Hamburg, Germany - Second Time Around

Glad to be back in this wonderful city filled with culture, great food and a positive energy despite the gloomy weather. I'm here just for a few days before heading east to Berlin and then onward. The last two days have been very relaxing, walking around the neighborhood of St. Georg, I really like it here with all the great shop windows to peer in and the restaurants like the one I did dinner at last night a German pub called Frau Moller or "Ms. Moller" in English. For 6.50 Euros you get a huge pork cutlet, salad and warm German roasted potatoes, yum, yum. And the staff are so friendly and the atmosphere very casual and still with a hip, trendy vibe. And I especially like that it was mostly locals who walked in and knew the staff by name and such. And with large windows looking out on the busy street you get to people watch one of my favorite activities.

I picked up some water and snacks for breakfast the next morning at a local grocery store and all this after having taken a walk along the lake which begins in the St. Georg neighborhood. It turned out to be a gorgeous, albeit, cold day with sun (very unusual for this time of year and for Hamburg especially) and I got some wonderful pictures of the sun on the lake before it began to set.

And one of my favorite pictures is of the ice that had formed along the side off the lake and how it had all broken up into large asymmetrical, random geometric shapes like a large ice quilt.

And this morning I moved from this hotel back to the hotel I stayed at last week because it was less expensive (by a few dollars anyway) but also I like the location better. So back to Novum Kronprinz which I would really recommend for anyone coming to Hamburg it's so close to the train station, museums and in the St. Georg neighborhood and it's inexpensive and very, very clean.

I also like the lounge on the mezzanine floor because it's comfortable and looks out over the bustling street and train station so again, more fabulous people watching. You can see from the picture I took that you look past the large letters spelling out hotel toward the tour buses and train stations main entrance. I've also found that German is much easier to understand than I would have imagined. Even in the grocery store you can kind of get by when you know English because although the words aren't spelled the same they have some reminiscent aspects to corresponding English words so you can pretty much get by. And also everyone is so helpful they're happy to practice their English.

 I did some work on the computer and caught up on things I've just put off for awhile as I toured around lower Scandinavia and then out for some fresh air and got something to eat at a local cafe and got a few more bits at the grocery store for later and now I just get to read and snuggle up in my warm room and continue to catch up on life. It's all good!!!