Day 11 - Into Germany - Train etiquete, animal statues, Currywurst, and crazy caching

I said goodbye to the Netherlands this morning, having spent the best part of a week there. Travelling east on the train, it was striking just HOW flat it is - they are not kidding; even I could probably get on board with all the cycling. My two days in Amsterdam were pretty full-on - whilst I am not going to be rushing back to visit again (don’t get me wrong, I loved the canals, the friendly people, and the liberal coolness, but there were probably a few too many tourists and a bit too much weed everywhere for my tastes!)

My journey today involved three trains. Obviously wanting me to feel at home, there were significant delays (apparently due to a deer on the line?), but luckily my trains all lined up well. I’m hoping for similar on Thursday when I have some serious train journey-ing to do! There was some questionable train etiquete on some busy trains today (I just don’t think bags need seats when people are having to stand!), but otherwise it was a good journey. Today also marked over 1000km traveled by train so far this trip. #Milestone.

I had struggled to decide whether to stop off in Bremen or Hamburg on my way into Scandinavia, but I am really pleased with my choice of Bremen. I got a bargain-icous hotel room at a very nice Best Western, and was even more excited to see it has a swimming pool. Although the people-to-pool ratio was not optimal when I went for a swim this afternoon, it was very, very nice to relax!

This evening I walked into the city centre and was immediately struck by the incredible architecture and beautiful buildings. I look forward to exploring these more tomorrow.

Having never tried a proper Currywurst before, I decided that now was the time, and had a lovely meal sat out in the old square.

It was then time for some more exploring and caching!

I got to visit the famous ‘Town Musicians of Bremen‘ statue (previously known to me as the donkey statue), as well as the pig statues(!) and a modern interpretation of the donkey statue!

There seems to be a bit of a theme of animal-based art on this trip so far…

I am also pleased to say the Bremen has a LOT of very cool geocaches. I did a lot of AdLabs (thanks to ChatGPT for the translation help), some virtuals involving these animal statues, two brilliant traditionals (one a fake electricity box and the other, weirdly, a sock hanging from a tree….) and my first even web-cam cache, where you have to find a hidden web-cam and then get a photo of you there!

The rain then came, encouraging me back to my hotel to write this!

Stats update:

Countries: 4 🇬🇧 🇧🇪 🇳🇱 🇩🇪

Distance covered by train: 1091km

Geocache totals for Belgium + Netherlands:

14 traditionals

18 virtuals

1 mystery

163 AdLabs

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