So where were we? Oh yes.

In order for Bree to return to Dubai and get to work, the only foreseeable option was to hire a car and drive to none other than… Hamburg.

After convincing our bartender from the Hilton to join us on the journey, mainly so I had a companion for the five hour slog back, we set off at midday on Friday. The car needed to be returned by midday the following day and Bree needed to be at the airport at 5pm. Mission accepted.

As designated driver ( self- designated that is), I took the helm and we drove from Amsterdam to Hamburg in about 5.5 hours due to road works and a much needed toilet stop.

What was so exciting about this journey? The autobahn of course, could there be anything else exciting about a highway drive? Way too excited about driving 180kph on the famous roads, I think Bree and Wooten were silently praying that we would hit more road works just to control the madwoman behind the wheel.

We made it, alive and on time(ish). Wooten and I waited to hear from Bree if she was let on the flight and then promptly went in search of hamburgers. The lady who rented the car to us had told me that there was a place called Brooklyn Burger Bar which is known for awesome burgers and good beers.

Hour 1: Happy after two steins and a burger the size of my head we now went in search of The Hafen( aka harbour) which by all accounts is meant to be the thing to do in Hamburg.

Hours 2-7: stumbling upon a beer festival at the Hafen, we settled in for the evening. According to the locals, Hamburg has a festival for something pretty much every weekend. Making friends with the bartender at the gin tent (Chris) we organised to find some other good places to go with our new friends.

Hours 7-10: Found a dingy (apparently good, according to Chris) bar across town. How did we get there? Piling into Chris’s smartcar of course. This bar with its low hanging lights and stickered wallpaper was packed! Chris seemed to know everyone and as I was now relegated to the waters, I spent my time playing cards with anyone who wanted to play with me.

Hours 10-12: It is now 5am, we have moved to another of Chris’s favourites, both Chris and Wooten seemed to not want to stop partying, which I guess was just as well seeing as I was driving us back to Amsterdam (not Chris) in a mere 2 hours so sleep would have been pointless. This second bar was closing, not surprising given the time, so we went to Chris’s, he made us soup and a coffee and off we set back to Amsterdam.

And there it is, 12 hours in Hamburg, 0 hours sleep, and 10 hours of driving. To be honest, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.