Norderstedt to Fulda

On Monday we said our sad good byes to the lovely people of Norderstedt.  Birgit, Marek and Jana we will see again in three weeks time when they will come to Munich for Christmas, but Ingrid we won’t see again until we come to Germany next time.  Birgit took all our luggage to the U-Bahn station and Ingrid travelled all the way with us to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, which was great as I didn’t have to concentrate too much on where we were going….

Back in travelling mode at Hamburg Hauptbahnhof

I meant to take a picture of Ingrid as the train was leaving but everything happened so fast that the train took off before I could even wave.  On Ingrid’s advice we had booked seats with a table and so we had a very pleasant and relaxing three hours in the train…

Great seat with table for games and food.

The children got more and more excited as the landscape turned a gentle white outside.  This was a day of firsts for the boys.  The first time they travelled on a proper train (I am not counting Greenlane to Britomart here), the first time they saw snow live and then when we got to our destination the first time to touch snow and play in it!

Eine Zugfahrt die ist lustig, eine Zugfahrt die ist schön… (German song, don’t worry)

We are allowed some sweets while travelling.

Our lovely friend Holger picked us up at Fulda train station and because I had told him which compartment we were going to be sitting in, he waited right outside our door.  There is a plan on the platform telling you where to stand for which wagon.

Holger was holding up a sign saying ‘TTNB’, just like our blog!  I did take a photo of him, which has since disappeared from the iPad…I think certain younger people were messing around with the photos when they shouldn’t have.

Holger lives in a beautiful old mill and across from the courtyard is the old renovated barn in which we have our very big bedroom with mattresses which feels much like a slumber party.  While the snow melted the next day, there is promise of more in the next few days.  So far they have managed to place a few well targeted snow balls, which seems to have satisfied until now.

Snow!!

Tessa enjoying her first snow in seven years.

I have yet to take some photos of Ilmesmühle (wow Holger just showed me how to make a ‘ü’ on my key board, yeah!) which really is a very stunning place.

Will take photos tomorrow instead of staying in my PJs until late afternoon….

Bye

Tanja