Hamburg!

After a quick stop in Berlin, we were soon on our way to the next town - Hamburg. We got there on Friday and had a little trouble finding a place to stay since the next day was a holiday - the reunification of Germany. We found a hostel a little outside of town and took the S-Bahn (city train). When we got off, the only instructions we had were “Right, then up the stairs” We didn’t really understand that, so we started walking right out of the train station and then down some stairs. We walked a good 30 minutes in a circle - with all our luggage - and finally found our hostel. Turns out, it was right above the train station, so all we really had to do was walk up the stairs instead of down, but hey, we got some exercise!

It has been cold in northern Germany so when we got to the hostel, it was nice to warm up and settle down. The hostel rooms were separated by gender, so Duncan had a bed upstairs and ours was in the basement. The rooms had 6 beds and were all full. After trying to take a quick nap we decided to head outside and find some dinner. A worker at the hostel told us about a popular area in town to go for dinner, so we tried that.

We walked another 30 minutes and found Bok, an Asian restaurant that was suggested. Apparently Hamburg was more known for their Asian food than typical German food. The three of us all shared some delicious meals including California rolls, vegetable tempura, chicken fried rice, and some beef and veggie medley. After dinner, we bundled up again and walked around more.

We stopped at a small café/bar that had wireless internet. We sat there for a few hours, drinking hot chocolate and hot tea and using our computer. Then we made our way home for the evening. We woke up the next morning for a nice free breakfast at our hostel with especially delicious hot chocolate, which was great considering it was freezing and raining outside!

We bundled up again and heading into town for our next free New Europe tour! We met outside of a Starbucks with about 20 other tourists. Our guide lead us around Hamburg telling us all kinds of interesting history about the city.

Did you know that Hamburg has more bridges and canals than Venice and Amsterdam combined?

Or that the city has been rebuilt several times since the great fire of 1842 and bombing after WW2? Or that The Beatles had their debut in Hamburg? Or that it has the sharpest corner in Europe?

Just a few fun things we learned! We love taking these tours because we learn so much about the city. Its kind of crazy how much history there is; the past 2000 years in Berlin, the past 700 years in Hamburg, then compare that to the 200 years of America? Ha!

Hamburg is a popular port city and its pretty quaint. We also got to see the future building of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra which is supposed to be completed in 2012 and comparable to the Sydney opera house. On our tour, we also met a girl from Bakersfield! She went to high school with my parents’ friends’ daughter. Small world! After the tour, we wantedt o check out 'miniature wonderland,' this place that has a small train (the size of what a kid would play with) that travels all around the world that Mr. Paur told us about- and the cities go from Hamburg to London to Vegas! It would have been really cool to see it, but the wait to far too long!! Instead, we went to an Italian restaurant for a snack then made our way back to our hostel.

It was freezing outside and we were tired from walking around all day, so we watched some episodes of Weeds on our computer and lounged around in a common room in the hostel. We also decided not to go out for dinner and ate a gross cafeteria meal at the hostel then played some cards, uploaded our pictures onto the computer and called it a night.

We woke up early the next morning to say goodbye to Duncan - he left for Copenhagen and onto Norway while we were heading west. We slept a little more then woke up for breakfast at our hostel. This whole breakfast included deal at our hostels are great!!! Then we packed our things and left Germany for Amsterdam!

Alles gut!
A&A