Hamburg-Germany 2,
July 11. 2023,
Hi Everyone,
Dominique drove me to the airport. There are 2 separate lanes to get you here and the line up is round the block. We have the most brilliant city planners in the world. Once into the airport things went quite quickly and I was through customs in 30 min. I had enough wine to drink courtesy of my bank and was the last person to board the plane. After 2 Ativans and a repeat dinner I fell asleep for 6 hours. A good combination of wine and sleeping pills always does the trick for me on a long plane trip. I arrived in London and had 45 minutes to cross the airport to catch my plane to Hamburg. They were just about ready to close the doors when I boarded the plane. It was a short flight, peanuts and a glass of wine for lunch. I switched my SIM card for a local brand at the airport allowing me internet but no calling out of the country unless I use the 20 number phone number.
I took a taxi to my 2* Ibis where all the Canadians are staying. There are 150 of us in total so it should be fun. Some of them brought their own bikes but I rented one here and will pick it up on Thursday. The hotel itself is quite nice for a 2*, clean and very modern. I have a pretty good impression of Hamburg at first glance. It is modern but the buildings have a nice old style compared to the glass towers that seem to appear out of nowhere in Montreal and Toronto. I walked along the waterfront and had a beer on a terrace facing the water. There were a lot of small sailboats sailing around. The change of time started to effect me so I walked back to the hotel and crashed for 4 hours.
I am now sitting in a restaurant across from the train station. I ate pub food that was plentiful but not particularly tasty. The German beer is great. At one point a ‘street women’ walked up on the terrace asking for money, All of a sudden, without warning, she grabbed a lady’s beer off the table and drank the whole glass. The lady got up and started yelling at her. Her husband thought that it was rather funny and laughed it off. The waiter came along and told the women that it was ‘nit gutt’ and made her go away after she had downed the beer. He then brought the lady another beer.
Love, Brian
gobriantravel 