After a fun trip to Bremerhaven in Germany's north to celebrate Phil's uncle's wedding (recap here), we headed back to Hamburg to spend a few days with Phil's grandmother. The pace of life when we stay in Hamburg is so delightfully slow, it's almost impossible not to relax. In our five days' visit we spent a couple of days in the city, walking around, drinking coffees and generally loafing, but we spent most of our Hamburg stay close to home.
On our second morning, we went for a walk around the neighbourhood and spotted... bunnies!!! Finally - I've been scanning the Munich forest for rabbits since March and haven't spotted a single one...
Just sitting on the lawn, looking adorable...
Hamburg had bunnies to spare. One morning we counted twenty (!!!!) in one of the parks, including a handful of tiny baby rabbits (called kittens, which only makes it cuter).
Apparently, they are a bit of a pest, but we were definitely appreciators!
Okay, this is a stock photo, but I swear they were this cute
We also had an up close and personal encounter with some goslings on the banks of Hamburg's Alster lake. These goslings were so tame, they ate right out of our hands...
Of course as soon as I saw them, we went straight to the nearest bakery to pick up supplies and feed them...
Animal encounters aside, we spent most of our time chatting with Phil's grandmother (and I spent a lot of time practising my German, which is slowly improving). She has an awesome sense of humour, a lifetime of stories and an appreciation for schnapps - good times!!
On our final day, Phil's grandmother's cousin (are you following or do I need to draw a family tree??) Hedwig and her husband Berndt took us on a road trip to the East German town of Schwerin which boasts a castle and a beautifully preserved old town. It was a really fun and interesting day and definitely something we would have missed on our own.
The magnificent Schwerin castle - now houses the region's Parliament
Baden Baden
Our next stop was Baden Baden - another of my favourite places to visit - to stay in Phil's grandmother's holiday flat. Baden Baden is a beautiful spa town close to the French border, on the edge of the Black Forest.
View from the Black Forest
Baden Baden has a gorgeous hot spring complex and wineries dotted all over the surrounding hills. With all that to choose from, we did... pretty much absolutely nothing with our first week there!! To be fair, it was super hot. Apart from a brief reprieve in Hamburg, it's been pretty hot everywhere we've been since June.
Okay, we did head into town a few times and went for a nice forest walk on the first day that dipped below 32 degrees. And we celebrated our sixth (!!!) wedding anniversary. But overall it was a pretty quiet week.
Klaus and Cornelia joined us for our second week and the pace ramped up. On their first night, a huge thunderstorm hit and toppled a huge old tree in the green. So we spent the next day hacking the tree to pieces and feeding it through a wood chipper!!
Klaus had arrived with a project to restore the outdoor furniture, which he'd already been working on for a few weeks. So he and Phil spent a couple of productive days in the garage sanding and drilling and oiling wood... the finished product looked amazing and because it's solid wood will last up to 50 years!!
Revamped outdoor setting. I had a think about it and there's not much furniture at home that I'll still have in 50 years...
On our last night in Baden Baden, we sat on the super comfy new chairs and chatted while an incredible meteor shower passed over. I saw 4 shooting stars (turns out it's meteor dust but who's counting??). A perfect end to a relaxed fortnight.
Munich
We've spent the last few days in Munich, catching up with Phil's stepbrothers, Niko and Chris and his wife Karina which is always fun!!
What's next?
Tomorrow we jump on a bus to Slovenia for a fortnight to round out the Europe component of the trip!! I seriously cannot believe it's almost time to leave Europe. I'm just closing my eyes, covering my ears and pretending it's not really happening... lalalalala - I can't hear you!!
I've booked us into a veggie food tour of Ljubljana and booked an airbnb apartment that comes with... a boxer puppy!!! Can't wait :)
Then on 10 September, we're off to Indonesia!!! Our first stop is in Jakarta for a week (my first visit in 6 years) and then Bali.
This year has flown by, but there's still a bit of time ahead for more adventures, so stay tuned.
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