Hamburg, Germany 3rd - 6th Jan 10 (no make that 7th!)

Train to Hamburg on the 3rd. Love trains in Germany. Their website is so easy to use to get times/bookings etc and they do awesome ticket deals. We used the weekender ticket (up to 5 people for 37euros) it's a bargain even with 2! Our hostel in Hamburg was very fancy, more hotel style with ensuite and an awesome shower!! So happy to have some 'luxury' accommodation after all the hostels/shared bathrooms.

We got a 3 day Hamburg card which covered all our transport and discounts on some attractions, well worth it. On the 4th we took the S-bahn into the city center and got out next to the Alster Lake. Hamburg is a fascinating city, it's a port city and it's main center lies between a river inlet and a lake so everything is based around the water. I imagine it's a great place to go in summer, there was less to do when it was covered in snow but still a cool place.

The lake was covered in massive chunks of ice and the boat tours were still running so we decided to come back for the next one (they only ran 2 a day at this time of year). While waiting we went and had a look at the Rathaus (old town hall) then jumped back on the S-bahn down to the wharf (Lundungsbrucken - i love German place names!).

The views were awesome over the River Elbe to the port and fishing docks. With lots of tour boats coming and going there was a lot of activity. It's quite funny, the port is a huge tourist attraction in Hamburg, the tour boats take them around the port talking about the history and how all the things work. Coming from Tauranga of course it just reminded us of home :)

Back to the lake we grabbed some Currywurst (yum!) before jumping on the boat for our tour. The main reason we wanted to do one was so we could crash through all the ice - so much fun - I think it would have been quite boring otherwise :) The ice was fun though, the boat would crash through it and big chunks would come off skidding over the other blocks of ice.

We saw birds on the ice trying to peck it to I assume get little bugs stuck in it. And the ducks plodding along the ice was so cute. The trip was only an hour so it was over pretty quick but it was definitely the highlight of the day.

In the afternoon we walked around the shopping mall - gorgeous lights still all strung up from Christmas (Germans know how to do Christmas!), like 5 stories and funny mens shop called 'Wormland' - foreign names are a laugh sometimes. We also walked along their fancy shopping street, mainly to check out their christmas lights.

That night we went to an Italian place near the hostel that they recommended. Being a Monday night in winter we were the only ones there which was quite cool because we had the entire attention of the chief and waitress. The food was good and they practically gave us the wine for free (score!). The menu was only in Italian and German so it was fun trying to decipher it. Somehow Nick got a pizza with egg and peas on it though so we didn't do too well! hahaha

Every day in Hamburg got colder, it went from -5 to -8 to -10 deg cel. It was bitterly cold and it stung our faces whenever we ventured outside. On the 5th we explored HafenCity, the little harbour suburb amongst the Elbe river. I don't know if the land is man made, it does look a little like it with lots of canals and channels of the river running through it but it was a cool place.

We found some restored boats moored there. Really interesting ones from the 1800s and there was even an old fireboat. It was fascinating reading all about them and when they had been used.

We went and explored the Elbe tunnel, a passenger and single lane car tunnel that joins Landunsbrucken to the harbour/shipyards on the other side of the river. It's pretty cool because there are elevators that take the cars down and then its a slow crawl across to the other side. It was built in 1911 and is 24 m below the surface. It was fun to ride one of the huge elevators (which of course were originally built for carriages) and we walked to the other side (not much there) and back again.

At the end of the day we stopped off on the way home in Reeperbahn, Hamburg's famous red light district. Actually there seemed to be more bars than strip clubs so it just seemed like a party area of the city. The lights were all going so it was fun to explore that part of Hamburg.

We were supposed to go home on the 6th but we found out that London had been hit with snow again and the airports were closed and all flights cancelled (uh-oh!). We still didn't have confirmation on what was happening with our flight so we decided to go and do our morning site-seeing and worry about it later.

We went to St Michaels church, a beautiful baroque style church which was amazing on the inside. A mix of white and gold leaf it was so over the top it was amazing. I really loved it, not like any other church I've ever seen. We also climbed up the tower for the views. It was a really hard climb up in all our winter gear but we made it and the views were awesome. Hamburg is really pretty all covered in snow. But man was it freezing up there. No protection from the wind at all and -10deg. The wind was like needles on the face.

We decided to go back to the hostel after that to keep an eye on our flight and at about 2pm we got the confirmation it was cancelled. We were stuck in Hamburg another night. So lucky we found out at the hostel. So we re-organised for another nights stay at the hostel (had to switch rooms but luckily they had a room). We managed to get booked into a flight the next day but the airline only had 1 flight a day so we had to wait another 24 hours for the next one.

On the last day we spent our time at the hostel, me keeping an eye on work emails and watching movies and just keeping out of the freezing cold. We did eventually get home that night but the funny thing was when we landed in London there was less snow than in Hamburg! haha The English can't deal with snow.