HAMBURGER

Crossing the Dutch/German border was a hairy experience as Anna unexpectedly noticed two border patrol officers at the end of our carriage.  She quickly got up and went to the toilet and about 15-minutes later when they had gone and the train had pushed off again, I went and knocked on the toilet door with our pre-determined knock to let her know the coast was clear.  Just!

Our first impression of the area our hostel was in was not a good one.  It looked like we were staying in a shanty-town full of run-down buildings and housing commissions.  We were also only about 10-minutes from the Reeperbahn, Hamburg's red light district which is second only to Amsterdam's as the world's most notorious sex area.

Having said all that, as we went out for dinner that night, we realised that only about 5-minutes in the opposite direction to the Reeperbahn, was a really great area full of cafe's, restaurants and pubs.

We found a pub called 'Frank und Frei' that was absolutely chockers and thought that was a good start for our first German beer.  Once we read the mouth-watering menu though, we wanted to stay for dinner as well.  We had to wait at the bar for a solid 20 minutes, but we were finally seated and we quickly ordered to save a bit of time.

getting very tired waiting for our meal

Without a word of exaggeration, it took almost an hour and a half for our meals to come.  Not once did anyone come over and apologise, it was a bloody disgrace.  Luckily we were loving the beers and had struck up a conversation with a local couple at the next table, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

This kind of scenario is one where in the past we may have just snuck out without paying, but to be honest, the German's kind of scare us and we didn't want to get on their bad side!

Once we finished our schnitzel's, it was nearing midnight, so we headed home because we were getting up the next morning at 7am to get to the Hamburg fischmarkt.

The open-air market is located in the heart of the Hamburg Harbour, the second busiest port in Europe, and has been in operation since 1703!

Despite its name, the market is full of not just fresh seafood, but exotic fruits, nuts, flowers and many other things from all over the world - it is a must for any foodie!

The historic fish auction hall which is right next to the market was packed with a mix of locals, tourists and partygoers who have arrived straight from the Reeperbahn to continue their partying.  There was a band playing and dead set, everyone was drinking beer - it was 9:00 in the morning haha!!

Anna loves her pickles, yuk!

prawn rolls, yuk!

not sure what these are, but they kind of look like swans, yuk!

Although it was highly entertaining to watch the drunken antics of people on the dance floor in the auction hall, the best stuff was happening outside.  The undisputed stars are the boisterous Marktschreier (market criers) who hawk their wares at a fuller than full volume. The most well known is Aal-Kai, who entertained us and the rest of the crowd with his extremely loud and funny way of selling his produce.

We then had to hop on the metro and make our way to the Rathaus (Town Hall) in time for the free walking tour which was starting at 11am.

Hamburg's medieval Rathouse, one of Europe's most opulent

The tour started with the guide telling us about how rich the city was and how arrogant its inhabitants were, although he claimed he was not one of them.  As he was a taxi driver during the week, I guess it would be hard to be rich and arrogant!

Ambition seems to flow through the waterways as designer clad residents cycle to their jobs with a self-assurance unmatched in any other German city.  Decent weather is one thing that can't be bought (we were told it is much like Melbourne's, only with no sun), but residents are passionately dedicated to their beloved city and will rarely complain about drizzly skies - they'll just open up their designer umbrellas and get on with their day!

St. Peter's Church, rebuilt in 1878 after the great fire of 1842

For all this money that the city supposedly has, it seemed to be all tied up in expansion projects, with cranes and the like everywhere.  There weren't a whole lot of inspiring buildings, but the tour guide made sure he took us to any that were.

Bergstrasse means "big mountain road" in German - this is because it's the highest point in Hamburg, 31m haha

this organ built by Arp Schnitger in 1693 has 4,000+ pipes and is one of the most important baroque organs in Europe

I took particular liking to this building because it is where all the shipping company accountants work!

