Hamburg to Lubeck

Slept OK and ate very well for breakfast at the Radisson Blue Hamburg - lift from the airport took me straight down onto the railway platform - no ticket office so luckily I could operate the machines.

The train station at Hamburg is impressive and VERY busy - I managed to get a return to Lubeck for 37 euros - the trip out was pleasant enough.

Lubeck is a beautiful old town with resplendent churches and medieval architecture, it is completely surrounded by water and pretty easy to walk around - I managed to navigate myself to my hotel and dumped my bag as was too early for check in - then straight off to the media centre to register for the conference - it was a lovely surprise to see an ex PhD student of mine there so we had a good catch up she is doing really well in Paris. The meeting was meant to kick off with a tutorial session at 2 pm except the guy giving the tutorial had thought he was on at 4 pm so we had a little wait!

I was on at 6 pm and I think the talk went well - after the session closed we all trapsed off to the oldest stone merchants house in lubeck for a welcome reception. We decided to walk an Indian student back to her hotel after the reception closed as it was her first time out of India and was a little overwhelmed. After getting her in I suddenly realised I no longer had my phone so at 11 pm at night I was retracing my steps in pitch black Lubeck. no joy but now I couldn't remember where the hotel was as it was so long ago I dropped my bags off and there were no street lights, At 12 pm I finally found it and got into my room - slightly stressed and worn out and without a phone!!