We head into Hamburg, find a hotel, hop on the U-Bahn, and promptly fall in love with this gorgeous city. After a bit of a false start we get a bit snotty with each other (it sounds ironic but it's a little stressful finding our way around new place same where we don't speak the language) but it's all ok because two minutes later we find ourselves outside the massive ten story Maritime Museum. Yay! Winning! We pay the entry fee and proceed to get lost amongst nautical paintings, mockup interiors of various vessels, THOUSANDS (fact) of model ships, and lots more. I love the pirate section, of course, and there is a great painting of some waves that I want to steal.
Honestly, if you are in Hamburg and have any time free, you should go to this museum. Even if you aren't interested in boats or the ocean you should still visit. The building itself is just phenomenal, beautiful wooden beams, floors and pillars everywhere. Oh yeah, the museum was also virtually empty, we were two of maybe twenty people in the whole place. So crazy! It's Willy's favourite museum by far.
By the time we finish, the afternoon is almost over so we hop back on the tube and head back to the Central Station to meet Anna Lena for dinner. Her bus is running late so we have a couple of beers in one of the many train station pubs, it's pretty good. When she arrives, she takes us on a walking tour of Hamburg - it's so nice to be shown around by a local! We see the town hall, the wonderful fountain, the smaller of the two lakes and we conclude at a fish restaurant down by the port. We share a wonderful meal (which is a local delicacy but the name escapes me) that features three kinds of fish! Yum yum yum. It's lovely catching up with Anna Lena, it's been three years since she stayed with Mum and Dad in New Zealand - plenty has changed in that time!
We saw evidence of the refugees for the first time today - outside the Central station a few tents were set up and a smattering of people were sitting inside the cordon. Anna Lena pointed out another group of people and said that they are greeters waiting for refugees so that they can be welcomed into Germany. She has been volunteering as a German teacher and was saying that they can spend two years waiting for the right to work in Germany! Despite the refugee program giving them German lessons, they aren't entitled to these until that paperwork goes through! It's so silly and such a waste of time, surely a limited working visa of some kind would be better - they want to work, you are paying for their lives until you let them work, surely a more fast paced approach would be beneficial for all?
Following dinner we get led up to the Reeperbahn - Hamburgs red light district. It's a lot like K Road, Kings Cross, etc, but there are areas that are fenced off which are apparently for men only and no women are allowed to enter... Unless you are working I guess. There are a lot of homeless (for Germany, nothing in comparison to Turkey) and prostitutes line the street, they are mostly dressed in leggings, winter boots and cheap puffer jackets. It probably wouldn't be so noticeable on a busy night but it's quiet and they virtually outnumber us. We cross the road and I watch one of them make a beeline for a well dressed middle aged man who was walking just in front of us. It looks like he tells her to go away but she keeps at him for another twenty five meters or so before giving up and stalking off.
We are sad that we only had one day in Hamburg - it's been the first time that we haven't been ready to leave a country. Germany will have to be revisited!
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