When I was student at Edinburgh I did small rail tour of Germany. I think I went to Hamburg on that trip. I can remember being excited about going to a wild area of Germany. I thought I would go down to the docks and spend sometime in some sleazy bars. I can remember being bitterly disappointed when I was walking around Hamburg in the late evening, all I saw was empty shopping streets. I couldn't find the docks, let alone the sleazy bars.
So twenty years later I thought I would try to sample the delights of Hamburg again. It takes a about two hours on the train to get from Hanover t Hamburg. I got off the train at the main railway station, but I could not find my hotel, or one of the landmarks fort the hotel. My phone told me that my hotel was 7 km away at a place called Hamburg Altona. I then worked out how to use the local S-Bahn to get there. My phone refused to update my position to Hamburg Altona, so it was hard to find my hotel.
After I checked n in I walked around the area. It looked like a very quiet and boring area. Not again I thought. There were some cafes around with groups of people drinking. I went into a small bar. There was no draft beer, so I ended up drinking a bottle of beer. Two older women at the bar were loudly talking about nothing much in particular,but they were women bar flies. I would have liked another beer, but the guy serving was not very interested.
I trudged back to my hotel. Would I ever swing in Hamburg?