The to-do lists have been gradually chipped away and, bizarre as it seems, I think we’re ready to go. We’ve been ruthless with packing – 2 “cubes” each, a pair of trainers and a pair of sandals each, swim stuff, running top and shorts for me, waterproofs, hats, sunglasses – we definitely need to be ready for anything, with a damp start at least.
Entertainment-wise, we have our phones and my old phone with some kids netflix content downloaded and the Taylor Swift back catalogue downloaded to Spotify. My old Bluetooth earphones so they can each have one ear. 7YO has her Lunii story player device with another set of headphones. Two kindles. We haven’t brought the kindle fire nor the switch due to space reasons and not wanting to occupy every moment with screens, of course! It would be nice if they look out of the window on occasion! 🙂
The trains are all booked, although waiting for confirmation of the seat reservations for Vilnius-Warsaw. Dealing with ltglink is a bit painful, it all happens by email to arrange and pay the 5 euros per person for the seat reservation. And turnaround time is…variable. They sorted Riga-Vilnius pretty well, but it’s been nearly a week of back and forth so far with this leg. And we’ll need a seat – it’s an 8 hour daytime journey! Not for a couple of weeks though, so no panic.
There was a bit of panic about our first night, tomorrow night, and the Hamburg accommodation. We’re staying in a small guesthouse near the Town Hall which seems fine… although expensive, I guess due to the Euros being on? (even though there’s no match in Hamburg the nights we’re there…thank God!) The downside is the reception closes at 6pm. We arrive at 9pm. we booked on booking.com and everything seemed to be sorted, but then the hotel started sending emails telling us to click an online registration link… which wasn’t in the message? It turns out, of course, that booking.com were breaking the link when they processed the message, and after two, yes two, phone calls and umpteen emails to the hotel (very pleasant person there), I think, think, we’re sorted and will find our rooms ready, waiting and accessible tomorrow night. 🤞
We start with the Eurostar, hopefully enough time for lunch by the station in Brussels and then a multi-part train north-east all afternoon. Fingers crossed the restaurant car on the Cologne-Hannover leg will be satisfactory, but my resourceful wife will I’m sure have backup sustenance for the girls. They seem to need food every 60-90 minutes. I have fond memories of civilised waiter service of beer in a glass on an ICE train (to Cologne for DMEXCO – maybe from Dusseldorf?), which I’ll be happy to recreate tomorrow…
Timsformational 