The birds and dawn woke me at 04:00. I rolled over and dozed until the alarm sounded two hours later. We arrived at the train station, activated our Senior Global Rail Pass (now good for 10 trips in 20 days), bought snacks for the 12-hour ride with the last of the krone, and then boarded our train.
To cross into Germany, the train with 6 cars boarded a ferry for the 45 minute ride across. All passengers were required to leave the train, which was then locked. On the ferry, there were shops, restaurants, and lounge chairs. I felt as if I were on board the NCL Star, once again. In the gift shop, I bought our hosts a box of Anthon Berg Danish chocolates. This was suggested to me as a nice gift to buy as a souvenir from Denmark.
Dennis is using his German. He can read some of the signs and understands a few words. It’s strange for me to rely on him to get around, but we will be in France today and I will again be the guide.
Once in Germany, we rode by beaches, sails boats, and golden rapeseed and dark green alfalfa, timothy and rye fields. Windmills lined up along the coast, their large blades spinning. The architecture consisted of A-frame style brick houses with dark slate or red-tiled roofs. This area of Germany is very flat, great for farming.
This part of the train ride is commuter, and we stopped at many small-town train stations. The more modern towns feature three-story brick buildings. Some train stations are older and not imposing like in the larger cities.
We had 8 minutes to 
transfer in Hamburg, a large port city from where Dennis’s father shipped home following the war. We got on the train and found someone sitting in our seats, having confused which car she was in. As we found out in our first train ride in 2011, the seats are numbered and most often reserved. Only the local trains have free-seating.
After Hamburg, the terrain became more rolling and we started to go through tunnels. We crossed several narrow rivers, one with kayaks. The fields changed to forests. As we gained altitude, my ears popped. In the valleys I could see small towns with their church steeples.
The express trains have stewards who pass out candy, coffee, and sell ice cream. There are dining cars, but we bought sandwiches at the 7-11 at the station in Copenhagen, wanting to use up our Danish currency. By the time we reach Strasbourg, we will had travelled for more than eleven hours.
Our Camino friends Henri and Lydie greeted us at the depot. They escorted us around Strasbourg, Henri’s home town. We visited the cathedral, Little Paris, and other plazas in the city. We had traditional regional pizza with its flaky cracker-like crust, sweet onions, and cheese. We tried a soft white cheese, a goat cheese, and a blue cheese pizza–all yummy with red wine.
Afterwards we went to their beautifully decorated home in Kertzfeld, about 25 Km north of Strasbourg. The garden in the back has a pool and the frogs serenaded us with at least three different songs: the ribbit-ribbit, the deep-throated grump-garump, and the comical he-he-he-he-he, which made me laugh. Henri has red fish and one black one which swim to the surface when he feeds them. When the black one matures, it turns red.
The terrain in this area of France reminds me of New England with is soil and foliage. The towns however show the Bavarian influence with the Tudor-style buildings, town and street names, and local cuisine.
Dear Jane:
I know two people in Hamburg: Rabbi Kai Ecksetein, the only secular, humanistic rabbi in Germany. He does not have a congregation but performs various life cycle rites; and Ulrich Ganz, an engineer. After Ulrich found out that his father had been a member of the Schutzstauffel, the German group that followed Hitler’s Army and killed Jews, he became active in an organization called Compassionate Listening. This organization promotes meetings between non-Jewish Germans from Germany and Jews in the U.S. both in the U.S. and in Germany. I attended a meeting of this group one afternoon in Washington, D.C. decades ago, when I met Ulrich.
Also, decades ago, I visited Strasbourg and had two memorable meetings there. One was with a woman who handled women’s issues for the Council of Europe, which was then headquartered there; I believe it’s now headquartered in Brussels; and the other with a group of women and the local American Ambassador and his wife. At that meeting, the Ambassador learned for the first time from his wife that when he’d told her he’d gotten the post in Strasbourg although at the same time she’d been given a promotion in her job, she didn’t tell him. Instead, she left her job and accompanied him to Strasbourg. That’s what women did in those days.
Hi Jane!
Great descriptions–feel like I’m there!
Wow the buildings are amazing. So much craftsmanship goes into them. It sounds like you guys are having a great time.