Hong Kong

I will precede this by saying that there are more pictures from today to come once we are back in Europe.

The night was wonderful. A nice big bed and surprisingly no nightly battle for the blanket. Unfortunately, the air conditioning has no dry mode, so everything feels a bit damp. Today was a sleep-in day until 8:30. That was nice, too. However, I am looking forward to home where I can really catch up on my sleep. The breakfast was good, although the selection at 9:30 AM (breakfast goes until 10:30) was quite diminished. But we were full and ready to explore Hong Kong. Unfortunately, it’s raining heavily outside.

Incredible how almost horizontally the rain is coming down. We get completely soaked in this rain. You wouldn’t even want to take a dog out in this weather, and we certainly won't either. Well, I can finally finish and publish the missing articles. The weather report predicts rain for the entire day.

Around 1:00 PM it stops. Now let’s go! Armed with an umbrella, rain jacket, and camera, we head to the Avenue of Stars, the Walk of Fame for Chinese movie stars.

The avenue is wonderfully located by the harbor with a view of the other side of Hong Kong. But first, let's dive into the crowd and at least look for the stars we know.

Those are just Jet Li (who is supposed to be here, but we sadly couldn’t find), Jackie Chan, and Bruce Lee.

A true Bruce Lee has been lost to us - isn’t that right?

The weather surprisingly holds up. Then we can venture to take the ferry to the other side to see a temple. Nice idea - only it seems like there are thousands of others who had the same thought. It’s Sunday here and a large cruise ship is docked in the harbor. I hope I don't need to elaborate on what that means.

We abandon the idea of the boat trip and quickly storm the nearby mall. All the big and small brands that exist in the world and that you may know or not are represented here. I didn't even realize how many watch manufacturers exist. A huge mall, over 5 floors - it's incredible.

You hardly manage to find your way out again.

By now, our stomachs are growling, so we refuel with ramen (for those who don’t know, that’s a noodle soup). However, it was the blandest ramen of the entire trip. Only lots of soy sauce helped - well, actually, it didn't help much either.

Slowly, we make our way to Temple Street, where there is a night market.

Conveniently, it is on the way to the hotel. Still dry-footed, we stroll through the alley with everything the souvenir world has to offer.

And you won’t believe it - 5 minutes away from the hotel, the heavens open up and the umbrellas pop open. Did it really have to happen now!