Day 29 - Hamburg, Germany

Morning: Got woken up by lots of sounds, the construction work upstairs, the kids talking and people walking outside the house. What a lively place! Today we will all take a day trip out to the harbour w the kids and Oscar so we took it really slowly cos it takes time to get everybody ready. At 11am, the construction people and owner of the apartment upstairs came down to have a chat w Seth cos they are going to attach a pipe down thru his house. The chat took 1hr and the kids were getting restless and we were getting restless so finally at abt noon they are done so we could get ready to go out.

Afternoon: A nice sunny day today so the walk was fun, we stopped at the Wednesday fruit & vege mkt nearby to look around and settle for a sausage. That was a nice break so we walked on to the harbour, Seth recommended a harbour cruise in a small boat so we all bought tkts to cruise. Unfortunately it is done in German so both of us didnt understand a single word she said, Seth tried to translate some of the highlights so it was ok. But the cruise was a tad boring cos the harbour is like Singapore's harbour, full of containers and cruise ships, prob jus a few times bigger that's all. We wanted to cruise thru their old warehouses called Speicherstadt but this one didnt go thru due to low tide so it was a pity. After the 1-hour cruise, it was abt 2:30pm already so we walked towards the old warehouses by ourselves and took photos of it which was quite nice. Then we needed to stop for coffee break and take a rest for everybody, chose a nice cafe called 'Chilli Club' and settle outside cos the sun was too good to stay in. We then went on into a simple museum showing the plans for the Hamburg harbour which includes a Philharmonic Orchestra Theatre w hotel and private residence facilities by the harbour! Looks grand! By then the kids were getting tired and restless so Seth suggested that we split and meet again later at 6pm to bring us to the supermarket. We then separated w them and walked on to the beautiful Rathaus and took lots of photos again. Inside the Rathaus, got to know this nice Turkish guy who was also visiting Hamburg and chatted w him for a short while before walking out and buying more souvenirs. Ate ice cream at the entrance and then we decided to visit more churches nearby. First one was St Petri Church, but it was under renovation so we went to the next one called St Jacobi Church which is not opened. By then it's about time to call Seth to pick us up so I stopped for another sausage while waiting and we settled down at this park. Then suddenly from behind we heard loud music and singing and realised that there's a strike going on the streets and walking towards the park we are in. So exciting! We are in the middle of a strike! Of course we dun understand what was the strike about so we jus take photos. Seth then told us later after we got on his van that the strike is by smokers who oppose banning of smoking in certain places. Ops! Hee... Singaporeans jus accepted it yaa...

Night: Tonite we will be preparing dinner for Seth so we bought cooking stuffs from the supermarket. The one he brought us to was actually more a Korean/Japanese supermarket so things are much more expensive but it's still ok. Decided to stir fry beansprouts and toufu w lean pork cos I feel like eating it haaa....and it's easy to fry and prepare. WY cooked her signature Chicken Curry dish. We finished our grocery shopping and head back to the kitchen and started cooking. The kids needed to eat first and go to sleep so Seth cooked miso soup w lots of vege to feed them. We finally finished and settled down to eat, everything was nice cos Seth has a rice cooker and we had rice w curry and stirfry veg and miso soup. Very good combination! I had a hearty meal and we settled down w some nice chilled white wine, listened to music and ran thru Seth's movie collection. Ended up sleeping at 3am...

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