I took the train there Friday after work and discovered that first class in the ICE is really the way to travel, especially when for most of the 6 hour ride I was one of 2 people in the entire car. Now even though I had been warned, it was still a bit surprising to step off the train and realize that I was definitely not in Munich anymore. I've never walked as fast and looked as angry as I did trying to get out of there without any encounters. Seemed to work, no one even offered me drugs.
The first day we (another ex-pat and myself) headed out to catch a harbor cruise (actually we just took one of the public transportation boats to save some money because they all go to the same places) but on the way to the docks we saw a few of the churches, including the St. Nicholas church which was mostly destroyed during the wars and what remains of the structure is now a memorial. Plus it was the world's tallest building for a while in the 1870's!
There were so many interesting boats and things in the harbor. For one, there was a "Mississippi Queen" (old paddle steamer boat) which inevitably means that "Mississippi Queen" was then stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Anyway, from the harbor boat ride we saw the super rich area of the city where the houses on the water look like small hotels, scratch that, they looked like large hotels containing people with too much money. I guess it makes sense since Hamburg is Germany's richest city, but still.
Next we hit up HafenCity which is a new area of Hamburg that is and will be Europe's Largest inner city development and it is right on the river. Could be a fun place to live. Especially since one of the many new buildings is a huge Philharmonic Hall designed by Herzog & de Meuron (designers of the Tate Modern, the de Young, the Allianz Arena, & tons more). I know I could live in this area because not only were the Stand-Up Paddling World Championships going on in the harbor that weekend, but there is this coffee roastery which is huge and not only has about 10 different types of coffee brewed at all times, but the espresso based drinks come in either organic, strong, or mild! AND they had muffins (or according to the receipt, kuchlein = "little cake"). We also went to Spicy's spice museum which I had expected to have lots of cool spices to buy and what not. Nope, it was a warehouse room full of old dried spices, panels on the walls with information about different spices, and some spice props. That was it. I guess the little bag of black peppercorns that we got "free" with our entrance fee is now the most expensive pepper I have ever purchased.
We had planned to go into St. Michaelis church next, but couldn't because there was a wedding starting. After that, since it was still daylight, we decided it was time to walk through the Reeperbahn district. This is the infamous red light district of Hamburg, but it isn't just "shows" in the area, there are also all the shops and theaters that you could ever dream up. Let's just say it was a pretty quick walk through.
Then a nice little fresh fish dinner and off to catch the ferry to The Lion King. Yep, Hamburg loves The Lion King musical so much that they have built a theater especially for it and you have to ride a ferry across the river to get to it. It was fantastic! Oh and all those hours I spent as a child watching The Lion King have finally paid off: I was actually able to follow the dialogue in German! I knew those weren't wasted hours.
Second day we got up early and headed for the fish market. Every Sunday morning at the Fischmarkt they have a huge farmer's (well, more like importer's) market. We missed most of the yelling and fish throwing since that happens before 7 am, but we got in on some of the great deals. For example (don't roll your eyes at me, these were amazing deals!) I bought 5 big bananas for 1 euro, about a pound of blueberries for 2 euro, and 10 red & yellow bell peppers for 1 euro! The only crappy part was that I had to carry it all around for the rest of the day. Totally worth it though.
Then we walked around the Binnenalster and the Aussenalster lakes which were very pretty, had another great meal, and then I caught the train back home to clean and less drug-prevalent Munich.
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