Due to the late night we had a late start on the day. I wasn't sure when the girls would wake up, so instead of a run, I just ran up and down the stairs in the hotel. At first, the people who worked there smiled and said good morning, but then, once they realized that I was running up and down the stairs, their reactions and looks indicated that they thought I was crazy!
By the time we were out and about it was nearly lunch and we missed the only English tour of the harbour. So we jumped on the city hop on and hop off tour bus and settled in to find out about Hamburg.
It's a very large city with over 2 million people and an incredible harbour. One of the neatest things I saw were the warehouses along the waterfront where carpet sellers and other vendors sold their goods from the windows of their apartments to the people going through on boats.
We jumped off the bus at Saint Michael's cathedral, better known as Michel to the locals. It's a baroque protestant cathedral that was stunning with a white interior and gold throughout. The girls were excited to climb up to the top of the tower and counted out each of the 400+ steps. We have now decided to try and climb to the top of the highest points in each of the cities we visit. Once we return to Toronto, we will try to do the same thing, including the CN Tower.
After Michel, we strolled through the city and marvelled at the beautiful architecture and piazzas. People were gathered everywhere and were just enjoying the beautiful day. We met up with Jens and Finn and the kids had a ball feeding swans and ducks on the grand canal. We did a short boat ride on the two “lakes” - the inner and outer Alster, which highlighted some of the most expensive homes in Hamburg. The interesting thing is that these weren't lakes at all, but sections of the Alster river that had been dammed up. It also had a fantastic 10km route, so Jens has promised the next time we come, we will run this route together!
The whole transportation system in Germany has been fantastic; they have a combination of buses, streetcars, subways, and light rail. We have travelled everywhere on family day passes which has given us an economical opportunity to travel all over without having to worry about trying to drive in the cities and locate non-existent parking spots!
The kids were in bed at a better hour as we were planning another great day of touring!
Z – liked the bells – started ringing – sounded like fireworks – maybe they were canons, feeding the ducks and swans and taking care of Finn
m – liked climbing the stairs – reminded me of the Dom in Koln but fewer stairs
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