It’s a little restaurant/snack bar right beside this amazing structure that regulates the effect of the tide at the entry of the Eider into the North Sea. These days, they are famous for their ‘cheap’ Krabbenbrötchen, bread rolls with North Sea Shrimps, costing less than half the 11.50 euro they charge in Hamburg. We had another of these really brilliant afternoons there, out of this world, away from worry, Pádraig eating a piece of cake and drinking a hot chocolate, us sharing a small bottle of white wine and having a bread role.

I’m writing this while I’m listening to the Global Citizens Event and Concert from Hamburg. Hamburg is the place to be these days. Whether you are a plane spotter (Airforce One is there along with he jets of President Xi of China and that of the Japanese President), an activist, journalist, or anarchist – they all gather in Hamburg for a few days.

And guess what? Angela Merkel is staying in the Atlantic Hotel where we spent several Christmases when Pádraig was in the Schön-Klinik, and where Udo Lindenberg occupies a permanent top floor flat.