At the end of August there was another bank holiday, so Sara and I jetted off to Hamburg, which was the cheapest place we could find on the Internet, as prices are expensive on bank holiday weekends. Over here there are about four cheap airlines, which dont allocate seating or serve food on their flights but are really cheap, so we flew with one of those.

The downside of the cheap airlines is that most of them leave from Stansted Airport, which is north of London; it is a fair hike from southeast London. As our flight was at 6.30am, the tube doesnt start until 5am (in London, crazy!) and we didnt want to fork out £70 for a cab, we stayed up at the airport all night. Bad enough, but our biggest mistake was that we got up there as late as we possibly could, thinking we would have less time to wait. However, lots of other people had the same idea, so by the time we got there all the seats were filled up with people sleeping across four or more seats! In the end we shared one and a half seats when a sleeping body curled up into a ball while he was asleep. Tough luck, we thought.

To make matters worse, when we got to Germany we discovered that we need to catch a bus and a train to Hamburg from the airport, which takes about two hours, but took us about three by the time we figured out what we needed to do. Oh well, something has to go wrong on every holiday! We'll know next time.

After we found our hotel, we walked up to a giant monument of some portly bald bloke, (we still dont know who he was supposed to be!) which was situated in a lovely park. Then we wandered down to the harbour to see lots of boats and cafes. On our journey Sara was grossed out by a huge rat, but then excited because immediately afterwards we saw a red squirrel, which are very rare now, as the grey ones have overtaken them in Britain.

Continuing our tradition of climbing any towers we find anywhere in Europe, we ascended church of St Katharinen and we could see the whole city. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy that day, but it was still a great view. Later we strolled down Binnen Reeperbahn, the main street in the red light district near where we were staying. It wasn't as seedy as we thought it would be, just the usual dodgy sex shops. We didnt even see any hookers!

The first night we had dinner on Alster Lake, the big lake in the centre of the city. It was a restaurant that was on a boat in the lake, and served wonderful fish dishes. Afterwards we walked dinner off around the lake, and all the gorgeous buildings were lit up.

The next day we caught the train to Bergedorf to visit the castle there. It was less of a castle and more of a stately family home, but it was lovely, and had really green gardens and a moat with a drawbridge, which was impressive. We also visited Reinbeck castle, which again was more of a family home, but it seemed it was hosting a bizarre art show, so when we paid 3 we were unsure if it was to see the castle or the art. It was the art, as it turned out, and there were people everywhere, so we ended up having a quick look around the castle then going for a walk around the lake nearby, and had lunch overlooking the river.

After returning to Hamburg itself, we visited the Rathaus Council building, which was a magnificent building situated on a huge market square. It was quite a hot day so we followed that with a relaxing drink on a deck on Alster Lake, watching all the yachts go by.

Later we went to Hamburg Dom, a huge carnival that only visits the city three times a year. We went on a ride called the Power Tower, one of those ones in which you sit with your legs dangling, and it takes you up to the top and then drops you straight down, leaving your stomach behind. In this case it was 66 metres high so we could see the whole city each time we went up, and it was a really clear day. The experience was fantastic and very exhilarating, in terms of both the view and the ride.

That night we had dinner on the canal, which affords a great view of the Rathaus, and the local swan population, which liked the look of our meals.

Later we returned to the Dom, where we went on the Ferris wheel for a night view. That was lovely too, but it was somewhat spoiled by a drunk German fellow who was sharing our car, along with a German couple. He wanted to practice his English, and told us that he used to live in London. He was a bit of a weirdo, and said that Claudia Schiffer liked small English men. (We weren't quite sure what he meant by that but we didn't want to know!) The German guy from the other couple indicated he didn't speak English or German just so the other bloke wouldn't bother him, which we thought was pretty funny.

On our last day we visited Hamburg Dungeon. Based on German history, it included fires and cholera, with a creepy water ride at the end. The whole time nobody realised we didn't understand German, so we didn't get the jokes. We kept hoping that none of the actors would ask us anything!

That afternoon we visited the mönkebergstraße shops, a great shopping area. After that it was time to return to England our holidays always go too quickly.