The highlight of my very short trip to Hamburg was visiting the botanical garden. It was free to enter and felt like a park. Most of it was outdoors, but it also included a revolutionary greenhouse that had no inner pillars. The outdoor portion focused on flowers and included a huge array, including my personal favorite, lotuses. Various paths wound around the garden and there were plenty of benches to sit and enjoy the scenery. An occasional police or ambulance siren was the only reminder that I was at the center of a large city. This is what Madrid's botanical garden should be like. In addition to the garden, I also enjoyed just sitting on a bench next to the water overlooking the city and watching people walk by.
On my way out of the city, I got to the bus station early and found a museum across the street. It had everything from samurai swords to pianos to furniture and pottery. It also had some of the most creative and beautiful glass vases that I've ever seen. While I was looking at around, a guy who worked at the museum came over to talk to me and tell me about the pieces being displayed in that room. At first he started talking to me in German, but when I responded in English, he switched seamlessly to it. Awhile later he came back to me and asked me if I knew any words of German at all. When I said that I did not, he told me that while I was in this country, I should know the words for gentlemen and ladies so that if I was looking for a bathroom, I would know which one was which, and he told me the words. Thinking this was quite random, I laughed. I thanked him and said that I would remember.
As I left the museum, I looked around for the bathroom but couldn't find it. After asking for help at the front desk and then wandering around a little more, I finally found it. It said "Damen" on the door and I remember thinking that damen must mean bathroom. As I was washing my hands and about to leave, a woman walked in and looked startled. As I walked out of the door, it dawned on me that "Damen" was the word the guy had told me, just an hour earlier, meant "ladies". A person in a group of Germans standing nearby said something to the group, probably "He just came out of the ladies' room!" and they all started laughing. The funny part to me was not that I had made the mistake, but that the guy had made it a point to come tell me the German words and I still messed it up. Oh, and apparently the German word for "exit" is "assfart". Actually, it's "ausfahrt", but everytime I see it on the autobahns, it sounds like "assfart" in my head.