Hamburg Hafengeburtstag

Each year for the past 824 years, the citizens of Hamburg have celebrated their harbors birthday with a festival and ships entering the harbor from all over the world. We were lucky enough to have a holiday on the Thursday of the arrival parade, so some friends and I went up to check it out.

While we were there, we watched dozens of ships sail into the harbor, despite the rain. My favorite part was that it made me feel like I was in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie!

After the arrival parade, we wandered around town. We made it to the Rathaus (City Hall) and saw the World War I Memorial nearby. I really like the inscription, which translates to, "Fourty thousand sons of city laid down their lives for you." It's pretty cool to not only see memorials like this, but read and understand what they say!

It was a short day trip, but we got to see some pretty neat things!