Xmas in Belgium/N. Germany trip day 9 - Checking out Altstadt Hamburg (12/9/19)

Eat breakfast at the place before we head out for the day. Walk through the nearby stadtpark and then get bikes to cruise around town. Bike into old town along the alster river then on to the harbor area. Go explore the Elbphilharmonie building and its overlook before grabbing a tasting flight from Storleburg which is a brewpub in the building. 

Planetarium in the middle of the park

View of Hamburg

More views as we ride around town

Looks different during the day

Old and new blending together in plain sight

Went to the old warehouse part of town near the river

Lots of brick buildings around this area

view from above

Harbor with the crane yards in the back ground

Viewing tower near the restaurant we ate at.

Elevator to get cars up and down the tunnel

Long way up

Cool tunnel

View of Hamburg from the other side of the river

Me trying a beer or 2 at the brewery we happened upon in our city exploration

Me for scale

We then walk to St michels cathedral but we are unable to enter because there is a performance happening that night. Walk over to see one of steph's friends nearby before getting a bus to the fisch market restaurant for a nice local dinner. Start walking back to the place and go explore the underwater tunnel that takes cars to the other side of the river. After we get back to the main side of the river, go the a nearby train station that google has taken us to to get back and it turns out the station isnt in operation. We then have to find our way back out of there and then walk to the next nearby station thatll get us back to our place as thats where we are heading.

Xmas in Belgium/N. Germany trip day 8 - Family day in Glukstadt (12/8/19)

We slept in quite a bit cause of the hour in which we finally got home. Have a little lunch then get ready for the day where we jump on a train and head out to Glukstadt to enjoy a family dinner and cake night with Steph's family. The town was incredibly pretty, right along the water, and their house is this impressive place that apparently used to house the swedish king's mistress or something like that. We have some delicious cakes and then break from eating for a little bit then proceed with dinner and cheese (best part :) ). 

Train station

Tiny church

Hamburg by night

One of the markets entrances

Lights everywhere

City hall?

Xmas market near the center of town

Entrance gate for the central market

Just enjoying me some xmas market action

Have a great time chatting with her family as they are very understanding that my german is horrible so many try interacting in english which helps immensely. As we are leaving, the next train is not for a while, so her parents drive us to a nearby town to catch a sooner train. We get back into Hamburg and then walk through a few xmas markets along the Binnenalster and the rathouse before our thirst catches up with us and we stop at one to have a few drinks and enjoy the nice weather. After a couple, we head back to the place to get some rest.

Xmas in Belgium/N. Germany trip day 7 - Living a local life (12/7/19)

Wake up and head to the local farmers market to grab groceries for the next couple days. Make Kasespatzel with mushrooms which was delicious. Meet some of Stephs friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant before heading to one of their places nearby for a lil house party to start the night off. Meet a bunch more of her friends and we are all hanging out until its time to head to the club. We get in taxis and head to the St. Pauli area. 

Mushrooms for lunch

Nothing says xmas like penis cookies hahah

xmas market

Before we go into the club a few of us go walking around the area so I can see it. Go through the xmas market there which is very different than the ones I have been to; many of the stalls are sex oriented (penis cookies, wooden vibrators, etc.). As we walk around, we find our selves in a brief strip show which was odd. Then I walk through the red light district which only allows men to go through it; its a street with partitions on both ends and its very reminiscent of Amsterdam with the ladies in the windows/doors and calling out to you. I meet up with the group on the other side of the street where we proceed to meet the rest of the group at Barbarabar (or something like that) where everyone else has found a spot in the back for getting their dance on. Its a small crowded room with nowhere for people to put their coats so everyone puts their coats on the couches and people just come and take stuff; its a very unorganized mess and people have stuff going missing by the end of the night cause thats what happens in situations like that. Everyone smoking inside which is another blah aspect as all the clothes smell like it but also its annoying to sit there and just breathe that shit in. In the wee hours of the morning, we decide its time to go home as everyone is exhuasted.

