Today was a much less eventful day (and thus fewer photos). Not a bad change of pace, although there were some hiccups in it. Early in the day, we received a video from Judith with her final (and very hard) decision NOT to attempt to join us in Hamburg and travel to Osnabrück together. That had been the original plan, but she threw out her back so badly that it made no sense to try to travel at all. She was very sad, and so were we, but we had all known ever since this happened three days ago that this was likely, and we had a backup plan. We spent the morning packing and tidying up (Mark and I also went to the nearby grocery store, since we had some extra time, to pick up a few supplies and a thermos for Imke, in lieu of the traditional bouquet of flowers that one presents to the hostess on arrival–Andrea wrapped it as a gift so gorgeously that my mom almost didn’t want to open it later in the day.
Then we took off around noon, taking our last trip through Hamburg and then taking off from the gigantic main station. The nice thing was that we were able to meet up with Uschi and take the train from Hamburg to Bremen with her, chat a bit more, and hear about her travel plans after this weekend. It was so great that she could be in Hamburg as the same time as us and that we could hang out for a day and then for the trip back! In Bremen, we said good bye as she got on her train to go home, and we caught our connection to Osnabrück. We were supposed to meet another friend, Dorothee, at the train station, but she did not show; when she wasn’t on a later train from her hometown, Hanover, either, we got a bit worried, but it turned out we all got our wires crossed and she was not coming until the next day!
So instead, we all hung out together, had a lovely dinner with Imke (she had made chili, which we had with bread and the works, and fruit salad for dessert), and then went for one of our favorite Osnabrück nature walks, to show Peter (who has spent very little time in this town, although he and Andrea did get married here) the Westerberg, and just to get some exercise in after a day of mostly sitting. Andrea and Mark both had fun taking pictures everywhere (as usual). Then we just talked a bit more at home, and called it a night early on. My mom’s apartment has only two bedrooms, hers and the guest room, but there is a small hotel at the street corner across from my mom’s, and she had reserved a room for Andrea and Peter, so that was really convenient. A nice travel day, and not too hot–it was markedly cooler in Osnabrück than in Hamburg, and we actually all welcomed that!