Red Light...check

Had major technology meltdown at the hostel so I'm just now posting blogs....sorry!

Having major technology meltdown. Monday I was able to post photos of my wanderings on Facebook and then after I returned from hunting for dinner the computer wouldn't connect any more. Old computer I guess. Poor little thing wasn't planning to come back to Europe, now here it is.

I’m currently in Kiel Germany. You might have to look it up on a map. North of Hamburg, on the eastern side of the peninsula leading up to Denmark. It sits on the Baltic Sea. But I want to go back to Monday first.

Since I hadn't come prepared, I wasn't really sure what to see when I got to Hamburg. The hostel people were great but not at ‘tour our city’ type things so they hand you a map, show you were you are on it and then off you go. Sunday afternoon I’d walked around quite a bit so Monday I walked in a new direction. This time past the tourist information office. They offer tours of the area but only in German. The English tour are on Friday and Saturday mornings. I pointed to a photo on a brochure and asked where that was, he gave me directions and off I went.

Red light district. That’s where I’d asked to go, without knowing that’s what I’d done. Why wouldn't the man have offered up that information? Ha! At first you walk by a really cute little church then it’s all straight to hell from there. I had asked about the street because they have a bunch of (non sexual) neon signs hanging over the street. I’m thinking “Vegas” but below the signs was, well, you know. I don’t even want to describe it and if you’re really curious there are graphic photos on the outsides of the buildings.

I wandered onto the street in the day time luckily so I just got out of there.

The Reeperbahn is another place people say I should visit. Let me describe it to you. San Francisco, Market Street, between 8^th and Powell essentially. It was a little sexier but otherwise dirty and run down, shops were closed. Bums were around. So I kept walking.

I had seen people climbing the steeple of a church from the harbor so I wandered down the road to it. It’s called Saint Michaels Church. I took the stairs, it’s a lot of stairs. So many stairs! Up past the clock works and the bells and onto the top portion for a great view of Hamburg. Really cool! They had a crypt too which I always find interesting but they’d fixed it up, put museum type things in it and left the bodies alone. They were all apparently below our feet. Different than in the English crypts where you see the coffins etc.

From here I wandered back along the harbor where I’d already been. Walking in circles…I did stop and have a ‘bratfisch’ I had no idea but on the photos it looked the least scary. It turned out to be a fried fish sandwich, not sure what kind of fish but when you’re hungry it doesn't matter.

I walked under the Elbe River along the Old Tunnel. That was really neat. They let cars drive through there and they have elevators for the cars! The other side is nothing special it’s totally industrial but the view was really nice. Not a lot of people go there for that view, not sure why. It’s a short walk.

Altogether it was a good day. I went back to the hostel for a shower and nap and then wandered back to the food street to find something cheap to eat. I ended up with a crepe that had ham, Camembert cheese, and some weird jam or jelly. Surprisingly delicious!

At this point it had been decided that Niklas would come and get me from Hamburg on Tuesday instead of Weds. So I packed up a little but and took it easy the rest of the night.