For many visitors, the city's most memorable building is the 1920's brown-brick 'Chile Haus' which is shaped like an ocean liner, with remarkable curved walls meeting in the shape of a ship's bow and staggered balconies that look like decks.  It definitely was pretty cool and was easily the most interesting building for us.

The tour took a more somber mood after we paused for a coffee break as we stopped outside a building where the substance Zyklon B was first concocted.  Zyklon B was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide infamous for its use by the Nazis to kill humans in gas chambers of extermination camps during the Holocaust.  This terrifying substance was co-invented in the 1920's by chemist and businessman Bruno Tesch and he was deservedly executed by the British in 1946 for his role in the Holocaust.

The huge church of St. Nikolai towered in the air, so much so that it was even the tallest building in the world before the Empire State Building was built in 1876.  It certainly looked a lot worse for ware though as it has never been properly restored since it was bombed in WW2.

this statue of a guy crying and shitting bricks was a great example of a Melbourne supporter - I'f only I'd had my scarf with me, it would have made the photo look so funny!

the Church of St. Nikolai from the canals - unfortunately mostly covered in scaffolding

That horrible weather that I mentioned earlier really started to show its teeth in the afternoon as we neared the harbour.  Most of my body was actually quite warm as I had anticipated the cold, but my fingers, oh mio dio they were so cold that I struggled to even take photo's!

The beautiful red-brick, neo-gothic warehouses lining the Elbe archipelago once stored exotic goods from around the world.  Now the so called 'Speicherstadt' is a popular sightseeing attraction.  It's best appreciated by simply wandering through its streets, which is exactly what we did.

The guide told us that just a few weeks earlier, workers doing dredging work unearthed a 500-pound undetonated WW2 bomb from the bed of the Elbe river.  This came as a shock to everyone, but he told us that as Hamburg was one of the most bombed cities during the war, it was a common occurrence!

The tour came to an end and we all gave the tour guide a tip, which is usually around 10 euro for a 3 hour tour, pretty cheap really!  The tour guide then said that he was going to a really local haunt for lunch and that we were more than welcome to join him.  It was so obvious that he has some deal with the restaurant where if he brings tourists, he gets a free meal, but we didn't care.

To get a ripping schnitzel with potatoes/veggies and a super sized beer for about 11 euro was a great deal.  What was even better was to learn about the restaurant itself.  'Zum Brandanfang' is one of Hamburg's most historical restaurants because it sits on the site of one of the most horrible fires that the city has ever bore witness to.  An angry employee was so pissed off with his boss that he decided to burn the factory down, but what he didn't anticipate was the fire burning down 25% of the whole city!!

our hostel, Backpacker's St. Pauli

Having had a pretty huge day, we headed home for a coffee and a rest.  Being a Sunday night, it seemed pretty quiet around town, so we went out for a pretty casual dinner and then called it a night.  As much as I wanted to, I didn't have any beers because I was getting up at the crack of dawn the next morning to go to Crossfit Hamburg.

The alarm went off at 5am and for the next 10-minutes I tossed and turned and tossed and turned, one minute I was going and the next minute it was too cold and I should go back to bed.  Then I remembered that before going to bed Anna had said "I bet you don't go!" and that was enough inspiration for me to jump out of bed.

I layered up with tights, singlet, jumper, jacket, beanie, gloves and two pairs of socks and braved the cold weather to make it half way across town to the Crossfit Hamburg headquarters.

I loved the posters they had up on their walls

Everyone there was really welcoming and the coach even did the WOD in English so I knew what was going on.  It was a damn tough workout, so I was super happy that I had made the effort to get out of bed.

this one was my favourite, so true

I stumbled back to the hostel around 9:30am, delayered, and got straight back into bed.  I didn't sleep for too long though and by 11:30ish we were sitting at a really nice cafe around the corner from our hostel.  A few toasted sandwiches, coffee and a slice of apple cake and we were ready to hit the road!

love the fact that their paper is called the Hamburger haha

The metro took us into the centre of town so we could check out a few shops as we were both in desperate need of some some warmer clothes.  I managed to find a relatively cheap thermal top, whilst Anna umped and arred over a few beanies, but decided there was better out there.

