Carnivals and Sex shops

Day 4? 3-25 Tuesday

Being exhausted from yesterday’s excursions, Brother bee and I slept in today. German Bee had to work, so we were on our own. I woke up about 10:30am, it felt so good to sleep in! Anja had left and Evan was still asleep, so I just hung out, checked my mail, etc. I transfered all of my pictures to my USB key, cause I figured my card on my camera was getting full. To my surprise, I had already taken 117 pictures! Watch out friends that live near me! You’re in for a treat when we get home.

Brother Bee and I decided to take a walking tour outlined in the good ol’ Lonely Planet. It started from the Hamburg Haptbahnhof (main station) and took a jog down the “walking mall” to the Rathaus or Town Hall, this is a magnificant building that looks more like a palace than a city hall. Inside, we decided to take a tour, however, I was informed by the information desk that the English tour had left 10 minutes earlier and the next one would not leave for another 2 hours. So, we took the German tour. They did offer us a guide of all the rooms described in English. That was helpful, however the guide knew full well that we didn’t speak German, and he kept looking at us strangly. Maybe it was because he kept saying funny things, and we had no idea what he was talking about. Note to self: learn the language or at least a little!

We left the Rathaus, crossed the canal and toured a little bit of Italy, as they call it. It is a row of arcades that house high-class stores with fancy jewelry and cafes. Very quaint. As we retraced our steps past the front of the Rathaus, we saw a man, acting very suspicious. From the back it looked like he was just sweeping up some sawdust on the square. Turns out, he was also wearing a pink wig and a set of plastic breasts. Interesting…a group of friends were surrounding him, so we could only believe that it was indeed a prank. Look for that picture, coming soon!

After that we traveled down past St. Nikolai memorial, which is the remains of St. Nikolai church that was bombed during WWII. Kinda strange. They have left it right where it is and how it was when the war was over. It is interesting to see that the buildings and late 20th century grew up around it. We then returned to the area we explored with German Bee a couple of days ago. Here Brother Bee and I had our first Koffee and Kuchen, which is a pastry around tea time. It was great. Then we headed over to the *free* Deutchen ZollMuseum. This is a museum about customs and immigration. It is based solely on explaining the history of Hamburg’s customs industry. Sound boring, I know!! But, when you see all the different ways that people smuggled in cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, etc., it turns out to be interesting. I had no idea that you can cut open the bottom of a chair and smuggle 15 cartons of cigs in the bottom of it. wow.

Now for the Carnival and Sex shop parts. This time of year is the time for the Hamburg Dom. It is a big carnival and fair that is held three times a year. Yes, it is just like our state fairs, with rides and crappy food all for one awful price! But, I did want to check it out, especially since Lonely Planet recommended it. We first rode the Ferris Wheel (4 Euros), then we walked around and took a look at all the Carnies. We settled on a Beer Garden for something to eat. This was our first chance to taste local food and local beer. Brother Bee had a Currywurst, and I had a Bratwurst on a baghette. We each had a different beer. It was wonderful. A delightful, carb filled dinner. We topped that off with wonderful funnel-cake type thingys.

On the way back to the train, Anja suggested we tramp (no pun intended) through the Reeperbahn or Red Light District. This is where all the interesting people hang out and where the Sex Shops are. We took a tour through one, I won’t go into any detail, but don’t worry, the USA is not missing out on anything! Hahaha. It was an experience, that and the dildo singing Aerosmith like that plastic Billy Bass that you can hang on your wall.

The end of the night came when German Bee made Brother Bee walk inbetween us because we were coming up on some women with interesting business pursuits, if you know what I mean. Tomorrow we’ll see what other educational adventures we can come up with!