A Hamburger, a Frankfurter and a Wiener walk into a bar...

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Speaking of which, yes, they call those foods those things here, too, plus there's a tasty cookie called an Amerikaner just to keep things balanced.

The last two days we've had a fantastic time seeing Hamburg.

First, I must say Drea's family are as wonderful as she is. Even though her kids (aged 7 and 10) speak slightly less English than I speak German, this wasn't a problem for long. I took a wild guess at gifts and brought them each a Mariners baseball cap and an origami kit, which were bigger hits than I could have imagined. Little Lars attached himself firmly to me on all of our outings (I don't really understand this kids-liking-me thing, but once I get over the shock I find I enjoy it) and sometimes practiced his English, sometimes babbled in sounds that he thought sounded like English does (we agreed), and other times carried on a cheerful one-sided conversation with me in German. Anne is not as energetic, but I thought we too got on well.

The first day, we travelled to the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken and hopped an HVV ferry for a circuit around the harbor. This was practical, since it was covered by our bus passes, but I also enjoyed it being a fairly regular ferry instead of a tourist charter. (We had the tourist charters taking pictures of us.) We strolled the harbor pier, which was noteworthy (from the overprotected American perspective) for having no railings. Tasty Nutella crêpes for all, then a trip through the Elbtunnel for a gorgeous view of the Hamburg skyline before heading home.

Next day, I slept in later than I should, but we still had a good time with the time we had. Took the train into the Altstadt, strolled around the Binnenalster, then hopped another train to Altona where Drea and the kids had an exciting doctor's appointment while I explored Hamburg's somewhat hip, somewhat Turkish district. Helpful hint: Eiskaffee is not iced coffee, but rather coffee with ice cream. (I actually had a 50/50 suspicion on this and was only mildly and very pleasantly surprised.)

Having racked up enough Internet café charges for tonight, I bid y'all "Tschüss" until next time!

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