Tag 6 (Hamburg Tag 1)

On the way to the Göttingen Bahnhof (train station), I took a picture of these 3 T-Mobile (or T-Punkt as it is called here) phones, all with video screens. Every single pay phone in Göttingen (and most in Hamburg) are owned by T-Mobile and most of them have video screens.

Drei Telefonen

We took a train to Uelznel, which is a small city where we transferred to a train that took us straight to Hamburg.

Ashley on der Zug (train)

Once we got to Hamburg, we realized how big the city is compared to the small map. We walked for about 10 minutes in the wrong direction and then turned around and found the correct street. We got to our Hotel (Eilenau Hotel) after about 50 minutes of walking with our backpacks and stuff. On the way we saw this advertisement which I found funny on multiple levels...

"Hella classic" water advertisement

Eventually we found the street (Eilenau Straße) that the hotel was on, but Ashley had written down the wrong address (66 instead of 36) so we wandered down the street. Eventually we found a sign for the hotel. It is like a mansion converted into a hotel. When we got there, we had to ring a bell for the hostess to come to the door; she led us into this nice kitchen-like area where she asked if we wanted water or coffee. In Germany - I'm sure my family would appreciate this - if you ask for water in any place they will without fail give you sparkling (spritzig) water. You have to ask for Mineralwasser if you want it without the bubbles.

Eilenau Hotel room

Our welcome gift of an apple (there were gummi bears also)

The view from our room

After exploring the room and trying to turn on the T.V., we walked outside to the U-Bahn station.

The path outside Eilenau hotel

The view from a path just outside Eilenau Hotel

We took the U-Bahn train from the region close to our hotel back into the middle of the city. We had decided to look for this Middle Eastern food place and so began our search. There are a bunch of huge buildings in Hamburg, including a Scientology church (which is still nothing compared to the one I saw in Berlin), but this structure seemed to stand out...

The T.V. tower in central Hamburg

After we found the Middle Eastern place and had some nice food I cannot pronounce, we went into this famous park called "Planten un Blomen." The name is 'low German' for "Plants and Flowers." I actually learned the most prominent dialect of German called Hochdeutsch or "High German." The park is 47 hectares of plants and flowers, including the biggest supposed Japanese garden in Germany (its still much smaller than Balboa Park).

Map of "Planten un Blomen" park

I was feeling mildly sedated from the medicine I had taken so we stopped for some coffee.

Eine Tasse Kaffee (a cup of coffee) with the cool square packages of sugar

After the short coffee break, we explored the park...

Manche Bunte Rosen in dem Rosengarten (lots of many-colored roses in the rose garden)

Gigantic chess set right by the coffee stand

Der Rosengarten (the rose garden)

A view of the T.V. tower from inside Planten un Blomen

There are many sites to see here, but the most popular is the Wasserlichtkonzert (literally, the Water-light-concert) which can be seen in the main lake of Planten un Blomen. It is a water/fountain & light show that is played live by two people on a "water organ" and a "light organ" (that is, their organs control the water and lights) while music plays. They played about 3 classical songs but also threw in "Mambo #5" and a song by Joe Cocker...

Wasserlichtkonzert #1

Wasserlichtkonzert #2

This started at 10pm, but since the Summer Solstice was yesterday (the longest day of the year) it was still pretty bright out. After this we walked back into the city. This is the Rathaus (city hall) at night-time, which prides itself on having more rooms than Buckingham Palace.

Das Rathaus (city-hall)

Eventually, we found a place to sit down and have some Pizza Margherita. I finally found a drink that uses an actual stein and took a picture (Tasha requested such). Yes, Dad, people do things other than drink in Germany... like drink and watch the Wasserlichtkonzert...

Bier und Pizza

After that, we found another U-Bahn and made our way back to Eilenau Hotel. So ends Tag eins in Hamburg.