Hamburg

Hamburg was to be our rest-up stop. We weren't going to do a whole lot except go on a tour and look for gummi bears. My first impression of Hamburg was favorable - it was a pretty, sunny day, and we were in one of the more well-kept areas of Hamburg, right by the train station. I think there were a lot of offices in that district, cause on a Sunday everything was closed and it was pretty dead. We spend most of the rest of the day re-organizing our stuff and taking advantage of the hotel's many, many tv channels. And yay, they have room service, so dinner is taken care of.

The next day we go to the Sandeman's free tour - they did the awesome tour in Amsterdam, so we figured we were safe in going to them again. The girl was an ex-pat from London, and very energetic. She immediately won me over with her story about the swans in Hamburg. A long time ago they instituted a law in Hamburg that if anyone shot, hurt, captured, or even insulted a swan, they would suffer horrible and unspeakable punishment. Probably death. This amused me greatly.

The rest of the tour was just as entertaining, if slightly more subdued than the Amsterdam one. Of course, we're comparing Amsterdam and Hamburg, so of course the former is going to be a bit more lively. It was also drizzling on and off - the gorgeous day we had yesterday turned into thunderstorms over night. I blame Skip. The same thing happened the last time he was in Hamburg, so it stands to reason that he and the city together are cursed. Still, I think he came away with a much more favorable impression than last time.

This tour covered a lot more of WWII than Amsterdam did, as well. I think our guide did a good job of interchanging the serious (the golden plaques on the sidewalk commemorating the Jews of Hamburg that had been murdered) with the whimsical (look up paternosta if you get a chance). Overall, we had a great time and left with a pretty favorable impression - though the weird geometric opera house/entire city they're building is a bit of a head scratcher.

We went hunting gummi bears after that. We found an entire store devoted to these gelatinous creations right on our hotel's street. As we walked around, girls kept coming up to us with free samples, further complicating our choices. At first, I thought we would just get a normal variety bag you would find in the states, but after trying all the weird variations, we ended up with a mishmash totaling almost 3lbs.

Our packs a bit heavier, we head out for Prague the next day on a grueling 7 hour train ride.