daughter. Another old friend of all of us joined us from Berlin and we all went out and had a good time. It is interesting, some people hardly change at all, they just get older. Maybe that is true for all of us.

Since Johanna got to do 3 special outings with Consti and me, Sophie needed one as well. So we went for a very late breakfast at Consti and Peter’s place and afterwards walked to the museum of labor. It is a very interesting museum, housed in an old factory. They had a great exhibition about bridges in Hamburg. There were a lot of models and very old plans, software to design and test your own bridge, wooden elements to try the different types of bridges. With 2.500 bridges, Hamburg sure has a lot of history for them. The museum also offers a lot of activities for kids and for one Euro, Sophie got to coin and cloisonne a piece of copper. She did a great job with the machines that need a lot of power.


Trying to squeeze in more than possible, we had a last coffee appointment with my after school care teacher from many, many years ago. She is one of the nicest people I know. They have a weekend cabin in the woods, 30 minutes south of Hamburg and we took the train down. I made sure to make it an unforgettable afternoon by pulling a huge pot of freshly brewed coffee onto me (think 2 quarts), which gave us a lot of excitement. I did not burn anything badly, but smelled very caffeinated for the rest of the afternoon while slowly drying. Too bad John was not there to smell me :)


When we left Hamburg Monday morning, the children were quite sad, even though they were very happy to go to Bavaria. Johanna cried really hard after saying good bye to Consti. It is really special to have such a good friend, who is a really good friend to the children as well.