Monday, December 19, 2005

So much to eat, so little time

Photos can be found at http://www.globalregulators.com/gallery/hamburg2005

Al, Chico and I arrived in Hamburg, Germany at 10:30am on Saturday morning. We were all tired after having to get up at 5am to get to the airport.

After checking in to our hotels and meeting up with Chico's friend Steph we hit the Christmas markets straight away.

Hamburg was something special. There were Christmas decorations everywhere you looked and the markets were like something out of Santa's village.

Most of the stalls were selling German cuisine and others were selling anything from Chrstmas decorations to wood carvings. The smells were wonderful and more often than not the food tasted even better.





Sunday morning we decided to give our stomachs a rest and walk off the copious amount of food we had consumed the previous day. First stop was St Nikolai (photo below), a cathedral built at the end of the 12th century in the centre of town, which had been the main target for the British when they bombed Hamburg in 1943.





Second stop was St. Michaelis, built 1751 - 1762, is northern Germany's most important Baroque church and Hamburg's landmark. The spire, popularly known as the Michel, is 132 m high; take in the breathtaking view of the city and harbour from the visitors' platform (where the above photo was taken).





We had such a great time in Hamburg this weekend. It was the most fun I have had doing something Christmasy since I was a little kid.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Journey South

Chico, Lisa and me decided to make the trip down to Hampton Court Palace. On the website it said it was only a 40 minute train ride from Waterloo station. No worries we thought....


2 and a half hours later, we finally arrived there. Guess the website forgot to mention what happens when there is track work and the trains don't go all the way.
We finally reach Hampton Court, and its a short 5 minute walk to the actual Palace. 12 pounds to get in (once again, we forgot to bring along the 2-for-1 coupons that appear everywhere when you're catching the tube).




Once inside, it was out to the gardens to check out as much as possible before the weather turned sour. Kind of similar to Sydney weather, it can go from blue skies to gray clouds in no time at all. Luckily for us, it remained a great blue skied day for the whole time we were there.

During our time, we had to take our obligatory "where are we" photo.

Chico won the maze race - apparently the maze here is the oldest in England. Did feel like we were in a scene from Labryinth or Harry Potter....

The day went quite quickly and there was definitely enough things here to see and do to take up the whole afternoon. Another funny moment included Lisa doing a Harry Potter impersonation with a broomstick.

The most famous owner Hampton Court Palace had was King Henry VIII. A lot of the Palaces interior has been restored to look like it was in his day, though the tapestries and paintings are originals. Lisa also gets the award formost likely to be a hidden camera journalist for a current affairs, with her vintage footage taken inside the Palace rooms. With security patrolling at every corner (there was no photography or video footage allowed), she made good use of the cameras 'discrete filming' capabilities.