Flew Emirates to Frankfurt via Dubai. What was interesting about the flight is that apparently non of the flight attendants actually spoke German, however they did speak about 20 other languages between them. Certainly plenty of Germans on the plane though, complete with small children in tow.

Flying via Dubai was probably more enjoyable then via Singapore or Hong Kong. Instead of doing 8 hours and then 16, it comes more to 11 and 6, taking the hypotenuse of the triangle. Dubai airport wasn't nearly as bad as some whingy forum Simon found on the Interweb, my only complaint was the seeming lack of security staff involved in being rescreened, as well as having to virtually undress. I had to remove my shoes, belt, watch and glasses before I was actually let through. Interesting, children in strollers were being pushed through just fine. Perhaps they turned up the sensitivity just for me.

Hamburg was pretty cool, got to see some stuff and hang out with my father's cousin and his family. It was about 4 hours by ICE from Frankfurt to Hamburg and was quite a full train so we ended up sat on the floor. I am also now the proud owner of a Bahncard 50 (which gives you 50% discount on train tickets) which apparently makes me a real German, or some such. What's hilarious is that they're mailing the actual real plastic card (with photograph) back to Australia.


Me in Hamburg with the Hamburg-man
Had to train to Stuttgart a day early as unfortunately there was again no available seats on the Saturday train. I quite enjoy train trips like this, even though they're 5 hours long.


Simon on the ICE
Stuttgart is not as nice a city as Hamburg in my opinion, but it's certainly not a bad city. The local German dialect is incomprehensible, but we're still managing to communicate. Esslingen was a nice town, however not quite what I was expecting (I was honestly expecting a castle).

Been pretty full on chatting, talking and drinking. I'll try to write some more later on, and get photos uploaded. This post has already taken me 2 days to get on the web.