Hamburg

3^rd October. After one day at sea we berthed at Hamburg at about 12:45 am, and awoke to a foggy morning 15 minutes late for breakfast. The fog lifted around 930 am so the three of us went ashore at 10:30 to see the sights. Luckily Duncan speaks a smattering of German so that made things a lot easier to get around. Taxi into town, and a snack, then a walk around the town square area. It was “Unification Day”, and so it was a public holiday. There was sightseeing boats on the river area so we did a 50 minute cruise. There was a rather humorous commentary given by the Captain that raised quite a few laughs, unfortunately it was in German and we didn’t understand a word of it.. Duncan, who was sitting a few rows back from us, said it was mainly about the age and cost if the several bridges and hotels we passed so we didn’t miss a lot. We returned to the ship by taxi taking a tour through the “Red Light Area” on the way, there wasn’t much action as it was only afternoon and the taxi driver seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. We forgot the biscuits, maybe Rotterdam.

4^th October. Horror upon horror we slept in again!! 8:01 AM, just getting dressed and the phone rang, it was Louis to wake us. Don’t think Duncan will ever let us forget, got it fixed now though Louis is going to give us a ring every morning at 7:00 AM to wake us. We are sailing tonight some time as we had an extra day here to do some repairs or painting to the rudder. Two more passengers joined us this afternoon, two German ladies, mother and daughter. This makes the conversations a little slower, but interesting, as things are translated. They speak some English and Duncan speaks some German. We have a fairly mixed bunch, an English retired teacher, a German retired teacher, A German doctor, a New Zealand retired dairy worker and a New Zealand retired driver.

5^th October. Well no sleep in this morning! Up at around 4:30 AM to see us sail. It must have been the fact that things got quiet when the cranes stopped working that woke us. Hamburg is really beautiful to see as you sail out in the dark. So it will be a 6:15 shower, answer the phone when Louis rings to wake us and down to breakfast sharp at 7:30, I’m not going to be late 3 mornings in a row. Besides getting up at 4:30 makes one puckish. A full compliment of passengers out to witness the Pilot leave at about 9:30 AM. We are all of the opinion that he may have done it all before the way the Pilot Boat comes along side us with a hydraulic platform slides out from the Pilot boat and the pilot just climbs down the ladder and steps off, no problem. All very interesting. So we are back in the hands of the “Brixham Pilot” again. After a sunny and smooth day at sea we picked up the Rotterdam pilot at 8:30 PM  and dock at about 11:15.