Hamburg

I never described my day in Hamburg. I had a lot of fun! It was the annual harbor festival, celebrating 829 years of Hamburg’s port! Once I got off of the train, I walked to the port to catch a ferry tour that I found that would be in English. I walked because I was not in too much of a hurry and I wanted to see some of the city. The boat tour was really cool. Because of the festival, there were a lot of cool boats, that I took lots of pictures of. I do not know much about boats, but many of them looked very old. I saw one that was steam powered! Since this is such a big event, I had even seen some of these boats on the local news the night before. I saw a Mississippi type river boat on the news and then in person (I know it was the same boat because it had the same name, Louisiana Star). On the boat tour, we went into some of Hamburg’s canals. Apparently, it has more canals and bridges than Amsterdam. After the boat tour, I walked around the festival area and got some food. It had a state fair kind of vibe. But I was still interested to try German fair food. I got fries with mayonnaise (the best fry condiment), some sausage with a bun that was much smaller than itself, and a fried potato cake with applesauce. I am pretty sure I have had that fried potato cake with applesauce at the German pavilion at Epcot, so I was kind of surprised that it is actually a thing in Germany. After walking through some (it was huge) of the festival area, I went to St. Michael’s church. It is a beautiful Lutheran church that was actually built as a Protestant church. There are definitely more ornate Catholic churches, but that has to be the most beautiful Protestant church I have ever been in. I started to slowly make my way back to the train station. On the way, I stopped in at the city hall, which was also surprisingly beautiful. However, they closed 10ish minutes after I got there, so I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked. I also stopped in another Lutheran church where the musicians were practicing for a service that I am guessing was that evening. It was interesting to hear more modern music in the acoustics of a large, Cathedral-type (though Lutheran) church. At the train station, I got the only American fast food that I have had since I have been in Germany, KFC. It has been years since I have been to a KFC, but none of the other options sounded appealing to me and I had to catch a train. I ate it on the train back to Bremen, satisfied and tired after a long day out.