Thursday 11 September 2008

Hamburg

Next stop after Potsdam was Hamburg. I don't have many photos here, because I've been to Hamburg so often and stayed for so long that it is just not that interesting. (Though I'm sure lots of people would beg to differ!). This stay was mainly to spend time with family.

The train trip from Berlin to Hamburg was only just over an hour - it used to take me about 5 hours to get from Uelzen (about 100km away) to Berlin, back in the day of the wall, so this was super quick! And there were no stops on the way either! Straight through, non-stop Berlin to Hamburg. So cool!

My uncle picked me up at central station, so that was nice. I didn't have to lug suitcases around from train to train etc.

I spent the time in Hamburg mainly stuffing about with computers and going shopping and having my hair done and generally spending time with family - aunt and uncle, cousins and step-cousins and their spouses. We also went to see an opera one night - Porgy and Bess. This was a lot different from what I was expecting and it wasn't really my thing. Still, the experience was nice. I even got dressed up a (very) little:

 
At least I didn't feel overdressed this time - there were people there wearing jeans to those wearing evening gowns. Everything goes, it seems.
My sight-seeing in Hamburg was limited to the Hamburg Hafen city - this is the old harbour which is being refurbished to be a new upmarket suburb where they hope people will move to. Seems to be outside the price-range of most people though:
 
We spent a nice couple of hours out here, before the weather returned to its normal rainy self. We even had a nice lunch where I tried a local specialty - Labskaus. This was....interesting. Not so keen on the pickled fish and egg combination:

Next up: Bremen!