Around the World with Hardy(T)Around the World with Hardy(T)One of the best things about travel is the people you meet. Usually these strangers come and go and you pass like ships in the night. But sometimes you get the chance to catch up again. This was the case with two Germans that I met: Kerstin, whom I met in Boston and the girl I met in Olympia, Sabine. Kerstin had invited me to call by if ever I was in Stuttgart and Sabine was just down the road in Heidelberg...
I arrive in Stuttgart pretty late on a Sunday night after a mad railway dash up from Garmisch- Paternkirchen and Munich. I don't appreciate the walk up the steep hill to the hostel. I appreciate even less the fact that the hostel is more like a monastery, and not a very plush one at that. So the day is complete when I phone Kirsten and she tells me she's leaving town the next day!
Monday morning is just like I remember them to be from when I used to work (God forbid) for a living: the hostel has its radio blaring out from 7.15 and breakfast is only served from 7.00 til 8.00. At least it's got me up and about early so I'm into town and out again to Bad Cannstatt in good time to meet Kerstin before she flees Stuttgart.
Back in Boston, Kerstin
had told me she had an apartment "in her parents' place": she
didn't tell me her parents' place was a magnificent pub-cum-restaurant and
that they owned a bloody winery! We spent a while catching up on all the
news and gossip then we had tour of the neighbourhood and the winery which
has excellent views over Stuttgart and the Neckar valley. Kerstin has to
head off to Kempten, so we have a last chinwag in a bizarre, huge wine
barrel that's being used
to house a table in the garden of the restaurant. Then her parents arrive
and I'm packed off on my way with some home-grown fruit and some wine from
the winery to help my journey pass smoothly... hic :*)
Back at Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof I spend a while working out whether I can catch up with Sabine and get back to England in time to watch Pompey v. Crystal Palace... YES, it's possible! DM239 gets me a ticket on the overnight train to Ostende, the ferry to Ramsgate and another train, via London, down to Portsmouth - all with about 2 hours to spare before the match, and I get to stop off in Heidelberg...