Tag 15 (Amsterdam Tag 1)

Ashley & I woke up around 9am and left for the Göttingen train station around 925AM. We snagged some Brötchen sandwiches and croissants before we got on the train, which was 5 minutes late. We got into the station as our next train was leaving, but the announcer on the train we had just gotten off from said our train was waiting for us on track 12, so we ran over there and hopped onto the train... The doors literally closed right behind us. Then we realized we had gotten on a train going to Köln (Cologne) instead of Niederlande (the Netherlands). We found an information lady on the train and she told us which trains we needed to take - it would get us into Amsterdam about 2-3 hours behind our original schedule. At one point when we were waiting in an area in between first class carts, a lady gave us some soccer-shaped chocolates...

Deutsche Bahn soccer chocolate

To Amsterdam!

When we got to the next station I saw there was an earlier train leaving to Amsterdam which we then took. We went into the dining cart and had some coffee...

Eventually we got to Centraal Station in Amsterdam. It was humid and a little hot... and extremely crowded. 

The crowded streets of Amsterdam

One of the main squares, here with a war monument in the background

Main square #2 with a view of the city-hall

Main square #3

Main square #4 with gangsta' face

We found the street we needed to walk down to get to Hotel Sphinx but we stopped in Maoz falafel first. They give you a falafel and let you fill & re-fill it with the items in their salad/fillings bar. After that, Ashley checked into the room and we started to walk around town. 

Land iguana statues in a small garden outside Sphinx Hotel

Sphinx Hotel room

We visited one of the town's "coffee shops" called Dolphin, which was amusing. Most people there speech fluent English so it was a change from trying to understand & speak in Deutschland. After that, we wandered through the city streets for a while and saw a bunch of shops, weird architecture and all the canals. 

Asian people with umbrellas going under a bridge on a canal

A typical canal in Amsterdam - the boats are called Steppenwolf and Kaos

Front of one of many churches

A large building in Amsterdam with Atlas holding the world on top

A building with a reflective front

At one point it started raining strongly so we eventually found a 5 euro umbrella (of course, by that time, it had stopped raining but we were still drenched).We went to a bakery where we got stuff that ended up  being something like 4,15 euro... Ashley tried to pay the 15 cents with 1 & 2 cent coins which the guy said weren't accepted anymore in Niederlande.

After sitting by the side of a channel for a while, we wandered some more until we sat down outside an Amstel bar (Amsterdam literally means 'dam on the Amstel river'). We chilled there for a while. 

Local brew

From the Amstel bar we went slowly back to the Hotel to rest (it was about 9pm), take showevers, etc. When two girls came into the room to claim their beds we were getting ready to leave. We went out to this big square where there were tons of people. Amsterdam is especially bumpin' at night... and this was just a Wednesday night.

Amsterdam at night

We found this Italian place to sit down and eat at - I had a nice Pizza Marghirita and we had 2 small Heinekens. We sat next to some sociable/drunk guy who talked in bursts and always had a little comment to make every two seconds.

Eventually we departed and found the Jazz club 'Alta' after initially walking past it. The guide (and the front door) said entrance was free but a guy was asking us for a 5 euro cover charge. That, combinbed with the fact that it was extremely crowded, led us to look for the other live music place called 'The Waterhole.' There was a guy sitting in the doorway there too and we were getting tired so we started the trek back to the Sphinx Hotel, which has some of the steepest stairs known to man... the fourth step is almost above your head. Its like climbing a curving ladder). When we got back, those two girls were just going to bed. We looked at the travel guide for a few minutes and then went to sleep.

Tag 7 (Hamburg Tag 2)

We left Eilenau Hotel and took a picture of this small car parked outside. In Europe people have really small cars to the point that a VW Bug looks kind of fat and big and the Mini car looks normal-sized.

Auf Wiedersehen, Eilenau Hotel!

We went into town and went to two of the big churches. This church is the only one not destroyed in World War II, although the interior is quite modern for some reason.

Stained glass and such

Alpha & Omega stained glass

Isis and Horus... errr the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus

After going to this church we passed by the Rathaus again, this time in daylight, while Ashley performs her best Edvard Munch imitation.

Das Rathaus in die Sonne (the city hall in the sun)

The inside of the Rathaus is extremely ornate and beautiful. There is a courtyard with this large fountain...

Fountain with female figure on top and a Satyr playing pan-pipes on the rim below

The top of the Rathaus clock tower

A picture for Jeremy (he will understand), found on the wall of the Rathaus

Ashley with der Löwe outside das Rathaus

After we went to the Rathaus, we walked to one of the bridges that goes over the Elbe river. You can see swans down and to the right...

Binnenalster (the name of this little water-area)

Swans chilling

After that, we saw a Gothic cathedral but did not go inside because you have to pay. Its been turned into a memorial for the dead of WWII...

Gothic spire

After that, we decided it was time to eat and found this nice Italian food place...

Pizza und Pasta und  spritzig Apfelsaft (pizza, pasta, and sparkling apple juice)

With our stomachs absurdly full, we wandered to the famous Hamburg pier...

Schiffen in der Pier (ships in the pier)

A walkway on the pier along the water

In the very far background there is a place that is showing the Lion King (der König der Löwe), which you have to take a ferry to get to... The pier was extremely crowded, full of things to buy, and smelly. It started to drizzle a little bit as we were walking...

Eventually we made it to the far end of the pier and turned towards the inner city again, and we found ourselves in the Reeperbahn, the area known in most places as the red-light district. Its also the place with the most bars (imagine that).  This is a small, small taste of the absurd amount of similar places

"Kino" means movies

After passing through this area which is supposedly quite busy and bright during the night time, rain started to pour heavily with some thunder to complement... We went into a small restaurant/bar thing to wait out the rain. Eventually we ventured back outside to find the U-Bahn but it started raining again. We found and U-Bahn and took it back to the main Bahnhof (train station)...

The gigantic Hamburg Bahnhof

From here we took a train back to Uelznel, and from there we planned to take a train straight to Göttingen. We got on the Göttingen train but it stopped after about 5 minutes and the person came over the speakers saying that a big tree had fallen on the rails (at this point it was raining hard and we could see lightning & hear thunder), so we had to turn back. After being silent for about 30 seconds, the man came back over the speakers and said something like, "Frau Donnehauer (Mrs. Donnehauer), you left your kid back at Uelznel station." I am not sure how she did not notice but luckily for the kid we had to turn back anyways. 

When we got back to the Uelznel station, it was pouring rain and was windy and there were no trains going directly to Göttingen... the train station had called in a bunch of buses to take everyone to the next train station except buses fit about 1/100th the capacity as trains, so they were quite packed. I was smooshed in between Ashley and a large German lady for about 40 minutes on a bus that went to the station past the tree-fallen rail. Eventually we made it to Celle, a small town with a small Deutschebahn station and took a train from there back home to Göttingen. So ends the short excursion to Hamburg.