The start of something big...

So, here at last is our first proper post - to show we have indeed left the country as promised! As we near the end of our first week, everything has pretty much gone to plan.

The packs felt impossibly heavy as we trudged to St Pancras Station at 7am on Monday morning. It was a clear crisp morning with a 'back to school' feel in the air as we crossed the Euston Road and our excitement / trepidation was heightened by the knowledge that we, by contrast, weren't going back anywhere. We joined the queues of fellow passengers heading off on their city breaks and business trips, smug in the knowledge that this was only the very start of our trip. Watching the familiar scenes of the Kent countryside roll by felt surreal in the knowledge that each day our setting would become more and more alien to us, as we move out of Europe into Siberia, Mongolia, China and beyond. Are we hobbits leaving the comfort of the Shire for Mordor?

It was re-assuring then to have a couple of hours in Brussells to get used to the idea that we were on our way. The mood changed further as we boarded our next train to Cologne, with English voices replaced by German and Belgian. Koln welcomed us with a visual Gothic smack around the head as we emerged from the hauptbanhof. The famous cathedral (so generously spared by the allied bombers in WWII) towered above us as we emerged wide eyed.

Koln was a gentle opening stop for us and we passed a pleasant day and a bit there around the old town and the cathedral and found a couple of great beer gardens to spend our 2 evenings, the first replete with the zaniest of waiters who would down a beer in one with you if you bought him a drink, but ignored you if you didn't (we, consequently, got very little attention!).

The train to Hamburg passed very quickly - maybe because I slept through a large chunk of it. It was great to meet up with my father and to spend a day and evening with him. Whilst we we're on the train from Koln, he was on the bus from his home in Berlin. Our thoughts remain with my father's wife Renate who wasn't able to make the trip as she recovers from illness.

As my father boarded the coach for Berlin this morning, we were left with the realisation that his was the last familiar face we would see for 3 months. We're really on our own now, but at the same time hugely excited by the unwritten pages ahead.

And this brings us up to today. After waving our father off, we have spent the day walking around a beautiful lake set right in the heart of the City, yet surrounded by woodland. At 7.4 km around this was a good test for Sue's stamina and one that she passed with flying colours albeit with numerous stops for sustenance along the way - next time we'll have to do it with packs on!

So tomorrow we move on to Copenhagen, where we will spend 3 nights. Watch out for further stories here, but in the meantime, here are a few photos of our trip so far.

With best wishes to you all.

The Tamworth Two

AT 5th September