It down-poured 5 minutes after this
One weekend, IPD took us to Hamburg (with a high-speed train it only takes 1.5 hours!). This city in northern Germany is known as a port city and (probably) lesser known as one of Chicago’s sister cities (obvious due to the ever-changing windy to sunny to thunder-storming Midwestern-esque weather).
With absolutely no idea of what to do in Hamburg, the weekend was very spontaneous which is honestly an excellent way to explore a city. There was the obvious: eating a hamburger (Fun fact: citizens of Hamburg are actually called Hamburgers). Also the unexpected: seeing the world’s largest miniature model train exhibition (way cooler than it sounds but also not that cool). Here’s what we did:
About to go on a boat tour with a storm very obviously coming (great idea, right?), we watched some Xtreme boats (above) dancing about in the choppy water. The IPD gods were with us, though, and we got on our boat immediately before it began storming. The boat ride was super exciting, my fellow blogger Cary (left) had a great time and can tell you about all the sites we saw through the impenetrable sheet of water falling outside.
Some call it the Alsterfontäne, some call it where Darren fell into the water
One of our group got a head start to the wet weekend by falling into this lovely canal at the beginning of our walking tour. (No worries though, Professor Meuser decked him out in dry clothes from H&M, so I wouldn’t say he had it too bad.)
An area called St. Pauli had a carnival that would be very typical in America except for the sausages, pretzels, and weird assortment of American cartoon references (Mario and Toy Story on the same carnival ride). We also randomly ran into another Northwestern friend studying in Germany! St. Pauli also has a hip soccer (sorry, football) team, lots of nightlife, and…
??????
…a giant statue of Bismarck (first Chancellor of Germany), which would be normal if not for the giant antelope on his head. No explanation, couldn’t even find anything on the internet…
Elbtunnel
One of the recommended things to do in Hamburg was walk through a tunnel. Since it was free, we checked it out. Actually very cool! It takes you beneath the river Elbe and bikers were zipping along in the middle as we walked along the sides. The view on the other side finished off our visit to Hamburg:
