So time has a funny way of speeding up when you are busy and having a good time, today I realized that I am almost to the four week mark and way behind with my blog postings. Hooray for back-to-back postings! 
Week 3 at ZEBAU was really a great deal of data searching, scouring the internet and chasing around the office in search of relevant statistics. In between was a noteworthy trip to the storage basement, which I was told was converted to a small bomb shelter during the WWII air raids. I am not sure how relevant this is, but working in a 200 year old building, there is a lot of history ever-present. From the bomb shelter to the wenches and pullies still hanging from the ceilings, all you have to do is look.
So 2013 was the first time I have been out of the country on the 4th, a sad thing indeed… No fireworks, no BBQ, none of the beloved American traditions. Thankfully, I went out to dinner with my new German friends and had some nice German beer to dull the pain. While falafels may not be traditional 4th of July fare, and might in fact be the furthest thing from, the food and company were both excellent! 
Over the weekend I visited the lovely St. Michael’s church, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael’s_Church,_Hamburg, the view from the top of which was really quite remarkable looking over the entire city. The climb up all the steps was not as bad as expected, though, the way back down was a bit harrowing. The reason for this was not because of how many steps there were, or even a matter of how steep the steps were, but rather the steps were very narrow, something I had not previously noticed going up on my toes, but now something I was all too aware of going back down. After walking down cautiously duck footed, I thought to myself, perhaps I should have taken the elevator along with all those other people. I am glad I didn’t, but those were some seriously small steps, especially for someone who wears size 12-13 shoes.
All in all another good week with perfect weather and a healthy mix of work stuff, tourist stuff, and of course food!