No Sardines For The Seagull Today ( With Apologies To Cantona).

HAMBURG.

The alarm goes off at 7am. A brief moment of reconsideration then we're both up and full of action, ha ha.

We're on the road by 8am. We clear the city area within the hour. We stop at a services and find that all facilities are available for free. We celebrate with a coffee and an apple Danish.

Full steam ahead to Rodby. It is motorway from start to finish so the going is good. We arrive at the port at 10:55 and we are sailing by 11:15. It is a 45 minute sailing which gives Paul a chance to sit in deck and Rosie the chance to look around the shops. Paul is accompanied by a seagull using the ship's airstream to look for scraps.

It is a straight road from the ferry to Hamburg. Again, we are able to stop at a services with amenities. This time we enjoy lunch and a cup of tea. The noticeboard describes 61 camper car friendly sites in the area.

We arrive at the parkrun site by 3pm. Rush hour seems to have started already. The car park for the run is expensive so we have a cup of tea and find an alternate site for tonight.

We walk around the lake alongside the parking spot before, on a whim, hopping on the U into the centre.

We head for St Pauli which hosts the Reeperbahn. It really is a seedy place. Several stag groups already drunk but not yet enticed into the girly clubs. We were expecting something along the lines of De Wallen in Amsterdam. Nothing so classy. Still, having travelled here we sit and enjoy a beer or two.

Naturally, as aging travellers, we are back on the 7pm train back to the van. We call in at Aldi and buy a pizza which is cooked back at the van.