We then headed back towards the harbour area for lunch and then at 3:45pm we had tickets to the 'Minatur Wunderland' which our tour guide said was a must for any visitor to Hamburg.

Switzerland

The model railway attraction is the largest of its kind in the world, consisting of over 13,000m of track.  It is divided into seven sections; the Alps, Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia, Switzerland and the fictitious city of Knuffingen.

Reading about it before we entered, we were both a little sceptical and thought it was going to be a bit of a wank, but how wrong we were!

Red Bull bird man rally

We proceeded to act like little school children as we ran around in amazement at not only the sheer size of each section, but the level of detail.  Not only were there hundreds of trains zooming about the place, there were also cars, buses, trucks, cyclists, and the best of all, planes!

there was even a clever lighting system that changed each section from day to night

taxi rank at the airport

I think we stood at the Hamburg airport for a good half an hour.  It was literally like watching a real-life airport in its day-to-day operations.  There was a huge mix of different European carriers taxiing about the runway, there were luggage handlers, buses transporting passengers, food vans, you name it, so much detail!!

But the most ridiculously awesome part of it was that the planes were all on some sort of special computerised schedule where they were actually taking off and landing, it was sick!!!!

a DHL plane on its way down the runway

taking off and through the hole in the wall, so cool!!!!

Austria - with functional lifts!

We seriously could have spent hours and hours and hours inside the Minatur Wunderland, because not only was it great to look at each section from a distance, but if you looked down real close, there was all sorts of things going on, so much attention to detail.

a car has crashed into a tree and the fire brigade, ambulance and police are at the scene

a reincarnation of the Hamburg fire of 1842

a couple getting frisky in the sunflower fields

a huge cruise liner getting ready to leave Scandinavia

by the time it actually leaves, its night time!

Walking out the doors at the end, we were shocked to see that it was night time.  We looked at our watches and couldn't believe that it was 7:30pm, we'd been in there for almost 4 hours!

It had been such an unexpectedly fun afternoon and we both just couldn't believe the amount of effort that must have gone into making something like that come true.  At the same time though, we kind of thought it was a bit sad that there are people out there who have spent some seriously long geek hours behind closed doors, especially as we were told it's a never ending masterpiece, they're just going to keep on adding more sections!

Words and photo's can paint a picture of what it was like, but this video gives you a much better idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64_s

By the time we got back to our hostel it was nearing 8:30pm and we were starving.  We went upstairs to get changed, but the fat hairy Aussie guy had taken his shoes off AGAIN and I swear on anyone's life it was the worst smell I have ever smelt.  I really felt bad for our nostrils.  He must have been taking the piss because no human being could lie in a room with a stench that bad.  What was even more incomprehensible was the fact that his girlfriend was lying on the bed next to him WTF!!!!!!

Anyway, we got straight out of there and headed out for another relatively low key meal.  Berlin was on the cards for the next week and we knew that there were a couple of big nights ahead of us, so having another quiet one was just fine and dandy.

Praise the Lord when we got home the rotten feet stench seemed to have subsided and we were able to get a relatively decent sleep.  Our bags were pretty much packed the next morning, so we popped across the road for a really great breakfast (why didn't we go there previously!!??) and then headed off to the train station.

Going the cheapest way to Berlin meant making a number of connections along the 4-5hr journey.  Unfortunately for us there was a sudden platform change at the first connection which forced us to wait an additional two hours at the Bahnhof Uelzen in the Lower Saxony area.

this guy missed his connection as well and thought we were all best friends because of it.....we weren't 

It was therefore a pretty long day, however it was a welcome change to be on a travel day without having to worry about crossing the border!