Italy and Germany 2012: Hamburg and back to Munster

Slept in at Hamburg. Luke and Carolin went to the bakery around the corner and brought back breakfast. Weather was good (freezing cold of course) so we decided to go on a 1 hour boat cruise around the Aubenalster (large lake). We left from the Binnenalster (small lake) and had a very nice time looking at the city skyline and the fancy hotels and houses on the waterfront. The Four Seasons looked very nice, I had tried to book that one for us but it wasn’t available – which surprised me because it was €4,000 a night – shame really, I’m sure Luke and Carolin would have liked it.

Finished at the lake – Pam and I had Indian for lunch, Luke and Carolin had Spanish. Lunch was in a huge shopping centre where they all got lost for an hour or so. Met back up for the drive back to Munster. It’s a 3 hour drive and we wanted to get there before dark so we took the Autobahn route.

Most of it is 3 lanes – one lane for trucks and slower cars, a slow lane and a fast lane. In one 30 kilometre section I sat mostly in the slow lane doing 150 km/h and cars in the fast lane were passing me in droves. It got a bit nerve wracking when the traffic built up and there was a little too much lane changing going on so I slowed down to 130km/h. Pam was relieved.

Got back to Munster and made plans for tea. Had a traditional German dinner and stayed up far too late!!!

Luke has given me a few photos he took using some special effects on his phone - very fancy!!

Sun, wind and cold in Hamburg. The lake behind us is the smaller lake, we go under the bridge just in the picture on the left. The small lake has in the past, frozen over in winter. Love to come back to see that.