However, a year ago we had a fairly compliant 2 month old. Now we have a very willful 14 month old which we had kind of neglected to factor in. Oops.
Still we'd learnt our lesson from the previous year and we arrived at the station only 20 minutes before loading began (last year we were there for nearly 2 hours in 35 degrees).
So we took it in turns to wander around the station with Reuben while German pensioners admired his plinky plinky shoes (he has sandals which light up when he walks). Zach sat under a tree eating nussschnecke and wanting to know how much longer we would be waiting.
Nick drove the car onto the train and we settled into our carriage. After dinner in the dining car(not as sophisticated as it sounds when the littlest one is throwing food at other passengers), we headed back to our compartment. We'd decided that Reuben could not be trusted to stay on a bunk and so had brought Zach's old ready bed with us, so we blew it up and just managed to squeeze it into the space on the floor. All in all, a pretty good night of sleep was had by all although Nick and I did both have to retrieve Reuben from under the bottom bunk a couple of times - luckily it didn't wake him up!
Up at 6.30 so only 6 hours to fill until we arrived in Hamburg - eek! Breakfast, iPhone, napping, eating, wandering up and down the carriage grinning at bikers, eating, reading(only Zach for that one) and more eating and we arrived in Hamburg pretty much on time.
Verdict: it could have been a lot worse!
