Hamburg/Bremen
December 16-18, 2007

We decided to go to Northern Germany this year and visit the Christmas Markets up there, plus I was interested to visit back where I lived the Summer of 1996 when I worked at the Haarmeyer Bakery in Hamburg. We were planning on driving but once I found out that Ryanair was now flying to Bremen (about an hour by train from Hamburg) from Budapest, we decided that it would be better to go the cheap airfare route than try to drive 12 hours. We flew into Bremen early Sunday morning and immediately got train tickets to Hamburg. We were in Hamburg around 11:00. Although I had booked our hotel room, I didn't manage to get directions to it, thinking we would just figure it out once we arrived at the train station. We started walking from the main train station to where the Christmas markets were around the Town Hall and the banks of the Alster lake which sits in the center of the city, basically. I knew our hotel was right on the Alster, so we just started walking. It turned out we missed it and ended up walking entirely around the inner Alster, which isn't too terribly long walk, but we would have preferred to have dropped our stuff off at the hotel prior to making this journey. We did however pass by the famous Hotel VierJahresZeit on the Alster near Jungfernstieg. We finally did get checked in and returned to the main market. It was not too terribly cold so it the girls managed pretty well. The markets were so crowded that we just walked literally around them instead of through and headed back to our hotel and went swimming and stayed in for the night.
The next morning we woke up leisurely, put the girls in their snowsuits and boots and got on the subway to go up to the bakery that I used to work out. I have kept in off and on contact with Holger Haarmeyer over the years, the bakery owner, and knew that a few years ago he had sold the bakery. The main one that I worked out still existed as a bakery but had a new name. I called Holger the day before our trip once I finally found his contact information, but it was too late to try to plan any type of get together. I am sure the next time we are in the area we'll have to plan it better in advance.
From the bakery we went back to the Christmas market, which for a Monday morning was much less crowded, but still was entertaining many people, but certainly more manageable than the day before. Our goal was to get a nativity, nutcracker, and a German pyramid with the candles. I had not anticipated it costing as much as it did to achieve this goal, but we were pleased with what we were able to find.
We made our way back to the main train station, found dinner at a Chinese restaurant (we had eaten our fill of Bratwursts at this point) along the way, and got back on the train back to Bremen.
By the time we arrived back to Bremen and found a very suitable hotel (thanks to my dad who was able to provide us a few phone numbers) Ashley was a mess. We walked through the Bremen Christmas Market without really stopping. Once we were checked in I went back to take a look and by that time it had already closed. Once I returned back to the hotel the girls were fast asleep and we went to bed. We had to get up at 4:30 for a 6:00 flight back to Budapest. We arrived home on time and without incident. I took a taxi back to work and Heather and the girls drove home. I love that area of Germany, as it obviously has a nostalgia value for me and was glad to spend a couple more days there with Heather and the girls.