Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg

Today we spent most of the day tromping through my husband's childhood turf, the city of Hamburg.

We started the day with a classic harbor cruise touring the 800 year old port on the Elbe River. Thankfully it was beautifully sunny, although bitter cold. We had a large table inside the main cabin where we could stay warm and eat lunch, but most of us also ventured to the upper decks for better views and to capture some cool pictures. Beyond the flag in this photo lies the riverside beach they call Copacabana St Pauli.

We ended the day amidst throngs of people at the Hamburger Dom - a traveling fair that settles in the city center for about 4 weeks, three times per year. Crowded, loud, and packed with stands hawking typical sickly sweet and fattening carnival fare that you can smell for miles... it isn't really my scene, especially when it's freezing out. But the kids were loving it and Oma kept them supplied with tokens for the games and all the goodies they wanted.

After an hour or so watching the family enjoy this craziness, I escaped to meet an old friend at a nearby Asian bistro for dinner. It was fairly loud there, too, but much warmer and with healthier food choices :) We had a nice chat over salad and ginger tea.