Port of Kiel

When we woke up Saturday morning we could see huge cruise ships from our hotel room on the 10'th floor.This was a bit unexpected but as it turns out Kiel is a major port for cruises leaving for the Baltic sea or to Norway - some of which were leaving this Saturday morning. This was also why the hotel was fully booked and it was very difficult to get a table during breakfast

Once we managed to get something for breakfast we first checked out the farmer's market just outside the hotel.

 

'Then we headed to the port to have a look at some of the cruise ships:

The Aida Nova with 337 Meter length was even longer than Norwegian Breakaway on which we took our cruise in 2013.

The waterfront was a nice place for a long walk

In the late afternoon we walked to the train station for a train back to Heidelberg

Trip to Kiel

 At the end of our stay in Hamburg we added a short trip to Kiel - a major port city by the Baltic sea where ferries and cruise ships leave for Sweden and other Scandinavian countries

There was a beer festival in the city center not far from the water front - they even had a stand with Kölsch beer

A lake by the old twon

An evening walk by the water fron after dinner

A research village

A Kölsch beer as night cup

Dinner with Li

 Ji's old friend met us at a nice restaurant by the main station for dinner

Trip to Hamburg

The second last week of the summer break we went to Hamburg . Unfortunately our early morning train trip started with an almost one hour delay

 
But we still made it before lunch - good for a half day in the office

 Mia and Ji headed to the Institute Francaise

 In the evening we saw the smoke from a big fire in the harbor that was even in the national news

 

This didn't keep us from heading out for an ice creme

Exploring Reims

On our first full day in Reims we first explored the center

Then we went to the outskirts of town to visit a champagne business

 

Heading back to Heidelberg a day later we  of course had to stop at a large supermarket to do some extra shopping in France

 

 

Reims

 Our flight back from Perugia took us again to Charleroi in Belgium next to the French border

To see something different we stopped for two nights in Reims which is famous for its cathedral.  After we checked in our hotel in the center we walked over to have a look

  

 

 

Then it was time to find a good place for dinner. Luckily we found a part of the old town with many bars and restaurants