Another day of relaxation, this time in the sprawling port city of Hamburg. We elected to catch up on some sleep in the morning - bike touring is exhausting, especially when you've got to set up a tent at the end of each day! This is especially noticeable after three solid days of cycling with a seat that's just a touch too low; with a poorly adjusted seat, each rotation of the pedals puts unnecessary pushing strain on the knees. Perhaps this stay in Hamburg will be enough to recuperate...anyways, we awoke late to the sound of rain belting out of the sky and hurtling into our window, this courtesy of a nasty thunderstorm currently making the rounds in uncharacteristically cold northern Europe. Good thing we're not biking today.
Wolfgang was kind enough to extend an invitation to brunch with some of his colleagues from DESY over at a local café in Ottensen, part of the Altona area of Hamburg. Despite Wolfgang's protestations that this was not the best café in town, we found the brunch (this consisting of a variety of breads and pastries laid out with cheeses, meats, salads, müesli, juices, and so on) to be absolutely delicious. There is something uniquely pleasurable about the European pace of life that has been all but lost back in North America, even though mounting evidence suggests that long "death march" work hours and frequent overtime weekends are counterproductive. (At Facebook, I somehow managed to complete my projects without resorting to all-nighters and weekend coding stints like some of the other interns. As a result, I retained a modicum of sanity throughout the whole internship.)
After brunch, we headed over to the canals just off the lake near the centre of Hamburg. There's a number of boat rental shops along the waterways where you can rent out canoes and paddle boats by the hour, and so we felt compelled to do exactly that! During our explorations, we came across a canalside café; a waitress stood in the window overlooking the canal, taking orders from boats that approached below. There was even a rope bolted into the wall so that those in the boats could form a queue. After roughly a quarter-hour's wait, we headed off down the canal freshly stocked with enough Hefeweizen to complete our little circuit. We followed this up with a multi-hour stroll back along the lake, through the downtown core, past the infamous St. Pauli district, and on to the Elbe where to our great relief a bus ferry was available to bring us back to Ottensen.
When taking an extended bike trip, don't forget to take a day off once in a while! As we've mentioned before, cycling turns you into a ravenous food-vacuuming machine - you need an incredible amount of energy to sustain cardiovascular activity for most of the day. With this rest stop drawing to a close, we now feel ready to tackle the next stretch: 4-5 days from here to Amsterdam. This will be the longest continuous stretch so far, so hopefully we'll find the time to get some more posts up along the way!