#Hamburg, Germany

 Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is fairly large, with trains coming and going day and night; and there is also the subway.

We bought a Hamburg Tourist Card for two days, which allowed us to use the Subway, the train, and the bus for free. It also saved us a lot of agony buying tickets at the automatic ticket machines. And we got a discount when we booked the city and harbor tour.

We stayed at the Novum Continental Hotel. It is just across the street from the train station and a good strategic location. There were restaurants strung along the ‘Kirchenallee’ and we didn’t have far to walk to find one with good food. All of them served good German Food and, of course, good German beer. Prices were descent.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, bottled water in Germany is expensive in the restaurants. They don’t bring water to the table for free the way we are used to in Canada and the US. We bought bottled water at a grocery store not far from our hotel for 11 cents a bottle. Curiously, the also charge 25 cents deposit for each bottle, but you get it back. They have an interesting way of doing it. There are machines where you place the bottles on a moving belt and you get a printed voucher which you redeem at the cashier. Unfortunately, when we took our bottles back the machine was out of order, so we left nine empties in our hotel when we checked out.

A not so pleasant thing to mention is that the area east of the train station is not the best area in town. It is slowly being overrun by foreigners. I won’t say what nationality, but the streets are filthy with garbage everywhere. There is no German spoken in that area. Also, there are a lot of beggars walking around, bothering you, even when you sit on the terrace of a restaurant having a drink or something to eat. They sit on the sidewalks with their cups in front of them, but they also come up to you and beg for money. Many of them are old men or women. It is a shame what is happening to the beautiful Germany.

I hope it doesn’t happen here when all those refugees we take in bring their aging parents and grandparents over. They’ll be a drain on our Healthcare and Social Assistance programs. The taxpayers will have to foot the bill for them, because those people never paid a dime on taxes, but they will reap the benefits of hard working Canadians (and Americans). This is the sad truth and fact and has nothing to do with racism.

Talking about restaurants; we had our fill of German food: Schnitzel, Pork-hocks, Rouladen, delicious Pork roasts, Headcheese, and other good stuff. Accompanied by Sauerkraut, Red Cabbage, wonderful boiled potatoes and great tasting fried potatoes.

Some restaurants offered French Fries. We only had them once and regretted it. You don’t visit Germany to eat French Fries. I get plenty of them here at the Burger places.

We ate ‘Currywurst’ and ‘Bratwurst’ with a bun or potato salad for lunch. And let’s not forget all the beer we downed. We usually ordered a half-liter mug and it was barely enough.

Being home now I miss the variety of great tasting bread and buns. I’m stuck again eating those tasteless buns from Safeway, the Superstore, or Extra Food where we shop. They are full of air and fall apart. Obviously, some ingredient is missing. Even the hot dog buns are crappy.

Oh well, I’ll get used to them again. We have other things that are better. Last night we went to Tony Roma’s and I had the ribs and a baked potato. It was great also. Except the prices, especially the beer, are not as reasonable, and you pay taxes and have to tip, which adds 30% to the price. We paid $65.00 (including taxes and tip). That was a downer.

Just as an example. This is a picture of a fish dish. Including ½ liter beer it cost 12.20 Euros, which at the current state of our Dollar comes to $18.30 (that includes the taxes and the tip, which is part of the quoted price). That makes $36.60 for two dinners. What a difference!

It looks great and it was delicious

To be continued