Our Day Of Lasts

Hamburg - 10th July

Today was full of activities that would be our last for this trip, like:

  • Last time filling up the car with petrol and cleaning it out. The petrol price per litre in Germany is NZ$3.15, not as cheap as Sweden but nowhere near as expensive as Denmark, hence the reason we filled up in Sweden and drove all the way through Denmark to Germany before opting to fill up again.
  • Hopefully Roger’s last bad coffee, he must have had a senior moment and thought he was in Scandinavia and ordered a coffee totally forgetting that European coffee is not to his taste.
  • Last geocache, that makes 165 finds for the whole trip. This one was hidden in a bike locker, find the combination lock and you will discover a wealth of treasures.
  • Last botanical garden, this is the Loki Schmidt Botanical Gardens of the University of Hamburg. They were beautiful, lots of flowers, plenty of name tags, a large variety of plants and heaps of wildlife pollinating and feasting on the flowers.
  • Our last night in an AirBnB; we have stayed in 33 in total, that’s 33 different shower, lighting, and cooking facilities to learn. 33 laughs (and tears) about how the host had dressed up the photos or slightly exaggerated the amenities. Or in the case of the three with very steep stairs, just don’t mention them or post a photo. We had some lovely views, welcoming hosts, great gardens, comfortable beds, and peaceful neighbourhoods, which far outweighed the one or two bad choices we made.  
  • For our last supper we went to Tuscany. We found only one restaurant sign in our neighbourhood and no restaurant. Eventually we discovered people sitting under the trees behind the shops and joined the queue to be seated at a shared table. The menu is hand written, not in English, and very few of the staff speak English and possibly only speak Italian. We couldn’t read the menu and instead of google translate the lady just asked if we wanted pizza and to name our topping they will make whatever we want. In true Italian style it’s all about hospitality so there is no hurry to move on, have another drink, and if you drink to slow they will replace your beer with a cold one. The service was fast, and the food excellent and reasonably priced.

• Last weird statue, well I hope it’s the last. Today’s ABBA tribute is ‘I let the music speak’ (1981), so much beauty comes from people expressing themselves through art and music, however sometimes beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

I’m hearing images, I’m seeing songs
No poet has ever painted
Voices call out to me, straight to my heart
So strange yet we’re so well acquainted
I let the music speak, with no restraints
I let my feelings take over
Carry my soul away into the world
Where beauty meets the darkness of the day