Just before we crossed the border, we stopped for lunch at a little diner. We had a wonderful meal and a beautiful tiramisu dessert afterwards. When we left, we arrived at the car and tried to open the boot. But the boot refused to budge! The problem was that the boot opens electronically, not with a key, so there was no way of forcing it.We fiddled around for a while, with no success, and then started freaking out because our luggage for the whole trip was in there. This car doesn't allow you to access the boot from within the car, other than from a hole the size of a shoebox. We tried pulling things away from the boot door, through the little hole, in case something was leaning on the lock, but still nothing.
Eventually, after exploring all options, and reading the car manual back to front, we managed to find the problem. There was a button in the glovebox that disables the boot, and it must have been pushed by having too much in the glovebox. We pushed the button again, and it let us open the boot! Soon we started driving again, and heading to the German border.When we finally crossed, Artur swapped with his dad so he could drive fast along the Autobahn! His average speed was about 200km/h, and the highest speed he got to was 240km/h. Everyone in the car, except Artur's mum, was thrilled by the speed.
There was one place on the road where the speed was regulated due to roadworks, 80km/h. Artur decided to just take his foot off the accelerator instead of braking, which wasn't fast enough, and wound up getting him flashed and photographed by a speed camera. 
Soon we arrived in the city of Hamburg, and found our way to our hotel, which was just near the main Hauptbanhopf station. It was quite a pretty little place, with brightly painted walls and old fashioned furniture. The furniture was made oak, and the decorations looked like antiques. Our room had an old writing box and a porcelain wash-basin.
After a little time in our rooms to recover, we decided to out for some dinner. We walked on the main street near our hotel, and found a place that was recommended by lonely planet. It was a basement restaurant, with a live music venue attached. It had a theatre theme to it, as it was located beneath a huge theatre building. It looked like a really great place to come for a few drinks. We weren't thrilled with the menu though, so we decided to go somewhere else.
Soon after, we found another little restaurant that served Italian cuisine and fresh fish. It was a bit overpriced, but we were starving by now, so we ate there. We had a delicious entree of mozzarella (bocconcini) and tomatoes. Our waitress even spoke a bit of Polish, which was helpful for Artur's parents.
After our meal, we continued walking into the city itself. We were quite surprised at the number of homeless people, beggars and unconcious drunkards that we saw on the street. Hamburg is supposed to be the richest city in Germany, probably because of it's busy ports, but obviously there's a big difference between the rich and the poor here.
Our walk took us along the canals of hamburg, and past the enormous 'Rathaus' or Town Hall. We admired the Town Hall from the huge square in front of it, and watched the boats go by along the picturesque canals. It was a beautiful evening.
Artur's parents decided to go back to the hotel after our walk, but we were keen on checking out the nightlife in Hamburg, so we kept going. We walked for quite a long way through the quaint streets of Hamburg. The canals were so pretty as the sun set, and the lights of all the restaurants and shops began to twinkle.
Reeperbahn
We walked all the way from the Rathaus to the famous Reeperbahn district. Reeperbahn is the infamous red light district of Hamburg.When we arrived, we were greeted by a fairly busy metropolitan street, with lots of neon signs and lots of pubs. Upon closer inspection, we could see that these signs were mostly advirtising sex shops and sex shows. The street itself was unintimidating, and looked a lot like one that we visited on our tour group's farewell night in Beijing. Except that one just had normal pubs and bars.
Walking along the street, we saw a lot of girls who could be identified as prostitutes by their tight and short clothing, and by their impossibly long and high-heeled boots. Thankfully none of them tried to approach us, probably because we were a couple, holding hands. Any single guy that came there alone, would have been propositioned on every corner.
We decided to check out some of the hundreds of sex shops. They had a lot of funny toys and gimmicks, the kind of thing people buy for each other as a joke. There was also a lot of sexy lingerie, and other provoking outfits. The video section was largely uninhabited by people, and the ones that were there looked embarrassed to be there. Most of the people in the stores were other tourists like us, and were just there for a bit of a laugh.
After wandering the street for a while, we decided to have a beer at one of the pubs. We found a cute one that had little beach box chairs out the front. The chairs were literally boxes, that could be completed closed and sealed to an upright rectangular box shape, They could also be opened piece by piece, with each section creating a feature of the chair. The top opened up as a sun shield, the sides were armrests. We sat there in our little box for a while and watched the world go by.
On our way back, we stopped to have a look at two stages that we had noticed earlier. The stages were facing each other, but with a bit of distance between them, and the backdrop of the stages was lit up by multicoloured moving circles of light. It looked like the backdrop for a hip hop show or something. We had seen live music playing there earlier, but that had finished before we returned to check it out. In between the stages, were a couple of semi-permanent bars, set up with little seating areas for watching the music.
We were fairly tired after our day of travel and sightseeing, so we decided to head back to our hotel, this time by the U-bahn (metro).
The next morning, we all decided to take a cruise on the canals and the harbour. We took the U-bahn, and headed down to the water. We found our boat, just before it left. They gave us audio guides to listen to as we went around the harbour, but they didn't have Polish. Artur's mum and we used English, but Artur's dad tried Russian. Most people had to learn Russian and German in school, because these countries were invaders of Poland in the 20th century, and they were told that they needed to learn the language of their enemies. Looks like it still comes in handy in times of peace.
The ferry took us along the coastline, so we could see all of the main buildings in the city. It was great, we had a clear view of city skyline, and were able to see the big church towers and other tall buildings. They also told us about the canal we were on, which is 100km long and links shipping vessels from Hamburg to the north sea.
The boat also took us around to where the big tankers dock and load and unload their shipping containers. The machinery was so big, that it was hard to comprehend. When you first looked at a giant crane, you wouldn't register it's size properly, but then you'd see a car driving beneath it and get a shock at the size comparison.
We also saw a cool old steamboat, 'Mississippi', with a huge water wheel. We also saw a huge cruise ship, which looked like the kind where at least one thrid of the people on board are staff.
After our cruise, we stopped to see the Chile Haus, which was built in the 1920's. It is an enormous building, in the shape of a huge cruise ship. There are balconies built at the top to look like decks, but the coolest part is the front of the building, which really does look like an enormouse brick ship.To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Hamburg pictures
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