Taking Advantage of Nice Weather

June 12^th

L>R: Irene, Alex, Anna, Brian

Today was a very fun day.  We started the day off with coffee at Alex’s apartment and then ate some German pastries at a tiny local bakery.  We walked most of the morning and into the early afternoon all over Hamburg.  Alex was an excellent tour guide with showing us some of the main parts of the city while telling us the history and relevance including showing us his law school campus.  That is where Anna, Alex’s girlfriend parted ways with us to study in the library (she is a dental student).  At this point we began to look around for rental bicycles from rental stations that are scattered all over the city.  Unfortunately we could not find four unoccupied bicycles so we had to continue walking.  Since it was a nice day I we predicted that many people were out using them.

Beach in Hamburg

We took a late lunch break at one of Alex’s favorite restaurants, a Thai restaurant in the St. Pauli district of the city, which used and still is a famous red light district of the city.  With lunch completed we continued walking down to the harbor and drained a few beers before catching a ferry heading down river to the beach.  Shorty after arriving we indulged ourselves by eating some fish sandwiches (cooked cold herring with raw onions and horseradish sauce) and began walking down towards the beach.  Not long into our walk we witnessed what we had predicted about the rental bicycles, everyone decided to take them to the beach today to take advantage of this wonderful weather. A little bit father of a walk we found a nice shaded spot by a bar and had a few beers as we watched the cargo ships load and pass by.

Bicycle Ride

Evening came and it was time to head back to the apartment and meet up with Anna who had finished with her studying for the day so we hopped back on the ferry and headed back up river.  Since we had no trouble finding the rental bicycles at this point, all four of us hopped on one and we rode back to the apartment with Alex leading the way.  I hadn’t ridden a bicycle in years so with a combination of having drank a few beers and being rusty, I was a little wobbly to say the least.  

Dinner involved us grilling down by the river while enjoying some beers.  We purchased our ingredients from the grocery store and headed down to a secluded spot by the river and fired up our first grill.  We grilled kabobs and veggies, and ate a baguette and some olives.  Our meal finished shortly after the sun completely set, around 10:45 and then we returned to Alex’s apartment and called it a day.

Grilling by the River