Monday morning and we have the alarm set for 7am.  Today we are going with Sabrina and her Mum & Dad by train to Hamburg.  We have to catch a train from Lauffen back to Stuttgutt and then catch the ICE (inter City Express) train to Hamburg.  Around about a 6 hour trip.  Rudi has managed to secure us first class seats by booking early and through a Hamburg tourist promotion.  

We have our own compartment with a table between us.  It’s another great day and the scenery is beautiful.  We start off passing through grape growing areas moving on to fields of I don’t know what but with lots of colours and people working their farms.  I even saw a paddock of sheep which are not that plentiful in Germany.  The only lamb they have would come from New Zealand and that is very rare.  I did note that all the girls had a little nap along the way.  

We arrive in Hamburg around 5:30pm.  Hamburg is the largest port in Germany way up on the North Sea which is noticeable by the drop in temperature.  It is a lot colder than the weather we have been used to at 12 degrees.  We grab two taxis and head the short distance to our hotel, Arcotel Rubin.  We give ourselves 30 minutes and head out to find a nice resturant to eat at, down beside the canals.  This is harder than expected, maybe because it is a Monday night and is quite cool.  We settle for a brewery pub with craft beer and food.  We then head out to Saint Michaelis Church which is to be a common landmark for us in Hamburg.  It is the 10th highest steeple in Germany and we went up to a viewing platform at 109 metres.  We had a magnificent view of the city as we watched it light up.  We headed back to the hotel for a nightcap and suddenly it was after midnight.

Tuesday we met for breakfast at 8:30 and ate a big breakfast which included bacon and eggs, yummy I must be putting on weight, it’s a good job there are no scales around.  We headed out to the waterfront and found a harbour tour.  The weather wasn’t too flash but we were inside.  This was an enormous port with lots of islands, channels and locks and on the river Elbe.  We cruised along beside/under container ships, cruise ships, saw all the different markets, fish, fruit. Went past the theatres where The Lion King and the Das Wunder von Bern were playing.  We had intended to go to the Lion King but we found that tickets were 150 Euro each so decided to give it a miss.  Went down some narrow canals that ran into the city.  A very enjoyable look at the city.  We had  a late lunch before heading back into the central city.  It was Rudi’s birthday to day which we had already celebrated with a glass of champagne on the boat and we were looking for a good resturant on the side of the canals to celebrate further.  Again this was a challenge but we did find one called Ponton.  We did a bit of window shopping where my most exciting shop was one selling the Telsa Car, nearly brought one, Yeah Right.  Back to Ponton for an enjoyable evening on the water.  A nightcap at the hotel and off to bed

Wednesdays started the same way but this time we were off to the Hamburg Museum.  On the way we had a bit of a delay as we managed to leave Rudi on the Underground, when Erika made us hop off the train a couple of stations too early. He had it right and we had to chase him to the right station where we changed trains to St Pauli. The museum was a very intriguing and informative 4 or so hours showing the history of the area.  The beginings as a trading port, the big fire of 1842, the shipping influence and the time of war and the flooding of 1962.  They also had a very large scale model railway (1/32) showing some of the main tracks around Hamburg.  We walked out of there and there was a fairground next door we decided to explore on our way back to the station.  It was the “Dom”, a fun fair that takes place in Hamburg every summer and it ended up taking us another three hours.  We rode the Ferris wheel and saw many people riding crazy scary rides.  There was probably more food stalls than rides and there were hundreds of rides and lots of yummy interesting food.  A tradition of German fairgrounds was Gebrannte Mandeln, almonds coated with caramelised sugar, cinnamon and maybe a few other spices. Very yummy and then we found some chilli ones, even more yummy.  I managed to win a Minion with my sharp eye and a cork gun.  It was back to the hotel for dinner tonight where we were introduced to vanilla ice cream and pumpkin seed oil, an Austrian speciality. 

Thursday morning saw us heading back to Lauffen.  It took us four trains before we arrived in Lauffen shortly before 7pm.  It was home delivered Pizza for tea and an early night.  Holidaying  is very tiring even though we had spent most of the day sitting on trains.