Blogs from Hamburg, Germany, Europe - page 29

We were already docked at the Hamburg cruise ship terminal when we woke up. It was another beautiful, sunny day, but cooler in the upper 50’s. Billy and I stopped up at the Windjammer Café for breakfast, where Susanna trapped his thumbs under a full glass of orange juice, so she could feed him. We hopped on the $5.00 USD cruise ship shuttle that dropped us off in front of the main town square. Our intent was to catch the double-decker bus tour in English, to tour the city. However, we found out that out of the bus tours that run every minutes, only one out of four were in English. By the time the English speaking tour bus reached us, it was too full to take on any other passengers. Luckily, there was a food, ... read more

My last trip in Germany before heading back home to Finland. So this time I update my Travelblog right after the trip. Unusual, I know, but I bet a nice surprise too! The travels that I still haven't updated here will be written to Travelblog some time soon... Target: Hamburg & Lübeck in northern Germany! I travelled with my Erasmus friends Christina, Daniela and Francesco. Christina is an Erasmus student from Bordeaux but is a German. Daniela comes from Portugal and Francesco from Italy. I...well you know where I come from! This trip was a surprise trip. We "planned" it on Tuesday night in an Erasmus party at Karlshof, Darmstadt. (And if you doubt it - no, alcohol had nothing to do with this trip planning!) "The plan" was to drive up to Hamburg with Christina's ... read more

I took the train from Wedel to the centre of Hamburg with Elke and Kirsten to do some sightseeing. But firstly, the run down on Hamburg... or rather the “Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg” if you want the official title. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and is also it’s own state. Hamburg it seems to me as a city is very understated and as a result it constantly surprises you. The character of the place is a bit like the billionaire who still shines his own shoes; out of the ordinary but still down to earth. The harbour is the defining feature of the city and from it the many canals spread like veins. As a result, there are more bridges in Hamburg than in Amsterdam and Venice combined. So... the main ... read more

The trip to Hamburg involved our first experience travelling on a high speed train. In this case we were travelling on a high speed ICE train. The person at Heidelberg station recommended we book a seat as it might be full. We did this and ended up with our own 6 seat compartment to ourselves as the train wasn't full at all. Kerrie liked this as it meant she could not only listen to the Ipod but sing to the music as well. (The experience was therefore not quite so good for Ross.) Hamburg had probably the most impressive railway station so far with the platfroms located in the centre and raised concourses located above the tracks at either end so that you could look down over the platforms. (A bit similar to the new Southern ... read more

Getting here So, to start my sojourn into the European landscape I had to sit on some planes for a while... In the name of getting cheap tickets, frequent flyer miles and a flexible return date my flights involved more stops than I would have liked but in the end it all proved to be an interesting experience. The first flight was from Sydney to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific. It was an overnight flight departing Syd at 10pm and only about one third full. This was great for me since I scored some excellent seating with four seats in a row to myself behind a bulkhead. Combined with a post dinner cognac (one of the better parts of flying) this led to a few good hours of sleep, something which is difficult to come by ... read more