Yesterday ( Sunday ) , we travelled to Hamburg by train again - we are enjoying the train , it's an easy affordable way to get around . We packed and got to the subway , then to Berlin HBF , finding our platform and waiting for our train to arrive - the other confusing part of this station is when trains arrive from one direction , you expect them to continue that direction - not here , they come in one way and go back out the way it came in ???? The electronic boards tell you which carriages you can go on - 1st class , 2nd class , how many carriages and their location on the platform . We jumped into our carriage and grabbed some seats , and ended up at the back of the train , then we left the platform we became the front of the train .
I forgot our story from the trip to Berlin , so here it is - our seats were booked , but they were 2 window seats , one behind the other - not what we wanted . A younger couple came and sat beside Lyn , she told them we had these seats booked and they suggested we sit together , then they could also sit together , so we obliged . After a while on the train we started to find out about all these young long haired girls wearing uniforms and laughing and chatting the trip away . They are the German Rhythmic Gymnasts on their way to Berlin training camp before the olympics . They weren't going to the opening ceremony , but would be there for the closing , as their events weren't on till the 2nd week . One girl in front of us was stripping tape & decorations from one of her hoops ( there was at least half a dozen in her hoop bag ) . She stripped all the old tape off , before starting to redecorate it with shiny gold , red , orange & yellow tapes . She was cutting tapes in half , then meticulously cutting patterns into others , then applying them to the hoop , before putting a clear layer over the top of it all . It was fascinating watching her do it all - when I say all , it took her all the trip to decorate nearly half of one hoop - that's 5 hours !! All the rest of the girls ate , played and did each others hair into plaits & braids - things they have to do for each other prior to competing daily . It made for an entertaining trip seeing their characters come out .
Back to our trip to Hamburg , we arrived early , dropped our bags off and headed down to the one supermarket that was open on a Sunday at Hamburg - the airport !! Best part , we went back to the bus stop , jumping onto the next bus and took it 3 stops and we were there . Shopping done , we headed back on the next bus and walked back to the apartment . We'd booked this apartment because we needed another room to accomodate Justin & Isla who were arriving this afternoon . The apartment was enormous - it was in a large building that looked like a small factory . We were on the 2nd floor , so that meant lugging the bags up 4 flights of stairs . There were a couple of businesses operating out of the lower floor and apartments ?? above - think it may have been all for small businesses , but didn't sell , so someone decided to turn it into living spaces - they needed to go back to design school , there was lot's of wasted space , but it gave Isla some room to run around !
Finally , we're off into Hamburg , Movie Golf was the first stop - an indoor mini golf setup with lighting and movie themes throughout , a fun time was had . We had to sit and have some lunch - quite handy that outside Movie Golf was a playground and some grass to sit on with some trees for shade .
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