Yesterday, John and I went to Hamburg for the day. This may seem a little silly, but it cost less time and money to go there then to visit most places in England, and we'd already travelled to Riga for the day in February, so we kinda knew what to expect. Here is a brief recap of some of the exciting moments of our day:
1) It was really, really hot. There wasn't a cloud in the sky for the whole day and the temperature soared to around 36 degrees. This meant that it took three times as much effort to walk to places, but it also gave the day a real 'holiday' feel! Which is always nice.
2) Hamburg is a beautiful city. It almost doesn't feel like a city as everything seemed so much more laid back than in London! It's very green and has two amazing lakes right in the middle of it.
3) Cyclists take priority over everything in Hamburg. The cycle lane takes up around half of the pavement, and woe betide if you dared cross their path. They stopped for no-one... (we witnessed one girl run into this poor man without any mercy, she didn't swerve or anything, or even apologise!)
4) People don't apologise or say thank you in Hamburg. Just as a rule.
5) We ate in a really nice restaurant which was situated on a river (not beside it, on it) and the food was lovely. It was really handy having John there, as he speaks fluent German and so could order food, ask for directions, get people to take photos etc, whilst I just looked at him in a blind panic every time someone spoke German to me.
6) The real highlight of my day was when I used the bathroom at said restaurant... you have to pay for the privilege and when I was in there the friendly toilet lady said to John 'Your wife is very beautiful' (it was the beautiful part that was the highlight, not the wife bit). Hamburg people are very observant.
7) We had our very own stalker! On the way home, the man behind us in the airport queue introduced himself to us and somehow involved himself in our conversation, before telling us that he was moving to London and didn't have any contacts. From then on in he decided he was our friend and kept trying to find us (which, in the smallest airport in the world ever, wasn't too difficult). I'd like to think that had we not been awake for almost 24 hours, we would've been a little more accomodating and friendly, but as it was we ended up hiding for most of the journey. John didn't help with his constant German/Indian stalker impressions... 'John and Katie, where arrrreee you? I want to play... why you hide from me? I can see you...' etc etc. It was just like being in a horror movie.
We had a really great day, and it was fun to be shown around all the sights by someone who had lived there for 5 months and knew lots of interesting things about the place, as well as all the nice places to go. Even though we were only there for a day we saw everything we wanted to see without feeling at all harassed or rushed,and even though it was pretty tiring, it was well worth the visit!
1) It was really, really hot. There wasn't a cloud in the sky for the whole day and the temperature soared to around 36 degrees. This meant that it took three times as much effort to walk to places, but it also gave the day a real 'holiday' feel! Which is always nice.
2) Hamburg is a beautiful city. It almost doesn't feel like a city as everything seemed so much more laid back than in London! It's very green and has two amazing lakes right in the middle of it.
3) Cyclists take priority over everything in Hamburg. The cycle lane takes up around half of the pavement, and woe betide if you dared cross their path. They stopped for no-one... (we witnessed one girl run into this poor man without any mercy, she didn't swerve or anything, or even apologise!)
4) People don't apologise or say thank you in Hamburg. Just as a rule.
5) We ate in a really nice restaurant which was situated on a river (not beside it, on it) and the food was lovely. It was really handy having John there, as he speaks fluent German and so could order food, ask for directions, get people to take photos etc, whilst I just looked at him in a blind panic every time someone spoke German to me.
6) The real highlight of my day was when I used the bathroom at said restaurant... you have to pay for the privilege and when I was in there the friendly toilet lady said to John 'Your wife is very beautiful' (it was the beautiful part that was the highlight, not the wife bit). Hamburg people are very observant.
7) We had our very own stalker! On the way home, the man behind us in the airport queue introduced himself to us and somehow involved himself in our conversation, before telling us that he was moving to London and didn't have any contacts. From then on in he decided he was our friend and kept trying to find us (which, in the smallest airport in the world ever, wasn't too difficult). I'd like to think that had we not been awake for almost 24 hours, we would've been a little more accomodating and friendly, but as it was we ended up hiding for most of the journey. John didn't help with his constant German/Indian stalker impressions... 'John and Katie, where arrrreee you? I want to play... why you hide from me? I can see you...' etc etc. It was just like being in a horror movie.
We had a really great day, and it was fun to be shown around all the sights by someone who had lived there for 5 months and knew lots of interesting things about the place, as well as all the nice places to go. Even though we were only there for a day we saw everything we wanted to see without feeling at all harassed or rushed,and even though it was pretty tiring, it was well worth the visit!
 |
 |
| Click to play | Make your own Smilebox |
5 comments:
I was just saying how my Hamburg report was better than yours in that it had pictures and now you've put some up!
Argh... Ok, now yours is a lot better.
I put them up before you posted about it!
And I think it's a pretty well known fact that I am considerably better than you. In every way.
But neither of you are as good as Hamburg...
They may not be as good as Hamburg, but at least as famous as Hamburg, coz only the really really famous people have stalkers (and those with a very powerful imagination...) ;-)
Anna, I quite like that theory!
Get John to do the impressions next time you see him. Then imagine a rather large, sweaty man in his forties appearing out of nowhere. A powerful imagination wasn't really needed at the time! (Well, only a little bit...)
Post a Comment