Hamburg is a great city. I had a very good weekend hanging out with San, Tina and Heinz, and taking in the town. I took some pictures, so I'll write more when I've put them up, hopefully tomorrow.

Nachtzug The night train was ok, I got some reasonable sleep and it was quite comfortable. There's a huge bar wagon where some people choose to spend the night rather than actually sleeping. When I got to my sleeping car, a huge German woman was fast asleep on three pillows on the bunk opposite. It became clear that one of these was my pillow. I had to steal one from the next compartment, but I felt ok about that since Karlsruhe is the last stop before the long overnight haul, so nobody else would be needing it.. They come round and wake you up at Hamburg to make sure you don't miss your stop which is nice. Unless you wanted to get off at Hannover, 2 hours earlier.

Reeperbahn The famous red light district in Hamburg is justifiably famous, I can assure you. It's huge, crazy, loud, full and pretty funny. We were there at about 2:30am, and it seemed to be just about in full swing. We went into a dance bar (not a strip bar - I mean the customers dance) at what turned out to be just the right time; when we arrived, it was just full, but when we finished our beer, everyone was leaving. It was unusual for (what I've seen of) Germany as it was full of people of totally different ages and styles, all dancing together and mucking around and having a good time. We also saw some very seedy looking places, a grim looking 'British Pub' that I wouldn't go in if you paid me, a specialist condom shop and, right in the middle, a large police station. A truly unique place, full of tourists but still well worth seeing.