Euro Trip 2008 - Day 7 - Hamburg, Germany

By zwenne75 on Flickr

DAY 7: 2nd FEBRUARY 2008

I slept pretty much all the way from Belgium to Germany, only waking up when the bus made its stop at a gas station sometime around dawn. Freshened up a bit before browsing the shop there, I quickly looked for something to eat - having just remembered that I didn't really eat anything solid the previous day (Rainy Paris, Night in Brussels). Scanning the sandwiches there, I couldn't make out what the imprints were telling me because they were all in German! Playing safe, I asked a German guy beside me to translate it for me, which he kindly obliged. Got my sandwich, ate them on the bus while enjoying the sights of early morning Hamburg, which was our destination that day.


Hamburg is a city located in the Northern part of Germany, and is the second largest city of the nation. Hearing the name Hamburg I bet you couldn't help but think of Hamburgers, right? I did, and I found that Hamburg is indeed the birthplace of the hamburgers. Just thinking of that made me hungry again, I made a point to visit McDonald's later. Of course for budget tourists like us McDonald's is the ideal place to eat. I've eaten my sandwiches and still I was hungry so I had no choice...but to chew down the Belgian chocolates I bought the previous night. So much of wanting to eat them back at Kursk!






We were given ample time to visit this city on our own. There was only one problem though: we didn't know jack about this city. Not one bit. However since that was the program of the day we split up to our groups and began wandering aimlessly around the city - where the shops were just about to open since it was still early in the morning. Found a public map and began consulting it, looking for any signs of tourists attraction. Found one located not far ahead: the Town Hall, or better known here as Rathaus.





Richly decorated Neo-Renaissance building finished in 1896, Rathaus with its tower of 112 meters is Europe's highest townhall.


Rathausmarkt, the large open square in front of the Rathaus.








Binnenaltster lake


The Speicherstadt

From there, we continued our morning tour of the city, basking in the sights of the still-closed shops, making points to come back here later. We didn't really have any destination set in mind for this was a strange city for us, but luck be with us we actually came across the largest shopping complex in Hamburg while walking around aimlessly. Having not been in any shopping malls for a while, we decided to go in the Europa Passage.







The interior design of the mall was amazing, with arches being the main decoration theme. We window-shopped for a while, found a newsstand selling English magazines there so we decided to have a break and I read a couple of free magazines. Haha. Then we went to the lower ground floor where the groceries section was at, and looked for some snacks to top up our supply in the bus. As the others browsed around I went towards the salad section, and one particular salad caught my attention. I didn't want to buy it at first, but that salad seemed to be begging for me to buy it. Even the kind lady behind the counter noticed I was there for a while and asked in English whether I'd like to buy it. Hah...having been asked, I bought a small portion of the shrimp salad, deciding to call it a brunch for the day. The others bought something too before we decided we were done with touring the mall, it was time to have a look around the city.



United Colors of Benetton.


Body Shop, H&M, Esprit






Proof that we're at Hamburg!


As luck had it, after stepping out from the mall and walked around a bit, across the square there it was, secluded yet prominent, McDs! By being a customer there you would gain access to its facilities as well (that means the toilets! Without having to pay....European toilets are expensive to enter!). So we went there and bought something to eat and drink, and helped ourselves with the facilities. Then all of a sudden the guy behind the counter rushed out of the cafe, camera in tow. That caught our interest and me and several others followed him - the guy sounded mighty excited. Then we saw what the commotion was all about.



It's snowing! The counter guy said that it seldom snowed nowadays, so he was excited when it did. He should have come to Russia, where we get loads of snow you just get sick of having winter for too long.


Snow...nak buat ape. Makan and bergambar lagi best. :D Shrimp salad, burger, fries, icecreams. Heaven.


Yes, German people are obviously so rich, Mercedez Benz is used as taxis here!


We continued walking around and began looking for souvenirs. It was hard to find souvenirs around here. We kept entering one shop and another, asking around, but it was hopeless. Maybe we didn't look at the right place? All the shops here were selling posh branded stuffs. We were interested, but since we weren't exactly loaded with money all we could do was have a look around. There was a sweater I wanted to buy but it wasn't practical because it was my last winter in Russia. No way I'd be wearing sweater in Malaysia, no matter how trendy it was.



Walk, walk, walk, eventually we came by Rathaus again where we found one small kiosk selling souvenirs. Stockholm, Paris and Brussels had abundant souvenir shops, Hamburg had one or two only?


We came across a peaceful demonstration held in front of a designer item store. They were shouting something about Biba this, Biba that. Something's wrong...


... turns out Biba is the name of the store where they were holding the peace rally. We asked the demonstrators why they were protesting - they said that they don't agree with Biba's decision to use RAT FURS as coat minks. Ughh....rat? I was sure that I heard them wrong, but looking at the banners and the two people lying down on the street dressed up as bloodied rats, I knew I did not misheard them.

The question is, were they protesting because rats are dirty mangy rodents and are not suitable to be used as coats, or they did it for the love of those rodents? Sure hope the reason was the first one.




Continued going in and out of several random stores before it was time to head back to our bus. It would take some time for us to reach the port where we then boarded the ferry which would take us back to Stockholm. We were not given cabins, so a few of us shared the money to rent a couple of cabins so that we could use the bathroom to shower. Then we waited for the ferry to take us back to Stockholm.