The family stayed five days at the Hotel Kronprinz, near the Elbe River docks and the main Hamburg train station, where they booked a room for Rosa and the children, a single room for Clara Spaulding, and a suite with parlor and alcove for Sam and Livy. “What a paradise this land is!” Sam wrote Howells. “What clean clothes, what good faces, what tranquil contentment, what prosperity, what genuine freedom, what superb government! And I am so happy, for I am responsible for none of it. I am only here to enjoy.

The Clemens party, including Livy, Susy, Clara, Clara Spaulding and Rosina Hay, the nursemaid, sailed for Hamburg on the S.S. Holsatia on 11 April 1878. They arrived in Hamburg 25 April 1878.

At 2 PM on a dismal day with frequent downpours, William Dean Howells saw the Clemens family off from New York, bound for Europe on the steamship Holsatia commanded by Captain C.L.Brandt. The Times article also mentioned Dan Slote was in the send-off party. It was a two-week voyage. Susy, six, and Clara, going on four, were accompanied by their German nursemaid, Rosa Hay. Also along was George, who would handle baggage and valet duties. Clara Spaulding, who went with the family five years before was also in the group, which occupied two staterooms.

From page 16-7 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891:

“We are selling our dwelling & everything here & are going to spend the summer in Elmira while we build a house in Hartford. Eight months sickness & death in one place is enough for Yrs Truly” [MTL 4: 347].

See page 520 The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835-1871:

August 15 Sunday – Sam officially became a writing editor of the Express, offering sketches and editorials. This began a period of eighteen months in Buffalo that marked a transition from sometime journalist to celebrated author. (DBD)

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Sam left New York and arrived in Cleveland, Ohio early to work on

See The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835-1871:

July 6 - July 29, 1868:  Return to New York.  Departed San Francisco aboard the Montana.  July 11 at 12:30 am, Cabo San Lucas.  Twain arrived in New York July 29, 1868.
Cabo San Lucas - July 11
Acapulco - July 13
Panama City - July 20:  Met with Ned Wakeman
Aspinall - Boarded the Henry Chauncey
Arrived in New York July 29 and checked into the Westminster Hotel.  Mark Twain would never again return to California or Nevada.
August 4: Hartford