Poland, Germany, Denmark......

[hangchoi]

We were back to Hamburg in the afternoon and we still had a 2 to 3 hours before sunset. Hence we started our city tour a bit early.

First we went to Speicherstadt. This is a World Heritage. Originally this is the godown of Hamburg as Hamburg is a large port of Germany. How can one imagine that a godown could be so beautiful.

[hangchoi]

The next stop was St. Michael's Church. A large church and landmark of Hamburg.

This Church is for St. Michael, the leader of the angels who won the battle with the devils, Lucifer, who once was the leader of the angel. A story from bible.

Hence, there is a bronze statue at the entrance showing the victory of St. Michael.

And a Martin Luther at the side of the church.

[hangchoi]

Mahnmal St. Nikolai is the landmark at pre-war time. The church looks very nice at the first picture and second picture is the main entrance. However, it is just like Ruínas da Antiga Catedral de São Paulo (大三巴) in Macau. I took the third picture after entering the main entrance.

The whole church was destroyed by air strike in WW2. The city council left it there to remind people about the war. I recalled that there is a similar church in Berlin which it only has the entrance left.

[hangchoi]

The city hall area of Hamburg. The first one once was the Hamburg exchange, now the commercial chamber. The next one is the city hall, it is highly rated by the tourists of its prettiness.

[hangchoi]

We had crepe as our dinner. We went to a French restaurant mainly for crepe. The lesson I learned was that cider was a good pairing with crepe.

Besides they use cup to drink cider, very interesting but sensible because cider can be a gulpable wine.

[hangchoi]

The major mistake of our plan was that we planed the next day for shopping at Hamburg, because we missed the point that all shops were closed in Easter holiday. Therefore, we found no shop open in the shopping area so we just wandered around the city till we went catch the train in the evening. Hamburg indeed is very comfortable and beautiful, it is modern but able to keep classic architecture. No much tourist attractions tho.

We found a carnival for celebrating Easter with a live concert.

My wife had a chat with some Germany some time ago. They said that German put their family life at very high priority so they would stop working in public holiday, even they know that the shops will have a lot of business at that time. This is because German worked very hard to rebuild their country after war and they kept working all day long without much family life. Now they value their family life much more. They also said that German's employment law generally would not allow people working in public holiday. Each shop is allowed to open 3 days in public holiday of their choice every year.

[hangchoi]

We took an evening train to Copenhagen from Hamburg. The journey time of the train is about 5 hours. In fact there are a number of train/bus to Copenhagen but we specifically chose this one. This train will take a route to Rodby and the train will board on a ship, i.e. the wagon will be driven into the ship and the ship will carry a train across the sea. To us it is a funny thing and we want to experience it. If you have no preference on the route, it may be more flexible to travel to Copenhagen.

Train is run by DSB, the Denmark Railway company. It only has two wagon so seats are quite limited. First picture is the train, the second one was taken when the train went into the ship. The sea time is about 1 hour. Once the train was parked. You have to leave the train and they will lock the door. You can go up to have coffee and play game, like a small cruise.

The ship berthed on Rodby. We then left the train and there are immigration officers to check your identity. After that you can catch the bus to Copenhagen.

[hangchoi]

We arrived Copenhagen at night and we had a deep sleep. The next day we had a city tour and shopping, all sightseeing would be left for the last 3 days. The first picture is the city hall, then Stroget, the main shopping street.

We also went into the Frederiks Kirke to have a look. This small church has a huge dome, it is quite and peace.

[hangchoi]

To do all the sightseeing in Denmark grand Copenhagen area need more than 3 days. As you know, the cost of living in Denmark is very high so in order to save cost, we do recommend you use Copenhagen Card. This card can offer you free admission to almost every important sightseeing spots and museum in Copenhagen area. Besides, you can use the bus, train, metro, all transportation free. The card is not cheap but I did a calculation and found that this card can help me save up all the transportation cost, i.e. the admission fees that I have to pay for my visit are good enough to cover the cost of Copenhagen card.

Hence, we bought a 3-day card about 90 Euro and as you expect, we would squeeze all those tourist spots that need to pay admission fee into these 3 days. Therefore, on the first day we were in Copenhagen, we went to all sightseeing points that are admission free.  

After we went to Frederiks Kirke, we walked to Kastellet, an old barrack for Denmark but it is still in operation today. They open a part of it for visitors. The barrack is in star sharp and guards are standing at the entrance. It is very quiet inside but nice and beautiful buildings are found.

[hangchoi]

we entered the Kastellet from south and exited at north. Close to the north entrance there is the landmark of the Copenhagen, that every one has seen this before. The size is not so big indeed, a bit dirty but lots of people taking pictures, including me.