Day 2 @ Hamburg

Day 2.. yes, we were planning, planning to wake up as early as 8a.m. to start REALLY touring ard the city of Hamburg, and to experience a day as a tourist. And of course, we did not!

Germany is an hour ahead of UK. I set my h.p. alarm for 8a.m. and it of course oni started ringing at 9.a.m. Germany time. $#%^&*(&^%$#. Suzanne watch me get up snoozing my hp alarm N times, n finally both of us got fed up and i just off the alarm. In the end, we woke up at like.. 11a.m.? yeah. standard timing for a holiday. but certainly not for a holiday trip. geez. we all washed up, 4 of us, and quickly hd some breakfast, 烧卖 from Holland, i wonder why. and i drank a delicious 豆奶麦片，yum. i can't rmb wat time we departed, 5 of us, including Suzanne's Aunty, to make sure that 4 'innocent' gals do not get lost.

We took train after train, making good use of the Suburban railway system or "S-Bahn", from Kaltenkirchen Station to Hauptbahnhof, which took us a total of 1hr, roughly, to finally reach the city centre of Hamburg, Germany's second largest city after Berlin.

Shopping is once again, everywhere, Suzanne's favourite H & M, my favourite MNG, Zara. (hmm.. we dun c top shop there though..) but our focus is not on shopping. we r here to conquer the history. buek. ok. not really. but Hamburg is still a historical town, with a few churches side by side, St. Petri, St. Nikolai, St. Michaelis etc etc. Actually, we spent quite some time, randomly walking ard town, just to let our eyes get use to Hamburg. In the middle of all modern buildings, we came across Rathaus, Hamburg's City Hall. We then ate some currywurst, German sausage with some curry powder. After our 'standing' meal, (u c, we hd to stand while eating as the sausage were sold on the road side). we started exploring, first the inner-lakes of the city, Aussenalster, taking a few shots of lakes, together with geese and ducks.

We move on, to the southern part of the city, the sea-port. I was planning to visit the Cap San Diego （the last remaining cargo freighters, turned musuem), but seems like the time do not allow us to do so, or rather, we didnt find it in time to visit it. Instead, we went on the Harbour tour, gazing at huge logistic ships, from as near as France, London, to as far as China (and ships from China are really damn huge ok..). Poor Aunty did not wanted to come along on board the quite empty touring ship, so she waited for us for an hr! really hv to thank her for bringing us ard..

Finally, we just had to visit one of the many churches, we rmb seeing lots of churches, but not knowing their names, but in the end, we decided to visit the oldest-looking of all. It was hard-work finding it, we passed by Fleetinsel, and finally reached 'the church'. We were guessing, is it the oldest main church, St. Petri or is it smth else？Only until just now, when i look back at all the research that i have done (hopefully not in vain), it turned out to be St. Nikolai, the FORMER main church, which was destroyed in 1842 and 1943, n now an anti-war monument. Ha. No wonder the outlook is kinda, 'black n burnt'.

Then, it was dinner, @ a chinese restaurant. Rmb the son of the owner of a chinese restaurant, yes, the same one. The food was good, enuf, and filling. Of course, the traditions of chinese, frens maa.. so no need to pay la.. no need.. really no need la.. so, we ended again, eating for free. We already travelled for free, thx to Aunty... n now.. we r planning to buy smth for them in UK and post to them as a thank-u gift, n there is no way they can reject it now. Ha.

After meal, we sat n chatted, waiting for the son of the owner of the restaurant, ok, make it easy, er, Denny, to finish his work there as a waiter. Then, we headed of to the famous red-light district. It's my first time to RLD, n i think i wont wanna go back there again. It was new stuff to me, as everything is so concentrated in one small area, ok, actually a few stretch of streets, but still, everything altogether. got a bit sick of it, but then, it was 大开眼界，i guess.

home it is. 1a.m. tmr, wat time will be get up? well, we hv to! we bought 11.30a.m. train ticket to Berlin, n this time, i MUST set my alarm one hr earlier. the next morning, i was the 1st to wake up, 7.am. in need of a shower n proper wash-up b4 bidding goodbye to all the hospitality that we received, n facing the new challenge ahead, 4 of us, alone.