Exploring Hamburg

Saturday, December 29, 2007 Hamburg, Germany
8:30am Wake up having to go to the bathroom. Fighting the urge because I am too warm and don’t want to get out of this wonderful cozy bed. End up doing it anyway.

9:40am Go down stairs to join Lynette for breakfast. Am greeted by a big jar of Nutella on the table (I love this stuff) and German radio playing softly in the background. Definitely feel like I am not in Kansas any more.

10:48am Rike and her mom light the Christmas tree. When I say "light" it wasn’t just flipping the on switch, it was light a match and then light the candles on the tree one at a time. Very cool.

10:53am Start breakfast or should I say 2nd breakfast.
On the menu:
Cheese: Spanish, Norwegian, and French
Meat: Duck, Eel, Turkey, Trout, Salmon, and Liverwurst
Fruit: Bananas, Apples, Oranges, and Pears
Breads: Multi grain scone thing, Wheat rolls, Cinnamon Danish thing minus filling
Spreads: Honey (Spring), Nutella, Apricot jam, Cherry jam, butter.
Nuts: Macadamia nuts still in shell
Drinks: Cinnamon tea , water

Special note: Lynette ate, Heather ate

12:00pm Went to Ahrensburg post office to see if we could exchange some money. No Luck.

12:08pm Catch the train to Hamburg

12:43pm Exchange money in the Central train station

1:05pm Head to an authentic Christmas Market (aka German Market)
Sightseeing continued for the rest of the early afternoon:






Rathaus (City Hall)
The inner and outer bodies of water (can’t remember their names)


St. Michal’s Went to the top of the tower
Krameramtswohnungen (Original Historic German Village)

3:00pm Met up with Eva and Toby, two of Rike’s Friends and went back to the last two places.

3:25pm Continued sightseeing








Harbor








St. Nicole Church that was bombed during the war

4:25pm Headed to Groninger Pils for Dinner but it didn’t open until five

4:28pm Walked down the road to an Italian restaurant for hot drinks to help us thaw out. I had some amazing hot chocolate. Lynette was a bit disappointed with her tea.

5:03pm Headed back to the Groninger Pils for Dinner. Very cool place. Fun Atmosphere. A meat lovers heaven especially for those that enjoy a good sausage or some fish. Fortunately there was a menu in English. After much discussion our choices were:
Lynette – Smoked Salmon, Shrimplits (for lack of a better term), weird slimy fish, green fishy-rolly thing (ended up being pretty good) and Beer bread. Drink: cola–fanta mix (she loved it! Possible new obsession)
Heather – Smoked ham, smoked sausage (spicy) pretzel (really good) pickles, cheese, and Beer bread. Drink: water, but not tap water, like carbonated water. Least favorite thing of the whole meal.
After eating we sat around and had a picture party. Really no other way to explain it. We just started taking pictures of the things around us or of each other taking pictures. Kind of random, but fun.

7:08pm Start off for the Warehouses. The location of the Miniature Wonderland.


Highlights:
Big foot in the Redwoods
Little rock climbers and mountaineers
Going from Day to Night
Cruise Ship moving around
The Intricate train system
“Celebrate” Concert complete with “big” screens



Lundt Chocolate Factory (After you pushed the button for the factory to begin operation, a piece of chocolate comes out at the end).
The interactive buttons
The creative sense of humor by the producers
The road displayed in the “America” section was the road that we have actually driven on from Vegas to Utah (I-15)

10:35pm Becoming aware that is was getting late, we left the warehouses in search of the nearest train station to head back to Ahrensburg

11:45pm Made it back to Rike’s house and went to bed.