Thursday 6 September 2007

Hamburg, slightly more restfully


Firstly the Deutschlandlauf formguide is now up, i'm number 18.
After Tuesday nights long whinging blog post, was more relaxed watching Law and Order (incredibly funny to watch one of my favourite TV characters Lenny - Jerry Orbach - dubbed into German although i reckon i only understand one in every 3 words) and basically just recovering from a long day (maybe i needed a shower, a feed and a drink before that post rather than after, cringe when i reread it but don't dare edit it as blogger is in Greman and i'm worried i'll delete the whole thing so it's publish and be damned !).
Had a more relaxing day, taking the train from Billstedt to KellinghusenStrasse, a station the other side of the city. Went for a wander keeping the massive tv tower in sight as i wanted to see whether it was possible to go up it (i'd been told that there was a restuarant which had shut because there was only one fire escape and legally there had to be two just didn't know about anything else.
Eventually get to it and the massive Messehalle (convention centres), but no luck in terms of getting up !!, still €5 for a 3 course lunch salad, lasagne and dessert (and a tasty local beer) meant it was worth coming out that way. Lot's of old fashioned shops reminded me of Greville St in this area.
Kept on walking till i got to Reeperbahn (the start of the infamous and huge red light district - think Kings Cross and multiply it many times) so decided i'd hop on the train and go to the harbour which i'd only touched on the day before.
Absolutely massive (best way to describe would be Circular Quay on steroids), a good mile of shops and eateries and ferries etc, and then the working parts of the harbour. I'd arrived at 3 and thought i'd have an early day, but a couple of hours later had only made it along to Altona and was still on the harbour (finally the sun was out and i'd had the chance to zip the legs off my pants and make them into shorts). Basically kept on walking till i hit the beach and the passages along that way between eateries and mansions followed then by parklands where there were many joggers (thankfully outnumbering cyclists !). No real idea where i was except on the banks of the Elbe, so couldn't be too hard to make it back, finally saw a path to a Bahnhof and found it was Klein Flottbek where the Botanical gardens are but by then was almost 7:30, so waited at station (worth noting the station had it's own pub !!, i can imagine commuters ringing home to say they will be late because of transport problems !!), and then two trains later was back at the Hotel. So again a long day, but now at least i felt i knew my way around.
Only complaint is the number of smokers in Europe, everywhere here there are cigarette vending machines (as opposed to France where there were all condom vending machines !), and whilst buildings are sort of smoke free, there is no real barrier between the smokers and non.
Anyway off to Stralsund today.

1 comment:

undercover brother said...

sounds like youre enjoying yourself mate!
im a fan of L&O as well.
dont get lost!