Germany stopover

I decided to spend a couple of days in Germany on my way through to Antwerp so I could catch up with some of my family there and there happened to be a couple of bands playing on convenient days. This meant I didn’t see much of Germany itself in the three nights I was there.

Firstly I flew with Lufthansa from Helsinki to Frankfurt – a comfortable short hop. I caught the train from the airport to my hotel which was happily next to the main train station. Hotel Hamburger Hof seemed like a strange name for a hotel that neither sold hamburgers nor situated itself in Hamburg. I had a single bedroom, big enough for me and my bags, and it had cool aircon, wifi and an ensuite – all high on my list of requirements.

The Depeche Mode concert was fabulous. I followed the mainly black-clad music fans from the train station to the Deutsche Bank Park, past many streetside sellers of drinks and food (whether legal or not, who knows!) The Park is huge, but the seat I’d booked was in the first row of the section, so there was a useful concrete barrier to sit my drink cup. I chatted with the lady on one side, who had travelled a couple of hours to see the concert and would be back again on Saturday, and the man on the other side who had resold us his tickets on Ticketmaster as his friends didn’t make it. When the lights went down (dead on time at 8.45pm) the crowd roared! Wonderful music and an appreciative audience – fabulous. Plus all the drinks came in souvenir DM cups!

I had been worried about getting back to the hotel, but there were many (usual) trains passing the station and I eventually got into the third one (it’s a pretty big stadium and train is the best way of getting there and back.) I picked up a wurst as a late dinner when passing back through the station and went happily to bed. I still have “World in My Eyes” stuck in my head, a week later!

The next day I’d arranged to catch up with family members S, C and little E – they live out near Gelnhausen so I hopped on a train to go meet S at the station. We had a lovely wander through historical Gelnhausen, seeing the random fairytale photo chair, the marionkirche and upper and lower marketplaces, and then heading back to their place for a chilled afternoon wandering the village and playing with E.

I headed back to Frankfurt, and then up to Köln the next day, stopping off for an evening watching The Pet Shop Boys. Again, amazing show! The Insel Hotel was literally steps away from the arena, plus it was next to the Messe train station, so it was easy to get to. I had a cute little room on the second-top floor to rest my weary head after the concert.

Sunday I took a quick glimpse of the historical centre of Köln before jumping on another couple of trains to reach Antwerp for the summer school course. Phew! I think I’m too old for this pace!