Hamburg; Friday, 15 June, 2007

Checkin was due to open at Gatwick at 6. This means being on the 5:53 train from East Croydon, and this always meant getting the 4:45 night bus from home, and getting up at 4am to be able to shower and summon up enough consciousness to check that I had everything. Then last summer Travelodge converted an old office block less than 200 yards from East Croydon (and less than 150 yards from work!) into a hotel, and offered £25 rooms. So last night, whilst totally compos mentis, I did the final checks that I had everything (passport, hotel voucher, camera, travel insurance documents) and then went into Croydon to stay the night. It's a slightly bizarre experience checking into a hotel less than 4 miles from your home, but it was very pleasurable when my alarm went off at the slightly less obscene time of 5:30. After a quick shower I grabbed my bags (everything was in there last night, no need to check again) and made the 5:53 with a couple of minutes to spare.

Of course the only down side to this is the lack of breakfast, or even hot leaf based beverage, which can only be partially covered by the plastic available once into the departures lounge at Gatwick (you can have plastic baguette, sit down plastic or McPlastic, it doesn't make much difference at 7am). Having covered at least the important task of the hot leaf based beverage and just minutes before the flight is due to be called there is the sound of a ringing bell, followed shortly after by the announcement 'The fire alarm has been activated in this area, evacuate immediately' repeat every 3 seconds. So the entire departures lounge evacuate, some people foolishly deciding to go back through security, I headed towards the gates. Once out of the departures lounge the announcement changed to say that the alarm had been activated in a different area and to stay where you were. A short way from the departures lounge and there was no alarm at all.

Unfortunately this did also mean, that with just 15 minutes before the flight was due to depart there were no announcements about flights, and no general screens showing departures, only those at each gate. As there was nothing else to do I wandered towards the old satellite terminal and checked there, no Hamburg flights displayed. I walked back and started down the long walk towards gate 27. Thankfully as I walked past gate 12 it had Hamburg up and a couple of bemused looking gate staff wondering where everyone was, only four other people had had the same idea as me. The emergency was declared clear at a little before 8, and a few minutes later there was a stampede of passengers running at the gate. With all the boarding cards checked the staff obviously decided to abandon the usual routine of inviting those with low number boarding cards to board first. Instead the man at the gate opened the doors and said "all for Hamburg..."

After an utterly uneventful flight and a slightly tedious journey into the city centre (there is no direct rail link to the airport, you have to catch a bus to the nearest station, about 10 minutes away) I checked into the hotel and hopped back onto the S-Bahn into the city centre. I got off at Landungsbrücken, from where regular open top tour busses run. I got on the first one and spent nearly 2 hours getting an introduction to the city (mostly in German!) Arriving back at Landungsbrücken I wandered over to the Elbetunnel, which runs under the river to the opposite bank. Unusually it has lifts at each end that lower and raise cars and bikes into the tunnels. I had a wander through the tunnel and took in the stunning views of the harbour side from the opposite side of the river, before wandering back through the tunnel and onto the town hall.

At the time of visiting the town hall square was being used to host a beach volleyball competition, so was very crowded, I had a wader around the surrounding area and down to the Alster lakes. I arrived just in time for a late afternoon boat cruise around the lakes (really its one lake, that's split by two road and a railway bridge.) The cruise was interesting, despite only understanding brief bits as it was all presented in German (despite the sign saying "Multi-Lingual tour"). When the tour was over I had a longer wander through the heart of the old town, but by now the weather was rapidly deteriorating, and the light fading (despite it only being a little after 6), so I found a restaurant for some dinner. By the time I finished dinner the weather had cleared so I had a longer wander around the old town at dusk before heading back to the hotel, just as the next downpour arrived.