I’m off at last!! My bags are a little heavy, but there’s nothing better to lighten a load than sunshine and a cold wind.

I set off in style, knowing things could only go downhill and get smellier: breakfast at Fortnum & Mason and the Eurostar to Brussels. Then a minor delay meant I had just 12 minutes to change trains – my first backpack endurance test. A spacious German train journey later and I was in Cologne. Stepping off into the station I was greeted by the unmistakeable smell of bratwurst, which  were hanging up on strings everywhere.

Cologne cathedral looms over the station, so it is perfect for a fleeting visit, and the monstrous gargoyles have a strangely hypnotic effect. Inside, the vaulted ceiling soars above and the whole building is made to seem even taller by the contrasting stained glass windows, the blue and purple upper floors and the warm yellow and orange lower windows. And of course, there were far too many gothic carvings to see in such a short time.

Finaly, I arrived in Hamburg and made my way to the Reeperbahn, the infamous red light district where I was to spend the night. There was a neon pink haze and generally seedy atmosphere but it seemed relatively tame, though it was only the next morning that I found the street women are banned from.

Picking up a tourist map and following a walking route, I saw various banks, squares, expensive shops and churches in the rain. Hamburg might be a little boring, or perhaps the route was just sponsored by the shops, but it was a perfectly pleasant stroll.