Tag 7 (Hamburg Tag 2)

We left Eilenau Hotel and took a picture of this small car parked outside. In Europe people have really small cars to the point that a VW Bug looks kind of fat and big and the Mini car looks normal-sized.

Auf Wiedersehen, Eilenau Hotel!

We went into town and went to two of the big churches. This church is the only one not destroyed in World War II, although the interior is quite modern for some reason.

Stained glass and such

Alpha & Omega stained glass

Isis and Horus... errr the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus

After going to this church we passed by the Rathaus again, this time in daylight, while Ashley performs her best Edvard Munch imitation.

Das Rathaus in die Sonne (the city hall in the sun)

The inside of the Rathaus is extremely ornate and beautiful. There is a courtyard with this large fountain...

Fountain with female figure on top and a Satyr playing pan-pipes on the rim below

The top of the Rathaus clock tower

A picture for Jeremy (he will understand), found on the wall of the Rathaus

Ashley with der Löwe outside das Rathaus

After we went to the Rathaus, we walked to one of the bridges that goes over the Elbe river. You can see swans down and to the right...

Binnenalster (the name of this little water-area)

Swans chilling

After that, we saw a Gothic cathedral but did not go inside because you have to pay. Its been turned into a memorial for the dead of WWII...

Gothic spire

After that, we decided it was time to eat and found this nice Italian food place...

Pizza und Pasta und  spritzig Apfelsaft (pizza, pasta, and sparkling apple juice)

With our stomachs absurdly full, we wandered to the famous Hamburg pier...

Schiffen in der Pier (ships in the pier)

A walkway on the pier along the water

In the very far background there is a place that is showing the Lion King (der König der Löwe), which you have to take a ferry to get to... The pier was extremely crowded, full of things to buy, and smelly. It started to drizzle a little bit as we were walking...

Eventually we made it to the far end of the pier and turned towards the inner city again, and we found ourselves in the Reeperbahn, the area known in most places as the red-light district. Its also the place with the most bars (imagine that).  This is a small, small taste of the absurd amount of similar places

"Kino" means movies

After passing through this area which is supposedly quite busy and bright during the night time, rain started to pour heavily with some thunder to complement... We went into a small restaurant/bar thing to wait out the rain. Eventually we ventured back outside to find the U-Bahn but it started raining again. We found and U-Bahn and took it back to the main Bahnhof (train station)...

The gigantic Hamburg Bahnhof

From here we took a train back to Uelznel, and from there we planned to take a train straight to Göttingen. We got on the Göttingen train but it stopped after about 5 minutes and the person came over the speakers saying that a big tree had fallen on the rails (at this point it was raining hard and we could see lightning & hear thunder), so we had to turn back. After being silent for about 30 seconds, the man came back over the speakers and said something like, "Frau Donnehauer (Mrs. Donnehauer), you left your kid back at Uelznel station." I am not sure how she did not notice but luckily for the kid we had to turn back anyways. 

When we got back to the Uelznel station, it was pouring rain and was windy and there were no trains going directly to Göttingen... the train station had called in a bunch of buses to take everyone to the next train station except buses fit about 1/100th the capacity as trains, so they were quite packed. I was smooshed in between Ashley and a large German lady for about 40 minutes on a bus that went to the station past the tree-fallen rail. Eventually we made it to Celle, a small town with a small Deutschebahn station and took a train from there back home to Göttingen. So ends the short excursion to Hamburg.

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.