It was cold and nasty when we left Chicago on Monday. So cold that one of the parts on the airplane froze and we had to wait on the plane for two and a half hours while it was thawed out. But we had good winds and were only an hour or so late to Dublin. We had several hours layover booked into our flight plan so we still made the next plane and arrived into Hamburg without issue.

I’m surprised at how easy it is to get out of the airport; no customs or anything. They scan the passport and let you go. Probably because in the US it is such a task to get both on and off a plane that Europe doesn’t concern itself with planes from America. So we found a taxi to take us to the hotel after we asked the tourist office how much a cab should cost us and found an ATM for Euros. The taxi drove us off the books and we already knew what it was supposed to cost so all was good.

At the hotel we were picked up by Andy and taken to his and Chris’ house for supper. A home cooked traditional German meal that was so very good! She sure can cook!

I met Chris on the internet when I sent her an email about her blog on reliquaries and how much I liked it. She lived near where we were going and I just thought that was neat. She offered to help and proceeded to get me the German articles I needed for my research and I in turn scanned some of my books for her. We traded papers last night and just had a lovely time.

She knows of some of the people who do reliquary things as well and gave me names of places to look to purchase obscure supplies. She showed me a little bag she made that resembled patterns I had seen from looking at Maggie’s work. She knew Griz’s website well. And I was again surprised at how our work was so similar.

Today we head for Schwerin.