We left Conny's midday and took the S-bahn to the airport, where we were able to rent a car. The VW bug we were given wasn't our first choice, or even our second or third, but it did the job of getting us the opportunity to drive on the Autobahn! High speeds ensued--safety first, of course. But wow, was that a brilliant decision!
The journey was slow and rainy at the beginning, but before long the weather began to improve and so did our speeds. After making some progress on our drive northeast to Hamburg, we decided to take a minor detour to a small town outside of Münster, which showed up on our GPS map and looked adequately remote for our liking; we wanted to stop for lunch at a less-visited place and have a mini adventure in a not-so-touristy part of Germany. We found ourselves in a town called Amelsbüren, which seemed to pretty much have one main street where only a couple businesses were located. From what we could tell, only one restaurant was open...so we went in.
The owner welcomed us warmly in the small amount of English he knew, and I spoke as much Deutsch as I could manage. He seemed to like us, and even let me play the piano in the back area of the restaurant! It wasn't a very well tuned instrument, but the small handful of patrons at the bar clapped when I finished my one song and I felt like we had earned our welcome amongst the locals. And the food was fantastic!
The owner did his best to explain that his restaurant was family owned and family orientated, and even had his granddaughter there at one point. Very cute kid, and nice to see how happy he was. Before we left we took a picture together and said our thanks and farewells. It was the best spontaneous stop yet.
The rest of the drive was beautiful, and perhaps it was fitting that we had sunny skies from Amelsbüren to Hamburg. We even saw a rainbow as the skies cleared and the recent stormclouds drifted further away. Finally, we arrived at the Hamburg airport, dropped off our rental car, and headed to our hostel in a prime location near the center of the city. In what has become standard operating procedures for us, we made friends at our hostel bar and went out with them later that night. It was the beginning of a great time in a lovely and different German port city; it was the perfect follow-up destination after Cologne and a fantastic first night in town after an all-around nice day.
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