Hamburg

I took the bus to Hamburg from Berlin and it was pretty decent though I slept for about half the trip. In Hamburg I stayed with Frank's sister and due to a mistake on my part they weren't expecting me for another day... However, it was a Sunday and I was taken out to the beach. Hamburg is on a river and as it was a nice day the beach was very busy. Nice being relative of course, like Vancouver having a winter with not much rain.

Hamburg also brags more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined as well as a bigger red light district than Amsterdam. I can't comment on the red light district, it was away from the downtown area and I didn't spend a lot of time in Hamburg.

Anyway, after a lovely sit on the beach we ordered chinese food and I slept in a room without any snorers (at least, I'm pretty sure *I* don't snore...).

The next day I took the B-bahn into town and went on a harbour cruise. Probably if I had found one that was presented in English I would have gotten more out of it. However, the tour was still pretty fantastic. Hamburg has a huge habour, the second largest in Europe (next to Rotterdamn IIRC). The cruise first went into the older part of Hamburg harbour where the warehouses lined the canals. I heard tea and coffee which I recognized in German (mainly because they sound almost the same but I'll pretend it's because I picked up some German while in Germany).

Then we went out into the modern harbour. There were tons of container ships (though not the big ones we see in Vancouver) and they had dry docks and boats being constructed.

We were taken to once place where a boat was being built and the guide said something about 3 meters. Or maybe it was 20 million. Anyway, the entire boat coo'ed over this number so it must have been pretty impressive. The one downside of the boat trip was my view was rather obstructed by a man who was very excited by the proceedings. Sadly this was my view of much of the Hamburg harbour.

After the boat tour I climbed a church steeple. It was 109 m tall and I had a great view of the harbour.

I went back to the apartment, cooked my hosts some dinner and then played with the Guinea Pig (the one that wasn't scared of people). Ah, I miss my pet rats.

After Hamburg it was on to Tilburg!