Today was the day to take leave of Hamburg and our Very Bestest Friends. We did so after breakfast (it’s like pulling teeth, so we did it fast to make it hurt less!) and got on the train to Bremen and from there to Osnabrück without a hitch. The most eventful aspect was that I was chatting with the German couple that sat with us during the last 10 minutes of our trip, and the conversation turned to us going back to the US in a couple of days, and how long I’d been there, ugly politics and beautiful landscape, air conditioning and freeways, etc. When we all got up to get out in Osnabrück, the woman who had sat behind us looked at me and said (in German), “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help eavesdropping, but we are here from Utah visiting my family,” whereupon a young man across the aisle piped up and said (also in German) “And I am from Chicago and live in Osnabrück.” That was pretty funny. A train full of German-Americans?
We got back to Imke’s by bus as usual, and after we had dropped off our stuff in “our room,” we took her to the gelateria Fontanella for our very last gelato concoction until next year. It was overcast but pleasantly warm (mid-70s / around 23 degrees). We did a small grocery run with Imke and then took a turn through the botanical garden without her, just to stretch our legs and see what new things were blooming. We brought a little container of soap bubbles that we cannot take with us and had fun with those. We also went to the tropical greenhouse for the first time this trip, because it had always been too hot when we were here before.
We were home around 5 pm, did a bit more repacking (always a problem with even just a few books to bring back to the States!) and a little while later had our last “German Abendbrot” with Imke before we settled in for the night. Lots of “last time for this time” moments today!
