Trendsetting in Hamburg

Okay, we have decided to be way too trendy and do a blog for the year that we are in Hamburg.It just seems easier really. So here you have it......This was our first Saturday here, and with Jakub working really late nights, we desperately needed a "family day". We headed out for a quick breakfast in the Portuguese Quarter, with Jakub promising great baked goods. It was so great, we had to fight over who ate what, ie. "...you have to eat it, I already ate the Berliner and can't take another bite." The pastries were artificial tasting, covered in way too much sugar and just plain bad. The coffee however, was great! Thank god there is coffee everywhere here....we are drinking about 5 a day right now just to stay upright. I guess the fatigue is a combo of the jet-lag and all the lost sleep from the month of packing that predated the move. Either way, we are bone tired.

From the bakery we took U-Bahn - Germany's amazing underground (subway) that like most things German, is clean, relatively inexpensive and always on time - to the Hagenbecks Tierpark. This is the Hamburg Zoo that everyone raves about. Frankly, Jakub and I think it is much ado about nothing. To start the entrance fee was 37Euro for our family (Jonas does not yet pay). This fee does not include the price of a map, which will cost you an extra 3 Euro. I have been to a lot of zoos in the last few years and at none did you have to pay for a map. At first I thought maps would be posted so no big deal, well I was wrong. After I looked for a WC for 30 minutes and almost peed my pants, I broke down and bought a map at one of the many souvenir shops. Shops and restaurants everywhere......just no toilets or for that matter animals. Though there were few animals, one of the major perks is, that for a small donation you can buy 2 big bags of fruits and vegetables that you can then feed to select animals. Elephants were one of these groups and they were a HUGE hit with Sasha. He quickly and gleefully fed the elephants. Even cooler yet, if you give the elephant some change, he will take it and pass it along to his trainer. Though it seems somehow wrong to be allowed to feed the animals, this made the zoo for us. We liked it so much after this that we decided we would head home for the kids naps and then come back in the afternoon, may as well since it was $50 to get in. Well, no such luck, they do not allow in-and-out privaledges:-( Hhhhmmmmm......back to that original comment I guess.