July 9: We left Harleem to Amsterdam early in the morning; the weather was dreary and rainy. Got to Centraal station where we caught the 10:13 to Hamburg getting there around 3. We scored a hostel near the train station, which while convenient was sort of near the seedy part of town, with working girls, and public drinking going on (and public urination).  Phil had reserved a hostel, but when we got the there was no response to knocking on the door and we ended up somewhere else close by. I found the streets in Hamburg to be confusing and got misdirected, never truly being orientated in that town. One interesting fact about Hamburg is that it’s one of the largest seaports in the world far larger than Boston, and probably NYC.  There was a red light district in Hamburg that we walked through. Prostitution seemed legal there, at least tolerated.

A view of the working harbor with industrial size cranes

July 10: There was a park near the red light district in Hamburg and in that park was this large statue of Bismarck the first, a hero in Hamburg. Also we took a walking tour out of the train station that was very good. These walking tours were walking lectures giving the history and touching on important sites, usually near the center of the old town. There was an impressive waterfront near the river where we had lunch, fish and potato that was good.  We also went on a container ship that had been turned into a ship museum this was interesting Phil at one time was keen to join the merchant marine and that would have been the life that we saw depicted on the ship museum. We also did a harbor cruise that was enjoyable and relaxing.