Ports and prostitution... hello Hamburg

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Hamburg is the most northerly city that we will visit on our trip and we're pretty happy about that as it was starting to get very cold. After finding our hostel, which had the worst signage ever, we walked along the Elbmeile where they have put fake beaches along the shores of the river. From here we could see the busy port which has made Hamburg rich and we also walked past the famous St Pauli Fishmarket which is held every Sunday. It's apparently huge and has been running for 200 years but we won't get to tell you as we'll be long gone by Sunday.

The next day we went into town and wandered around the main sights in the cool misty weather. The Rathaus in the centre looked nice but we couldn't see much inside as the tours were not running. We checked out the canals and searched out the famous Chilehaus building which apparently looks like an ocean liner but it was a bit disappointing. After lunch we went down to the docks which are undergoing major redevelopment and have about 100 cranes making for a nice skyline. They're in the middle of building something to rival the Opera house but we think they might be dreaming.

That night we headed to the infamous Reeperbahn with it's numerous strip clubs, porn shops and live sex shows. We avoided the dodgy touts out front and the streetwalkers but did see one of the bars where the Beatles played before they became famous. We also had our last schnitzel for dinner as tomorrow we head to Amsterdam.

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Photos

Reeperbahn station
Our Interrail passes included travel on the S-bahn trains as well which was very cool.

The Chilehaus
It's supposed to look like an ocean liner... maybe if you look REAL hard