Germany: Part III: Boats, boats, boats!

 Our next stop was the harbor.  Hamburg has one of the largest harbors in the world.
 

 There are canals that wind up and down like streets close to the harbor, and boats bring supplies directly to the buildings along the canals. 

 The Warehouse District, or "Speicherstadt", is the largest warehouse complex in the world!  It houses merchandise straight from the ships from all over the world.

Growing up in a desert, I am still enthralled by the idea of boats!

 Especially ones called the J.R. Tolkien!

Some unique architecture.

I snapped this cute picture of Jessica and Thijs.

Here is the four of us near the harbor.

Walking around a bit more in the city, we walked past another church (St. Petri).

In one of the stores, I saw an interesting "food" - pinecone!!!

 When we walked past the city hall once more, we saw a guy being embarrassed  by his friends.  Apparently, on a guy's 30th birthday, if he is still single, he has to sweep the steps of city hall until a single woman comes up and kisses him.  An old tradition, fully taken advantage of by his friends to embarrass the heck out of this poor guy. 

 He couldn't have been too sad though, because he was drinking.

The "curse" was finally lifted by a little girl (about 3 years old) who kissed him on the cheek.  :-)

Walking along the harbor at night, we stop for a local Christmas treat - hot wine.  It was good and tasty, and nice to warm up on a cold evening. 

 Stopping for pictures on the pier.

 And, perhaps, more than pictures. 

The next day, we stop by the famous "fish market", which starts before the sun comes up on Sunday.  Many people stay up all night partying, then stop by the fish market in the early morning for a snack.  We took the old person route, ie, sleeping and waking up early.

 Then we took a "boat bus"!  They have routes, just like normal buses.  This is the #62 route.  Can you tell I was excited?  Can you tell I grew up in a desert?

 The fog was dense that day.  Very humid.

 So humid in fact that my lens was fogging up pretty badly.  Bram is in this picture, somewhere...

 More fog / fog on lens.

 Jessica and Thijs in her lovely apartment.

 So that's all for Germany.  At least, bis zum nächsten Mal!