We took things a little more slowly this morning with breakfast, since we were planning on less walking, because we knew it was going to be much warmer today–in the lower 80s (26-28 c) but that always feels quite warmer in Germany than in the US; not sure I can explain why! By 10:30 we were threading our way through buses, subways, elevated trains, and regional trains to get to a small town near Hamburg named Buxtehude. Andrea and Peter had never been, and had suggested it as a first stop. We walked from the train station to the Old Town, which had a harbor and lovely old houses, as well as a nice SHADY walk along the river that runs through the city (the Este). It also had a plethora of items all along the pedestrial shopping area that reminded us constantly of Buxtehude’s main claim to fame–it is the setting for a Grimm’s fairy tale about a hare and a hedgehog (really like the tortoise and the hare, and a trick that involves exhausting the poor hare with the help of TWO hedgehogs).
We also had our very first gelato in Germany in Buxtehude, and it was wonderful. I had a concoction with amarena cherries, which was glorious, and Mark’s had walnuts and some walnut, chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Peter and Andrea had iced coffees with ice cream in it. Then we walked back through the lovely old town to the train station and continued on the elevated for another 20 minutes to a tiny train stop called Agathenburg, where we toured a very modest 17th century estate, founded after the Thirty Year’s War by a Swedish aristocrat whose family held on to it until just after 1800. I had never heard of the family or this “castle” (a beautiful brick manor house with an octagonal staircase in an attached tower), but it was a really interesting visit. The basement had beautiful brick vaulting and an ice cellar that was discovered by archeologists in the 1980s when the manor was renovated. There was also a little wooded area with ponds and bridges and the gravesite of the family of a steward of the estate.
So we rambled around for a while, and then took the rather sinuous path back home (there are repairs on this particular rail line, so everything took a little longer, and air conditioning is also fairly rare on the trains, so it was mostly toasty and we got VERY sleepy). We stopped for some Turkish / Anatolian takeout about ten minutes from home and had a lovely meal of various roast meats and falafel with rice, tsatziki, salad, and French fries. It was delicious! It was nice that the day was a little shorter and that we got to see things that were new to all four of us.