We stopped off in Hamburg for a day on our way up to Copenhagen. Our first impressions of the city were made in our hostel which was the largest hostel we've seen yet. We arrived there at the same time as a bus load of drunken men all wanting to check in at the same time as us. When a staff member cleared them away to deal with them separately we were surprised to find we were still in a huge queue that took over 40 minutes to get through. From this point Hamburg had a little bit of "digging up" to do and in the end it didn't succeed. We were hoping to see all sorts of spots where the Beatles lived and played but instead we found a dingy square surrounded by strip joints and sleeping homeless men. We also happened to be there on the day of some strange festival where the streets were lined with people dressed in matching fluoro, flower power type outfits all completely plastered in the middle of the day.

We did find the port area of Hamburg quite nice but it was otherwise quite rough around the edges.

The train to Copenhagen was quite interesting; the train drove right on to a ferry which took us from Germany to Denmark. The ferry was like an airport terminal inside with over the top duty free shops and pricy restaurants.