Saturday 10th August 2014 Day 30 (day 15 of the cruise).
Hamberg, Germany,
Get off my ship day!
Sailing into Hamburg was
lovely. We entered the river at about 1am, motored 110 ks up the River Elbe and
arrived in port just before 8am.
It was very lovely. There
was a Super Moon shining onto the river all night and it as like twilight much
of the time.
Then…….we had to get off
their ship! Very sad, we had had such
fun and met many lovely people.
As we were getting off
the ship we noticed the table of goods being returned from the 'Naughty
Room'. There were the usual irons and
pocket knives…but we were surprised to see a small cross bow!!!!!!
Our flight was not until
9.30 pm…so we booked (and paid for) Sarah into a nearby Youth Hostel for the
night, then went to the hostel, put our luggage into the storage room and
(slowly and without a lot of energy) headed off to see Hamburg.
Sarah, the Metro Queen, lead us and off we went to join a canal / harbour boat trip. But first two of
the local delicacies that Sarah wanted to share – Curry worst and Kebabs (as
they were developed here---not in Turkey). And they were delicious.
Hamburg was another of
the member cities of the Hanseatic League and is now the third largest sea port
in the world and is one of the most affluent cities in Europe.
The Port was huge and
lovely. So many amazing buildings.
We went up the canals to
the historic Warehouse District. This area was amazing. The builders were all
eight stories high with a deep berthing space. The walls were all brick with
huge tie up points all along. On top of every building were six or eight winch set-ups,
usually under copper hoods. They are now
renovated into very expensive and stunning units, offices and restaurants.
The port side of the tour
was also interesting – so many big ships. When we were getting info from all
the sprukers – one said “and the tour goes don to the cruise ship, Legend of
the Seas.” Cool, we could see a cruise ship.
We saw massive ships in
dry dock, the biggest container ships and humongous cranes unloading containers
from the thousands on each ship and putting them into the acres of containers.
The day before the trip Sarah had a panic. When it was mentioned that the Baltic area had an August average of around 18-20 degrees with around 12 degrees at night and a fair bit of rain, she realised that she had no warm clothing nor rain protection. A quick shopping trip fixed this with the purchase of a rain coat. Of course with the heat wave that chased us the jacket was just excess luggage. But on this day Sarah took it as it was overcast.
We were travelling along on the boat. As we came around a corner we hit a bit of wind and some big waves. And coped a huge splash.
Sarah DRY!!!
Raina Very WET!!!
We then went back to the Youth Hostel and wasted some time as we waited for our booked car.
9pm flight Hamberg to Dubai.
The Emirates car pick up was wonderful. He took us for a long drive past some lovely parks and through the very rich area.
We checked in, queuing up in the Business line and got our boarding passes. Then up to the Emirates Business Club. Showers and a few Moet's!
Although Sarah was asked to hold the passes on many occasions she didn't look at them. As we were about to board she realised - WE WERE FLYING BUSINESS!!!!
And it was wonderful!!!!!!!
Remember at the start of this blog it was stated that Raina thought that this might be the last of the July holidays for Raina and Sarah as Sarah was about to start full time work. So this had to be a very special end to the trip. Business class how else to make it special!
(But to make it even more special - we have another trip in April 2015 for Celia's wedding in England. Yahhh!
Note - on the flight we didn't fly in a straight line. We went well away from the Ukraine and also deviated away from Bagdad.
Arrive Dubai 5.30am
So here we are safe and sound in Dubai. And we must say "Oh my Lordy, Business is a jolly nice way to travel!!!!!!!!!!"
Dubai to Sydney Depart Dubai 9.20 am arrive 5.10 am
Lets hope for no fog in Canberra on Tuesday morning so that we can get home at the scheduled time!
Sydney to Canberra Depart Sydney 7am Arrive Canberra 8 am
And then Andy - it's time for you to get really excited.
31 days until Vancouver!!!!!!!!!
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