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Hamburg the 6th time.
I hadn't planned to come back to Hamburg this year, but when Liam offered to pay for my flights as a birthday present, how could I refuse. I was last over last August for a week, which was a bit of a shamble. So I was in no immediate rush to come back as I have been on previous visits.
As a city Hamburg is a complete blend, it definitely falls into the cosmopolitan category. It has a huge mix of people, arcutecture, clubs and bars, things to do and see. I would say I've covered all of these at least once now.
This time round I had a purpose to coming over, not only to see Liam but to do all of my Christmas shopping at the famous German Christmas markets.
The first stop after landing from a quick and easy flight was to head into Hamburg's city centre, lungfunsteig. The heart of the city is based around the two Alster lakes, which you see straight away after appearing out of the U-bahn. We walked to the biggest of Hamburg's markets outside the rathaus. Overall I would say there were 60-80 stalls decorated in twinkling lights, green foliage, bells and bows. Without these adornments you could easily mistake this gathering for homebases new line of garden sheds.
The smells and music all add to the magical experience, if you don't feel Christmassy here, then there's no hope for you. Stalls upon stalls sell handmade decorations, gingerbread, sausages, candles, nut and sweets. Large constructed restaurants serve gluwein and wursts. These restaurant have a strange wild west feeling to them, almost more like a Christmas saloon bar. We went into one for coffee to warm us up, as the 4degree outside daytime temperature soon numbs fingers and toes and if you really unlucky your derrière.
We hopped straight to it after our fix of warmth and caffeine. I had a long list of things to get while I was here. I brought wooden decorations, glass decorations, decorations made in Peru?, Traditional soldiers and obscure ball balls. I brought so much on the gingerbread stall the were giving things to me for free, admittedly they were mis-sharpened, but none-the-less free. Every two hours something unbelievable happens, Father Christmas makes a personal visit and flies about the rathau square, while jingerbells sounds out people stop their festive buying and gaze up. Father Christmas and his slight fly 30ft above the market waving at the crowd, let me inform you this isn't a small display, this is a real person in a life-sized sleigh operated in a similar way to a cable car. I could see the excitement on the children's faces as the look up to saint Nicolas. Isee this as the perfect opportunity to finishing up purchasing some more presents.
After another latte we headed over to alster lake. Now that it was dark the city became beautifully lit by all the 1,000's of Christmas lights. Its not tacky like the Blackpool illuminations but more along the lines of home alone 2 when macuy culkins wonders around new York.
Unlike previous trips we turned in early and rented out star trek from my brother local video store. I was fading fast as I had been up winse 4.30 for my 7.55 flight from London and I had just sound 100Euros on glitter based products.
We woke up early and were on the road by 9 for an hours drive south of Hamburg to the medieval town of Luneburg. During my last trip over I went to Lubeck ( marzipan capital of Germany ) with my brother ex girlfriend and her Slovakian parents. It was good to get out of Hamburg and see some of Germany as Hamburg doesn't convey being typically German, it has a mixture of many European cities.
Luneburg reminded me of Winchester but with higher pitched roofs and darker coloured stone. It was wonderful, It felt like nothing had changed for a few hundred years apart from the installations of a few neon signs advertising coffee shops. Having successful brought all I needed the day before I wasn't in such need for a Christmas market here, which was lucky as the stalls here consisted mainly of every variety of glazed nut, sausage and warm beverage you could need or want. So we tended to our rumbling stomachs and then walked to the old medieval part of the city, where we chanced upon a medieval Christmas market situated at the bottoms steps of one of luneburgs 3 churches.
Once again feeling the loss in our fingers signaled time for another latte, which we had in a very nice coffee bar. Here is a good time to tell you 2 things I have noticed about Germans. 1, they rarely show any emotion on their faces, to do so would be a rare thing. 2, they have no shame in staring straight at you, even if you are only sitting one metre away. Now I don't mean a quick arc of the neck and a glace of the shoulder, I mean a full on swivel in the chair so that they are directly facing you with the non existing expression I mentioned above. This happened to me here, thankfully we were on the verge of leaving.
We got back to Hamburg at about 3pm , had a lie down and a freshen up as Liam had arranged to meet up with some of his work colleagues to go to the Winter Dom, which is a huge travelling fun fair / theme park. It took us about 30minutes on the train from Lange horn ( where liam lives ) to the Irish bar where we were meeting everyone. The Shamrock is right by one of Hitler's massive concrete bunkers, and conveniently by the Dom. The Shamrock is everything you expect of an Irish bar, lit by candle light, pinned clothing on the wall, horrific toilets and full of Brits. Man City and Chelsea play on the TV, so it took 2 Bacardi cola lites and full time till I was introduced to everyone. They all seemed nice and as a small group we headed for the Dom. Here Liam consumed one item per stall and I had my first sausage of the trip. The dom is a brilliant place to spend an evening. Lots of great food ( there stalls dedicated to the gherkin ), rides and games to entertain everyone ( we did bumper cars, ghost train, 4 looped roller coaster, fun house etc etc ) I of course made abit of a idiot of myself in the funhouse, I managed to fall while running through the spinning hamster wheel and then was tossed around like washing, I also managed to take out the welsh guy who went after me lol.
I knew tonight wasn't going to be filled with heavy drinking which I has experienced many many time in Hamburg before, but we did head down the reeperbahn for a couple before heading back to liams to turn in for the night.
On the Sunday morning we went out for a continental breakfast as we always do on a Sunday, as nothing else opens its one of the only things to do. At it is part tradition to do so the day I go back home, so we had to really.
It was probably my shortest trip to Hamburg and most chilled out. Hamburg is most definitely a second home now, I recognise the buildings, bars and shops like I do back home. I'd like to take some friends out with me in the future and show them all the places I've told stories about. But it wont be for at least another year until I'm there again. But I tell you what, I'd like to go to the markets every single year !!
- comments
sarah Only a few spelling mistakes,good job. I can really picture it from your discriptions. One thing though, it bought not brought :P overall a 9/10
jacci Sort yourself out will you woman!! its Baubles....NOT ball balls!!! Christ Kirsty. lets hope you dont get to see any Ball Balls on your trip travelling!!!! oh yeh, i fell asleep after the Liam paid for the tickets bit!!! ha ha. xxx cant wait read about your Las Vegas visit!!