Hanseatica

From Berlin we headed north to Hamburg and some of Germany's prettiest towns. 

We started with a visit to the castle of Schwerin. Here it is behind a camp of protesters campaigning against poor public funding of the arts.

By complete chance we managed to make it to Hamburg over the weekend celebrating the 823rd anniversary of the port opening. This may sound a bit arbitrary but it was a pretty big deal.

The Chilehaus

St. Nicholas' Church has been left in ruins to remember the 42,600 killed in 1943 during the Allied bombing of the city, code named Operation Gomorrah.

Within the church ruins is also a memorial to Jewish residents of Hamburg. 

The warehouses of the old port

Women aren't allowed to enter the street of Herbertstraße in the famous red-light district. Josh went in but unfortunately he dropped 200 euros and spent an hour trying to find it again.

The worlds biggest model railway with 890 trains, an airport and other cool stuff.

Of course, we couldn't visit Hamburg without going to the Beatles museum. (If you didn't know, they played over 100 shows in the city in the early 60's.)

Before leaving we went to Lüneburg with its wobbly walls

And Lübeck with its pleasant courtyards.

The Hospital of the Holy Spirit, built in 1260 and still in use as a retirement home.

Next we are heading further north to Scandinavia. By the way, we've added some new pages to our blog recently including pictures of our car and statistics about our trip. Just click the links in the menu on the right.

Berlin

When you ask Londoners why they live in London, they will tell you about the night-life, the cultural diversity or the tube. When you ask Parisians why they live in Paris they will tell you about the food, the art and the history. But when you ask Berliners why they live in Berlin, you get a very simple answer, "Because it's the best city in the world."

We don't have many photos from our 5 days in the German capital, mostly because we were too busy having fun. On that note we'll start with some shots from our nights out. Clockwise from top-left: the ping-pong bar, the absinthe bar, green white beer and the horror bar.

You can't visit Berlin without finding yourself confronted by the city's unique history.

The Berlin wall

The outdoor museum at Bernauer St

The former site of Gestapo headquarters, now and forever reduced to rubble.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

In complete contrast to its cold and infamous past, modern Berlin is youthful, colourful and exciting. We took a tour of the city's graffiti and street art.

And later in the day had a chance to make some of our own.

The East Side Gallery is a section of the Berlin Wall covered with 105 paintings. It is an apt representation of a vibrant new Berlin with fresh memories of a very dark past.

We also said goodbye to our friend Chantal who is continuing her own European adventures.

Flower Power

We spent three days trying as best we could to be Dutch, by cycling. The 120km cycle tour began in Amsterdam and finished in The Hague.

View The Cycling Tour in a larger map (By the way, you can see a map of our whole trip by clicking "Odyssey Map" in the menu to the right)

Our first stop was Zaanse Schans, a delightful touristy village which is designed to look like the olden days. 

Our friend Chantal joined us.

You can go inside the windmills which each make different things, e.g. saw mill, mustard mill, oil mill and paint mill.

Unfortunately we couldn't cycle across the North Sea Canal so we got a free ferry.

Late on the first day we arrived in the beach town of Zaandvoort.

The second day was flower day and if you don't like flowers you should probably skip the rest of this post.

We rode past many properties that grow mainly tulips...

(and daffodils.)

The most floral part of the trip was of course the world famous Keukenhof

Josh took so many photos that his vision went blurry from closing one eye all the time.

So from 7 million flowers and 400 photos, here are the best

Before we reached the hostel at the end of day 2, we hit trouble when Josh's chain snapped. Here's Josh looking sad and Chantal looking nonchalant.

Unfortunately this didn't happen, so Josh, his bike and the camera caught the bus. Meanwhile Yaz and Chantilly rode along the coastal dunes to The Hague.

The Hague was lovely. The End.