Aurora - freezing our socks off in Hamburg

Our first day on land and our first Christmas Market. We docked in Hamburg and instead of the £8 return shuttle, we needed to stretch the legs, so walked into town. We walked to the Reeperbahn, the red light district of Hamburg and where the Beatles launched their career. A monument of them sits in Beatles Platz. Our plan was to get on the hop on, hop off bus but we did neither. It's so cold that we hopped on and stayed on. The guide was fabulous. We started with the 'naughty mile', which went into the 'church mile' with the St Michel Church and the English church.

The tour took us around the Alster Lake with it's huge expensive houses which cost £20,000 per square metre! We saw the concert hall, the warehouses which used to be so crucial for the port but now a swanky district. We got off the bus and headed for lunch as it was snowing and freezing.

Lunch was an escapade. I always feel it's a good sign to go to the place full of local people. We were in a department store and the ground floor was a series of fast food outlets. I paid for pasta mit Bolognese and stood waiting for it. I stood and stood and stood. All the while being pushed and shoved by the other people waiting for their pasta. A man would shout when orders were ready and they kept staring at me. I know zero amount of German so said 'pasta mit bolognese' as the sign said. He then started shouting at me, then the chefs were shouting at each other. I didn't have a clue what was going on but could tell they wanted to get rid of me. When it finally arrived and I left to give it to Ali, they weren't impressed when I came back for mine. I was later told that after you pay you have to tell the chef what you paid for! How does that make sense? It was an 'experience'.

We walked about the Rathaus Christmas market with it's little sheds and lovely Christmassy smells. We then walked to the white market on the harbour side which is when it started to sleet and really freeze. By the time we got to the gingerbread house market, I lost my Christmas spirit. I was numb with cold.

Onwards, we walked to St Michel's church, onto to find it closed for a school concert. Walking back to the ship, we stopped briefly at the soviet submarine. I was very grateful to see the ship after such a wet and cold day.

Hamburg was good, the best bit being the bus tour. We learned some fun facts like the u bahn which is meant to be their underground is 3/4 overground. Their S-bahn which is meant to be overground is 3/4 underground. Their morning paper is available in the evening and their evening paper is available in the morning. The city also has more bridges than Venice.