Today was my sister’s birthday, and in a couple of days, her husband Michael’s, so today was spent celebrating. Mark and I set out just after 10 to meet our friend Uschi at the main station, and then we took the S-Bahn to a tiny town just outside of Hamburg, Aumühle, where Judith and Michael met us at the station and we walked literally out of the station into a pizzeria. We waited for Andrea and Peter, who joined us a half an hour later (Andrea had a doctor’s appointment in the morning, and so they needed a little bit of extra time), and then we all had very yummy pizza and Uschi had some (slightly overcooked) roast vegetables with her spaghetti, and finished with some good strong Italian coffee. Then Uschi said her goodbyes because she was visiting friends in Hamburg for the rest of the weekend, and the rest of us walked to the nearby butterfly gardens, which are part of Friedrichsruh, a part of town where Otto von Bismarck build his retirement palace and where he died in 1898 (his family still owns a big estate there and partly finances the gardens). The gardens and especially the hothouse with the butterflies were a lot of fun to wander around in. We did not only see a lot of very fluttery and hard-to-photograph bugs, but also turtles, miniature quail, and a chameleon. And we found a tree with delicious yellow cherries, which made for an excellent birthday cake substitute.
Butterfly # 2
We walked around a bit more and visited the small Bismarck museum, with a lot of family memorabilia (many of them fairly hideous late Victorian gifts and medals given to Bismarck, but also the shirt that his wife mended after a bullet grazed JUST THE SHIRT and not even Bismarck himself during an assassination attempt. We all had a bit of a hard time understanding this level of involvement with Bismarck, and were ultimately more fascinated by a foal that we encountered on the way home (not to mention the miniature quail).
We had wonderful conversations in many constellations, and wrapped up our afternoon with bottles of pop at the S-Bahn station. Then Michael and Judith drove home (about 80 miles north of Hamburg, which takes a bit more than an hour going straight north) while we took public transportation back to Peter and Andrea’s (under 30 miles, but about 1 hour 15 minutes). We grabbed some fresh rolls and a bit of ham to put together a traditional Abendbrot for dinner, but added some ice cream for dessert (not traditional!). I am so glad we got to see Uschi, Judith, and Michael one more time before we leave Hamburg and, about a week from now, Germany to go back home!