Xmas in Belgium/N. Germany trip day 6 - To Hamburg for a footy match (12/6/19)

Wake up early to explore more of the town before we have to catch our train to Hamburg. Walk around old town a bit, go check out the cathedral there in the center (St. Petri Dom Bremen) where there is an older gentleman who knows much about the building and history so he walks us around and tells us a bit about the building. Such a friendly, awesome man. We then walk to the top to get some views but all the views are somewhat obstructed  which is annoying but I guess they have to do it to keep people from throwing stuff out on the people below. 

Back at the church

Nut shop

Side of the Church

Church organs are always impressive

Restaurant has private tables outside with protection from elements. kinda cool

Pirate xmas market

Being served by a pirate

These guys were great

Menu options

Cool looking bar

Feels good to see a match

Game on!

We are blending in

Grubbing down

Then make our way back down and into the basement where they have some mummies on display. After that, we go walk around the Schnoorvieirtel which is a neighborhood with incredibly small streets, old buildings, and has an incredibly quaint European vibe to it. After walking around there for a bit, we head back to the place, get our bags and check out before making our way back to the old town to grab some drinks at the pirate market. The guys working the stall we stopped at were friendly and hilarious so we have a couple drinks (fruited gluhwein, cherry gluhbier, some shots cause you cant drink with a pirate without having shots - its a rule or something) hanging out with them before we head to the train station to catch our train. Get in and drop our bags off at her place then we jump on the rail to head up to the Hamburg FC stadium for a soccer match. The walk to the stadium was full of people and probably a mile or 2 all in all from the train station. During the game the bathroom had standing water everywhere which was pretty disgusting, but it did complement the overall dirtyness of the bathroom. The fans made the atmosphere really enjoyable, the main reason I enjoy attending matches over in Europe; though there were lots of people smoking which is just normal and something one needs to get used to. Was a great game but home team lost. After the game, we head back to the rail and take it a few stops to go grab a bite and some beers at Braugasthaus Altes Madchen, a local craft brewpub. None of the beers that I tried stood out to me so once we were done there, walked around the area and wound up at a nearby bar, Goldfischglas, to grab a drink before heading home for the night.

Short soccer chant video

Xmas in Belgium/N. Germany trip day 5 - On to Germany for the marathon of xmas markets - First stop, Bremen (12/5/19)

Wake up and walk to the train station where we find out that the train that was to take commuters to Brussels was late and so our train was packed with standing room only. Get into brussels (midi station) and run to try and catch our connection, which we barely get. Find some seats in the quiet car and some guy shushed us for barely talking. I do some work and Steph was looking at our potential routes based on real time delays from the app. 

In Bremen getting xmas market experience started right

Beautiful park as we get into Bremen

Church overlooking the main xmas market

mmmm raclette :) and xmas markets!!

Center of town

Steph posing in front of a stall in the market.

Bells up there were playing a xmas song and had tons of people gathered around watching

Going to do more market stuff

Cool lil mugs for drinking xmas fun

happy man happy life

All the options for festive enjoyment

By the time we get into Koln, we are actually able to get on an earlier train which will take us straight to Bremen instead of having to change trains again. Get into Bremen and as we are walking towards our place we stop and have some gluhwine at the market right next to the Ratskeller. The market here has a very different vibe than those we were seeing in Belgium, which is cool that each place has their respective feels. The old town area is incredibly beautiful so we walked around a little bit then walk down to the place to check in. The owner is incredibly interesting and chats with us for a little bit before we have to leave to meet up at some friends of stephs place for dinner. After meeting and hanging out with them we walk back into town through the alternative xmas market before returning to check out more of the normal market in the old town area. Have a few  drinks (feuerzangenbowle which is an egg nog that doesnt taste like the egg nog I am used to from the states, among others). Then we notice there is a pirate xmas market along the river that we go to check out but realize it is closed so we just keep on walking back to the place.