Hamburg...The German Home of the Beatles

I'm trying something new this time, for pictures, just click on the links within the blog post.
Our first real excursion out of Bremen took place this weekend to Hamburg. Our semester tickets allow us to take all the public transportation in Bremen, as well as the slow train to Hamburg and Hannover, so naturally, everybody decided to spend at least a day in Hamburg. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany, and largest city in north Germany (Bremen is second). Even with a population of over 2 million, we still managed to run into other groups of Lafayetties (3 times)! It started out on Friday, the most beautiful day we've had yet, with the sun out, blue skies, and also surprisingly warm.
We played tourist for most of the day, wandering about the main roads and sidestreets as we slowly made our way to Wira Hostel. The churches in Hamburg are quite impressive, especially the remains of St. Nicholas, which was burned in a fire in World War Two, leaving just the 147 meter tower and some of the surrounding walls. We returned the next day and ascended the tower, unfortunately the weather was not as clear as it was when we first arrived. Other impressive structures included St. Michaels (a closer up picture) church and the Rathous.
Because Jacob's University is an International University, we don't get "german" food in the serveries (although sometimes the main dish comes with "american sauce"). This was our first chance to sample traditional german cuisine, which we did in a little restaurant off the Reeperbahn.
When we arrived at the hostel, we ran into a little problem (no, not masked torturers trying to steal our livers). Because we were staying in Germany, none of us had brought our passports, so we had to convince the owners that driver's licenses were legitimate forms of identification, and put down a 50 Euro deposit to recieve our keys instead of handing our passports over as collateral.
For those of you who aren't Beatles fans, now it's time for a quick history lesson :) When the Beatles first became a band (out of the ashes of the Quarrymen) there were five of them (from left to right): Pete Best, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Stu Sutcliffe. The Beatles first got their start in Hamburg, playing and clubs and living right off of the Reeperbahn. Eventually, Stu died, Paul switched to bass to cover all the instruments, and Pete Best was deemed a bad drummer and replaced by Ringo Starr, who was...less of a bad drummer. Now in Hamburg, there is a circle right outside of Grosse Freiheit on the Reeperbahn to commemorate them called the Beatles-Platz. Us at Beatles-Platz
Oh yeah, we also explored the Sea Port.