Hamburg Daytrip.

It turned out that both Michael and Janine would not be present at work on the last day I was planning to be there - Janine only works part-time and Michael was flying to Japan. Given that I needed key access to get to the lab I was working in, they decided I may as well also take that day off. Well if the people I'm working with don't want me to be working, then I will take their advice! And their advice was that I use the spare day to take a day trip to Hamburg which was 1-1.5 hours away by train (depending on how much you want to pay). 

I hadn't done much research on what I could do in Hamburg, only what I thought I could do in the 7-8 hours I'd allocated myself there. Unfortunately, after a week of pretty good weather, it finally turned shite and the plans of what I was going to do such as go to the Zoo (it was highly recommended), walk around the Old Town etc., were thrown into disarray. In the end, I decided to buy a day ticket to the U- and S-bahn and just make it up as I went along, weather permitting. 

The Hamburg Rathaus - I was duly impressed. Like the rest of Germany, Hamburg was bombed like crazy during the War  but the Rathaus was left intact as geographic landmark (aka bombing guide). 

This is for you, Pooey! Mmmm, burgers...


The Alsterarkaden...maybe it's the canal but it kinda reminded me of Venice.

On the topic of Venice, Hamburg has more canals and bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined. I was going to walk through the Speicherstadt (Old Warehouse District), but on my way the weather thwarted my plans. Having said that, on my way to Speicherstadt, I walked through Deichstrasse, the oldest remaining street in Hamburg. 

The *street* side of Deichstr. 

And then you walk through this alley to get to...

The canal side of Deichstr!

Check out the contrast of old and new buildings!

Tourist trap or not, I decided to have lunch in a French creperie in Deichstr. The staff and some of the customers were French and I felt pressured to speak the language. For lunch, I had the *petit menu*, consisting of the galette of the day (ham, cheese, tomatoes and goat's cheese sauce), and a cup of French cidre. Das schmeckt/C'est delicieux!

During lunch, I decided that the easiest way to go through the Speicherstadt was to take a boat ride, similar to what we did in Amsterdam. To my amusement/bemusement, the ride not only took us through the Speicherstadt but into the industrial harbour itself!

The distinctive warehouses of the Speicherstadt on the right.

I don't know what that hot air balloon is supposed to be advertising. 

Big! Down on the canal on a day like this, it was actually really dark most of the time. 

A tanker out of the harbour. We also saw lots of other ships loaded with containers...

and things that I'm guessing are used to load the containers.

The new buildings of the HafenCity.

Fish market!

After getting off the boat and sitting in Starbucks for about an hour to recharge my phone (for internet) while drinking some hot tea, I decided to walk to the Elbe Tunnel. 

Pfft, why take the lift when I can photograph it?!

Cars waiting to enter the lift.

The tunnel. 

The sign indicating that I was half-way through the tunnel and 21m below the surface!

The view back towards the Landungsbruecken and St. Pauli on the other side. 

From here, I decided to head into St. Pauli and towards another famous landmark of Hamburg - the Reeperbahn red-light district. 

YEAH! The sun finally came out!

In one of the sexshops on the Reeperbahn, you could buy these caps and slippers with fluffy boobs and penises on them. Just what you need to relax in on a lazy weekend!

Herbertstrasse has a number of brothels and apparently the hookers will throw crap out of the window if they see women in the street. 

I didn't think they'd really do it (I didn't see any hookers in the windows) but at the same time, I didn't really want to risk it. 

The district is also famous for where the Beatles played before they got famous, playing in clubs along the alley, Grosse Freiheit.  Beatles-Platz is now at the corner of Reeperbahn and Grosse Freiheit.

Where you can kind this stylised sculpture of the band. 

A cash machine outside a pole-dancing bar on Grosse Freiheit, usefully letting you know what you need the money for. 

According to Wikipedia, Grosse Freiheit got it name from the fact that Catholics were allowed to practise their religion here (the rest of Hamburg is Protestant). That meant that after I walked past all the titty bars, I found this Catholic church at the end of the street.  

By now, time was running down and not wanting to have a quick dinner in on of the absolutely lovely looking establishments on the Reeperbahn (maybe being in Munich has spoiled me but I haven't been directly accosted by so many beggars in a while), I decided it was time to head back to the Rathaus and get some food near a cleaner tourist mecca of Binnenalster. 

Wunderschoen. 

And after a full day's walking and looking, it was time to head back to Bremen to pack for my return to Munich and cold hard reality.