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Leaving Kelbra (for Düsseldorf)
We left our hotel at 9am to begin the trek home. As we knew they'd be, Helmut and Sigi had turned up to bid us farewell. We were all sad to say goodbye. They were a lovely couple and, maybe, we may see them again. We gave Sigi a punch of roses and then pedalled off: all of us waving madly.
We 'planted' our flag next to the Kelba twinning sign as we left the town, for the railway station at the nearby town of Berga.
We needed to cover several hundred miles, by train, to get to Düsseldorf, from where we'd found cheap flights home. In fact it was six trains but, thanks to German precision and efficiency, all the trains were on time so the connections were all perfect.
There was one sticky moment though. On our second train (Nordhausen to Northeim), there was an announcement. Being in German, we paid no attention. However, a guy in front of us turned around and asked whether we spoke German. He then told us that there'd been a change in that the train was now going somewhere else and that passengers for Northeim had to change at the next station. He asked around and found some middle aged German punk who was going our way. He told us to get off at the next station and follow this punk. We did as we were told and within a couple of minutes we were on a new train that was not on our itinerary. It was the right thing to do (i.e, diverting from our plan and wheeling our cycles between platforms at a small rural station that I'd never heard of. Following some scruffy German punk who didn't speak English!) But, I don't know where we'd have ended up without that intervention.
Found our hotel in Düsseldorf and had some food before bed.
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