LOL, another breakfast and finish packing and once again off to the train station, this time for a 3 hour ride to Hannover. Sadly it was wet and a bit gloomy all the way so didn’t get to see much. Found the hotel and did some planning on where to go and which trains to take, and headed out yet again. Got off the train before expectations to tackle a largish area pf virtuals, wandering through what in England we would have called a Common. A very large grassed/shrubby area that is almost wilderness. Lots of tracks through it, people walking dogs and exercising horses. From there we got back onto the train and found our way around a sports field and then onto a giant car park for a stadium. It was rather attractive, rows of rose bushes, and the parking lots were actually grassed, with hard roads up and down. Back on the train again and back past our original embarkation point to the Georgengarten. This had a fantastic avenue of trees that seemed to stretch forever and was lovely to walk through. Sitting on a bench sorting out rovers and HBRB found us for a munzee chat. Nice to meet up with another munzee hunter, lol. Back to the main train station and had dinner at the NordSee restaurant for a lovely fish meal again.
After another lovely breakfast, I particularly like the smoked salmon and dill mustard, lol, we once again headed out to the Stadt Wald and the rest of the munzees, well most of them. There are 2500+ virtual munzees in the area, so we were at it all day, wandering around the forest, the lake and the sports grounds. We even saw some local wildlife, a tiny, tiny shrew. We think it must have been a young one it was so small, just a little bundle of fluff running around, it was very fast. Around 16.30 it started raining and now at 22.15 it hasn’t stopped. Apparently it’s been a very wet summer here. We finished off the day very pleasantly, having a meal with Karin and Andreas (Seal and Travelling Jack), who we had met up with in Munich at the giga event. We had dinner in a gourmet hamburger place, very popular indeed, with hay milk cheese (an Austrian speciality) and all sorts of other goodies. Very nice meal, great company and conversation. No photos tonight, too late, lol.
Had breakfast again at the hotel, as today it was a ‘free’ one. Then we had to wait for Gary. He didn’t manage to send through a message as to which train he was catching , so we had to guess at the likely amount of time to land, clear customs, collect luggage and catch train. We got to the station, checked the arrivals for the platform number, walked up and there he was coming down the escalator, what brilliant timing. Back to the hotel so he could settle his gear and have a shower then off we trooped, munzee hunting yet again, lol. Didn’t walk too far today, only 12.5 kms as we started late and Gary will need a good sleep tonight after all that travel. We headed over to the Stadt Wald (state forest), really lovely walking through the beech woods. Everything is such a different green from home, a real green green, lol. It did threaten to rain once, but by the time the brollies came out of the bag it had stopped. It did get rather cool though, so that was an incentive to come back to the hotel as well. We had a meal at the railway station and then back here to sort ourselves out for tomorrow.
We were quite decadent this morning and stayed in bed a little while longer. Now that both of us are in the top 10 and have our million+ points, the urgency has dissipated a little bit. Mind you it rained last night, and did get a little spitty when we were out, but now we are back having a rest it is raining quite heavily. Had breakfast in the hotel and then we found a cache just around the corner. Next the Telekom shop for a sim for Gary’s phone (he arrives tomorrow morning) and as it will be Sunday, nothing will be open. The shope here don’t open until 10, so as we were earlier than that we walked up to the bus/train transfer point at Neumarkt and capped the munzees in the open area there. After ‘shopping’ we wandered the streets and then walked along the Rhein, up as far as the Lindt Chocolate Museum (can’t get away from them, lol), then back down the river and over the main rail bridge to the other side. Had lunch at the railway station on the other side and then back over the bridge and carried on up the Rhein. Back through town, we were fascinated with some building works. The outside of the building with it’s original brickwork had been shored up and hollowed out, and quite obviously they are giving it a complete new insides. The work it must have taken to get it to that point must have been enormous. Now back at the hotel, we were planning on going out again, we will just have to wait and see what the weather does.
P.S. For the stop we made in Dresden. We were both entertained whilst waiting by sniffer dogs being ‘tested’ on the lockers in the corridor. One at a time, they sniffed a tiny corner of the luggage lockers until they found the ‘right’ one. Then they were allowed a play with their handler. So clever.
Well 20.5 kms later we are back at the hotel. Left just before 8 am and caught the train to Aachen. We had stayed there for a couple of nights last year, but not enough munzees there to justify it again this time, so an hour on the train was much more sensible. We literally walked around the city centre. There is a ring road and the clusters of mystery virtuals were off that, so we did a lot of walking. There were also lots of physical scaning to do, so we visited most lamp posts in those areas as well. The Lindt chocolate works were surrounded by munzees, which was very unfair as the smell of chocolate pervaded the whole area, lol.
We spent most of today on trains, travelling across Germany to our next destination of Cologne. Caught our first train at 8.33 and off the final one at 16.05. From Chemnitz we went to Leipzig and had been going to wait an hour for the next train, however we discovered another train leaving in the right direction and dashed up one platform, across the station, down another platform, along the train looking for the 1st class carriage, but hopped on at a 2nd class one to have the whistle blown just as my behind got through the door, lol. We did find our carriage though and then changed at Frankfurt Airport to the Cologne train. This one wasn’t quite the one we were going to catch, as it took longer to get there, but it turned out to be a fortunate choice as it followed the Rhein River all the way, so we had lovely views, of jigsaw perfect pictures for most of the way. Once in Cologne we found our hotel and have a room on the 7th floor, the top floor. The next chore was laundry, so we found a laundromat and had a quick bite whilst waiting for it to finish. Back to the hotel and now it’s started raining, so hoping it will be fine tomorrow.
Our train was at 8.29, so had breakfast then finished packing and headed for the station. The train was running 20 minutes late, so we had to stand around until it arrived, no seats, anywhere. Anyway, it finally arrived and Helen was seated on the river side so had some great views of the Elbe and the surrounding countryside. We had to get off and change at Dresden, and of course we missed the connecting train and had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. Bought lunch and had that on the train around 12ish. Got into Chemnitz and trundled our cases along mainly cobblestones to the hotel,which is on the same road as the Karl Marx Monument. From there we set out on the trail of the mystery munzees that had been placed along the Chemnitz River. The plan was to catch a tram half way down the trail, cap a few and then set off a multi-cap. Well, that was doomed as soon as we got near the river, it had a wooded area all along the side of it, with grassed areas and formal gardens, so we walked all of it. From the half way point down to the end and around the lake, then found a cache and walked along a main road following the trail of ruby munzees, back to the half way point. Then back to town and the clusters of coloured virtuals around the area. Helen hit 1,000,000 points which we hadn’t really though possible when we left home, and we still have the big cities to go. All in all we managed another 17 kms, which was pretty good considering we didn’t get to Chemnitz until 13.00, but it is now 21.30 so the photos for today will come tomorrow.
Reasonably quiet day today as we have basically done all the virtuals in Prague. Helen didn’t think we would be able to, but we have!! Had a hotel breakfast (included), we forgot about it yesterday, and then popped out to get the only largish cluster left. Had a few connection issues again, so used some multi-caps to clear the area, however Helen’s phone wasn’t cooperating, so she’s going to dash back there a bit later. Back to the hotel for a refresh and then went off to walk over another couple of bridges south of Charles Bridge. We spent half an hour watching a lock working with half a dozen pleasure cruise boats in it. The river at this point has a length of something like a single rapid that prevents boats from going up or down without using a lock. I’m sure there is a technical term for it, we just don’t know it, lol. Wandered back down through the town, a different road or 2 so something new to see around each corner.
