HAMBURG 7/28/12

We rode 5 hours on the German trains to get to Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany. Hamburg has historical buildings but what we enjoyed the most were all the water ways of lakes, the river Elbe and the largest port in Europe. The docksyards, shipyards, boats being constructed or repaired, ferries and tourist boats make the port such an interesting area. We found a beer festival with the local Asta beer and were at the fish market by 7am on Sunday morning:) We had expected to see a "Tokyo style" fish market with fish laid out in a large building for sale to restaurants... What we found was the large brick building filled with a beer festival (at 7am in the morning!:) and stalls selling fish to the locals but with many more vegetable, fruit and flower stalls...more like a Portland Saturday Market:) The market was very crowded and some of the people seemed to have been partying all night in the nearby St. Pauli area:) The St. Pauli area with Reeperbahn street is the "red light" area of Hamburg.... also the musical area where the Beatles first performed at the Grosse Freiheit 36 club. Very interesting and crowded on a Saturday night, but we always are going home just as the young people really start to party.... and we wanted to get up early for the fish market. We enjoyed the "big city" but were ready to get back to our rural Sachsen area:)

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