On Saturday however we went to Eutin to go to the Deutsch Bank office to add V to the account. V headed to the grocery store before it closed for the weekend and I ran to work to get some bank account forms I needed and we planned to meet at the train station. On the way I ran into a coworker, B, when I explained why I was in a hurry and what V was doing she told me that they have just changed to summer hours and the grocery store is open on Sundays as well now (I suppose to get ready for tourist season). Then V and I met at the station and bought two tickets. We have since learned about the different types of tickets and it is often cheaper to get a "small group ticket" if more then one person is traveling (now I realize why people ask me where I am going at the station, they want to split a ticket) we got one for that day to go to Eutin, and I bought a "state" ticket which allows up to five people to travel anywhere within the state, in this case including Hamburg, for a day on the weekend (for our trip the next day). It is a short train ride to Eutin and when we arrived M realized she had left her bag (with a pink scarf I bought for her in Cairo) hanging on the back of the bench at the train station in Ploen. We took a chance and didn't immediately go back to get it. (It was half an hour before the train back and then another half and hour for the returning train.) It started raining as we walked to the bank and when we got there we found that it is closed all day Saturday and Sunday. We were hungry and wanted to get out of the rain so we stopped at Knaacks and I ordered for everyone in German. There was also a market on the square so we walked around the market a bit before returning to the train station. Along the way we also stopped off at a shop and they had school backpacks, T is starting school soon so we got him a backpack. It is one of the square German types with dinosaur theme (what else) and lots of reflectors. At the station we just missed the return train by minutes. Eutin must he halfway between Kiel and Luebeck because both trains meet there at the bottom of the hour. We waited at the station for an hour and caught the next train. When we arrived back in Ploen M's bag was gone; we assume stolen. Overall it was a frustrating day but we did get the backpack for T.
On Sunday G had invited us to his house in Hamburg for dinner in the afternoon. We rode the train to Luebeck and got off at the station to switch trains then when we saw the sign realized the same train continued on to Hamburg so we rushed back on. Along the way I also realized that I had left the directions to G's house on my desk at work, but I figured I could remember what they looked like. We also realized that our watches were an hour off and that the time had changed and we were later then we planned. The Hamburg station was very large and we spent some time walking around looking at it and got some snacks.
Then we found the metro to go up to G's neighborhood. It is near a zoo so we took the metro to the "tierpark". At first we waited on the side going the wrong direction but we sorted it out and switched sides. The zoo was advertised with giraffe riding.
At the tierpark stop I remembered something about crossing a park, then we saw the road name and I looked for the approximate number of his building and found his last name listed outside one of the buildings. I could have been much harder but today for a change we lucked out and essentially walked straight to the house without the directions and just my memory of what he had written, and only 1/2 hour late because of the time change. The kids played
and we ate dinner there. We had a lot of the same furniture because we both bought from IKEA. Then we walked back to the zoo. One of G's daughters, D, rode her bike and T borrowed it and zoomed around on it.
I was impressed because it has been a very long time since he rode a bike. We got tickets to the aquarium part of the zoo and they had a room with ring tailed lemurs running around.
One even climbed on M as she sat on a bench (and looked for some candy in her pocket?).
The kids ran through the rest of the exhibits and played and it turned out to be a very nice day.
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