Balloon travels more than 500 miles from Whittlesey Extravaganza to Hamburg, Germany

The Whittlesey Christian Church had a surprise when someone found one of their balloons more than 500 miles away in Germany.

The balloon was found by Thomas Hinsche, who then posted a photograph of the balloon on the church’s Facebook page. The post has since been seen by 3,000 people.

The find came after a group from the church had been supporting the Whittlesey Extravaganza late night shopping event in the town, giving out free balloons and face painting for the children.

Marija Lysak, of the church, said: “We aim to make sure that every child receives a balloon with their name on.

“The helium filled balloons which also have our church logo on them are very popular with the children.

“It’s quite easy that with all the excitement of the evening amongst the rides, stalls, and a visit from Santa, that some children can accidently let go of their balloon only to see it fly away into the sky.

“We were all amazed when we saw on our church Facebook page that one balloon had been found in northern Germany, north-west of Hamburg.” According to Google, it takes 11 hours and five minutes to drive from Whittlesey to Hamburg.

If you were to take the bus it would be an 18 hour journey.

To cycle the travel time doubles to 39 hours, whilst if you felt daring enough to walk it, you’d need to put 132 hours aside.