Hamburg

Day one in Hamburg has been great. As a gruppe (Group) we slept in after our 14 hour travel & tour day yesterday. Mike McCardle and I got group subway tickets for everyone and delivered these with a treat from a local bakery to each student. About noon we had our "Hamburg" group give its presentation and then we ventured off into the city.

We took the U bahn mainly to familarize everyone with the stop a block from the hotel and as a way to visit the Hauptbahnhof once again. The photo below is the group in the Hamburger Hauptbahnhof or Hamburg's Main Train Station.

We walked thru the "Fussgaengerzone" which is the pedestrian only shopping area. and made our way to the Rathaus stopping a few times to point out the differences between a German shopping experience and an American one. The photo below is the group infront of the Rathaus - or city hall. If we weren't having typical grey and rainy German weather the beauty of this building would stand out even more.

After lunch at an Italian cafe in the shopping district students went their own way and did some shopping or sightseeing. We regrouped at the hotel proving that the WMU students have become subway literate!

Tonight we went to a great German specialty restaurant that is a "Privatbrauerei" or what we might call a brew-pub. We ate the largest platters of food most of us had ever seen (mainly sausages, pork, kraut and potato salad) and enjoyed their "hausbier" tapped from a keg they brought right to the table. A great deal of fun was had by all.

The night concluded (at least for this old professor) with our first visit to the Hafenfest or Harbor Festival where we walked by hundreds of food booth, 4-5 musical stages and over 100 ships docked, moored and anchored in the harbor. At last count the students were headed to the Ferris Wheel to catch a ride.

Laundry in the morning and hopefully a rain free day at the Hafenfest. If it would break 50 degrees also I will be thrilled!