Episode 4 - Goettingen, Germany
On Sunday we got up early and
finished packing then made our way to the station to catch the train. After changing trains at Hamburg, we arrived on time at 5pm at Goettingen
station, where Cathy was waiting to meet us. We walked to her flat, then after
a cup of tea and a chat she took us on a tour of part of this old University town.
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| The ice cream shop! |
In the evening she gave us a lovely meal
and her friend came to join us for dinner.
It was a very convivial evening and we drank too much wine – again!
Next morning we got up late and
had a coffee then went to a café for croissants for breakfast as Mike had inadvertently unplugged the fridge when he was charging up his camera and
phone, so Cathy’s croissants, which she had in the freezer, had gone all soggy,
chuckle! We had a lovely breakfast after Cathy had walked us round another part
of the town which we hadn’t seen yesterday! It is a very lovely old town with
loads of very old buildings.
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| A plaque for the man who ordered the Titanic to be built (I think!) |
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| Signs of the 'Camino' ! |
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| Detail of the statue's face |
Afterwards
we went to a travel agents and managed to get the train ticket from Goettingen
to Dusseldorf airport booked as well as the flight from Dusseldorf to Alicante for the next part of our trip!
We had lunch in a small café, then went
back to Cathy’s.
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| Cathy love frogs, so we bought her this mat! |
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| A bumble bee in the foxgloves in Cathy's garden |
A little later we went back into town and
caught a bus to the countryside, Reinhaus, where we went to look at an old
church of St Christophorus. The church was shut, so we
couldn’t get in, but someone came and suggested Cathy should ask the priest if
he would open it up for us, which she did, and he did! It was a lovely old
church in need of some repair so we gave him a donation for opening up the
church for us.
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| An old house on the way to the church |
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| Oh dear - the church is closed! |
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| Waiting for the Priest to open the church |
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| Part of the wall being restored |
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| The pharmacy opposite the bus stop where we caught the bus back to Goettingen |
On the way home, after getting off the bus,
we bumped into Cathy’s friend Marianna again, and she asked Cathy if we would
like to take yesterday’s leftovers and a bottle of wine and eat at her place
and she would add some other food as well. Once again we had a lovely meal,
plenty of wine and very convivial company! We got home about 11pm.
Next day we went to the Botanic Garden
café for lunch, then walked through the gardens for a
while.
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| This little thrush had just had a bath |
After breakfast next morning, we caught the bus out of the town into the countryside and
walked up to a small café for an ice cream, then walked through the forest,
which was very lovely and we saw lots of deer – some of them white, some small
bambis and some with antlers. I think they were privately owned as they seemed
quite tame.
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| Stepping it out through the forest! |
We walked down into the town of Herberhaus, which was a lovely
old town, but the only pub wasn’t open for lunch, only evening meals! However
we found a little shop and bought some nice crusty rolls, cured ham and a
little pot of pickles and yoghurts for dessert and went to eat them in the park.
In the evening Marianna came and she and
Cathy cooked us bass with rosemary, lemon and garlic on Cathy's BBQ, with green
salad and olive bread and rose wine – it was delicious! For desert we had ice
cream with chocolate flake on top and cherry juice, also yummy!
Next day we walked to a big park on the
outskirts of town. It was a lovely walk
ending round a lake. We went into a café to have a small snack,
but it ended up being a big plateful of food - ham and pineapple
covered in melted cheese on toast with grated carrots, coleslaw, green lettuce,
tomato and cucumber, and we washed it down with milkshakes! Phew! (Please note we drank milkshakes, not wine this time, chuckle!) Then as it
looked like the weather was changing , we walked back home.
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| Interior of a church on the way |
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| A watermill on the way home |
Not long after we got in suddenly there was
a thunder clap and sheet lightening and it poured with rain for about 15 mins. It
refreshed everything though and made it nice and cool again.
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| Flowers in Cathy's garden after the rain |
In the evening we took Cathy and Marianna
out for a meal as they had looked after us so well while we had stayed here.
Next morning we said goodbye to Cathy and headed off to the station about 9am.
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| Goettingen train station |
Our
train was due to leave at 9.45am, but when we got there, it said it had been
delayed for 45 mins! This would mean we would miss our next connection from
Hanover to Dusseldorf Airport, which might mean we would also miss the plane to
Alicante!
However they instead put on a special
train (there were lots of people all wanting to get to different places like
us) which arrived in about 15 mins, but there were no ‘reserved’ seats on it,
so instead of sitting in our reserved seats we had to find a seat wherever we
could. By the time we’d checked it was the right train etc, there were no seats
left, but we ended up sitting in the buffet carriage all the way by just buying
a cup of coffee, bottle of water and 1 piece of cake during the whole 2 ½ hr
journey. The waiter was very nice and understood why 2 old codgers couldn't stand all the way for that length of time, chuckle!
When we got to the station, we then had to
find the Skytrain to the airport, which everybody said was easy, but as we
didn’t know which terminal we went from (A, B or C), it wasn’t so easy for us!
However as soon as we got to the airport we saw the check in desks for Air
Berlin and managed to check in OK. Then the clerk on duty said ‘Did you know that
your plane to Alicante is delayed? Instead of leaving at 3.35pm it will not go
until 5pm!' Anyway, it gave us time to get some lunch and catch our
breath before we left. It was a good flight and we made up some time. We had
phoned Victor, our friend in Spain, to say we would be arriving later than expected. When we got to
Alicante, we couldn’t find the right bus stop to get to Benidorm, and by the
time we did, we had just missed the 8pm bus and there wasn’t another till 9pm,
so we decided to get a taxi to Alfaz instead as it had been a long stressful
day.
Episode 5 - Alfas del Pi, Spain will hopefully be uploaded soon - in between playing bowls and catching up with jobs around the house and garden, chuckle!
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