Hamburg

We first enjoyed an extended breakfast at the B&B, Evelyne and I catching up with a lot of news and continuing our live Q&A session of yesterday evening.  A BLIPmeet like this one feels so fine as it can be good to know the person behind the posts.

The four of us left at around lunch.  They had their own appointments, and we needed to check in at our hotel.  This time, no problems finding our way as all we had to do was follow the river.  Our room wasn't ready yet but we were allowed to check in, which was cool as we could leave our luggage in their storage room while we went around town, which of course we did.  First order of business was to buy tickets for the Hop On Hop Off Bus, which took place in the bus itself down by the harbour and right in front of our hotel.  The tour took 1.5 hours, but we did go down for something to eat in the old city centre, where I took shots of the medieval Town Hall.  The rest of Hamburg having been bombed to the ground during the war, there wasn't much 'old stuff' left, same as with Rotterdam.  We already knew this beforehand, so we simply looked at and admired the more modern architecture.  After eating Vietnamese Pho soup and a plate of bratwürst with 'kartoffel' (potato) salad, back on the bus and we went down again at St. Michael's church, but there was a line going in and we weren't in the mood to wait, especially as it had become darker with clouds as the day wore on.

Back on the bus and the tour ended shortly afterwards, but we knew we wanted to see the (in)famous Reeperbahn after dinner.  After a couple of hours of rest, we went down to the harbour for dinner.  AW had a schnitzel while I had potato soup and bread, plus an apfel strudel dessert with creamy vanilla sauce.  A brisk walk brought us to the Reeperbahn but we did not linger although we did slow down.  A circuitous stroll took us back to the hotel.

The shot was taken right after checking in, on our way to the bus.  I had another shot in mind, but the cranes weren't visible enough, and what is a harbour town without its cranes?  The Elbe is a busy river and you'll see the cranes wherever you go.  Tomorrow we leave for home, but not before seeing a little bit more.  In the meantime, we had a good night's sleep.