All Continental part 1

Greetings! I'm back home from our Easter jaunt over to mainland Europe. We had a great time catching up with family there. The weather was pretty atrocious on Good Friday when we were driving through The Netherlands into Germany, but after that, things brightened up and we were able to get out and about quite happily. On Saturday, we went up to Hamburg. Mr JK was only saying on our journey over that one day he'd like to visit Hamburg, and lo and behold, his cousin had planned a trip! Spooky!! Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and has a huge port. It's linked to the North Sea via the Elbe River. It's an interesting mix of old and new architecture as you can see from these photos...

Mr JK was keen to go to the area where The Beatles played; a less than salubrious part of the city that I definitely wouldn't want to walk around after dark! But we visited the Beatles-Platz and saw the memorial that has been put up there. There are metal sculptures of The Beatles on what is meant to be a giant turntable. The names of their songs are engraved on metal around the turntable.

We took a boat trip around the port - massive container ships, cruise liners, naval vessels. You name it, we saw it! The weather was really bright and sunny and we enjoyed being out on the water. 

We walked through the St Pauli tunnel which goes under the River Elbe. It was built in 1911 and is open to pedestrians and cars. The cars have to use lifts to get down to the tunnel and up the other side. Quite a feat of technology! 

On Sunday, the Easter Bunny visited and left us a basket full of chocolate! The Germans love Easter; it's a bigger celebration on the Continent than in the UK I think. People decorate their gardens and houses with brightly coloured eggs. 

It's always a bit of a non-stop eating fest when we are visiting, and I tasted some really delicious cakes. This was the offering on Easter Sunday - a blueberry cake. Well, blueberries are a super-food, so I reckon this is quite a healthy option, don't you?! Almost counts as one of your five-a-day!

We said our goodbyes on Monday and drove back towards home. We had planned a stopover in one of our favourite places - Delft. It's a really charming city, like Amsterdam but on a much smaller scale. We wandered around the canals as well as fitting in visits to both the Old Church and the New Church. Oh, there may have been a small amount of yarn shopping too, but that's all down to Mr JK. Nuffink to do with me, your honour!!! ;)

Walking back to the car, we spotted a cat, complete with bandana, people-watching from his sunny window sill. It made me quite homesick for Flo and I was happy that we were on our last leg of the journey back to Norfolk. 

There are loads more photos in my Flickr album if you're interested, or you can check out my Instagram timeline by following the link above, as I posted photos at every opportunity. I had plenty of knitting time as Mr JK drove. More of exactly what I knitted coming very soon, but let's just say that I am now a Continental knitting convert! Come back soon to find out more! xxx