Hamburg, Germany

Last weekend we decided on a whim to go down to Hamburg for the weekend with Steve, Anju, and the kids (Corina, ~1yr, Everett, ~4yrs).  Got up at like 6am on Saturday so we could get an early start (drive is about 3 1/2 hours).  Somehow getting up early in the morning is a little easier when it is getting up for a fun adventure, instead of getting up for work.  :-)
Off we went... We made it unscathed, even though as soon as we hit Germany and the insanely fast drivers we felt a little out of place... I mean Nate doesn't exactly drive slow, but there we seemed to be crawling along.  Little baby car was pushed to the limit!  She did quite well though!  We just made sure to stay out of the way of the drivers that were driving crazy speeds!

We got to Germany about 11am and parked near the church of St. Nikolai for our first adventure.  Was quite a place to start I think.  The church was victim to bombing during WWII, only the steeple was left standing.  Today the ruined church is maintained as a memorial to remind of the horrors of war.  Very impactful to see the pictures of buildings destroyed during the war.  You can just feel all the death and chaos that ensued.  In the basement crypt there is maintained a gallery of pictures, some of which show pictures from around town before the war, during/after the destruction of WWII, and then what the rebuilt/restored buildings look like today.  Sad and moving to see the progression.  I really don't know if I will ever understand all the hate in the world, and how people can be so horrible to one another.  I really wish that love could just make the whole world go round, and everyone could just live their own lives to the fullest without worrying about what other people are doing in their own lives that are not in line with ones own ideals.  I mean to help someone when they are down, I get that, but who pushes someone down and holds them there?  I hope one day to live in a world that is free from hate (yea a pipe dream I know... but I still choose to dream).

We took the family up to the top of the steeple and looked out over the city.  This is the tallest point in Hamburg so we got a pretty good view :-).

Statue out front of monument

View looking up the steeple from the ground

View from the top

Statue built inside the ruins of the church. Vivid picture to really bring home the point of the monument left the way it has been.  As an empty shell of a church which used to be.

The rest of the day we spent just wandering around the city.  Looking at the festive decorations that were going up everywhere in preparation.

Christmas markets are starting to go up everywhere (in Denmark too), this one was just getting the final touches put into it so it could open up on Monday morning.  So we didn't see it open, but still was fun to walk through and see the festivities  :-D



 

 

We (Nate and I) spent the evening wandering around the red light district of hamburg.  That is a quite interesting part of town for sure.  As the evening went on there were actual prostitutes which were lining the side streets... where I am sure you could just walk down the street checking them all out and then pick which one you would like to pay for... Must be a rough line of work to be in.. don't think I will try that out  ;-p

We decided to escape the cold for a bit and popped into a local pub to watch a football (i.e. soccer for you Americans  ;-p) match.  There was some big rivalry match against two German teams (no, I have no idea now what teams we watched), we ordered a beer and sat back to watch.  It took about 45 minutes before we noticed that we were not in a straight bar (well or so we assume).  I was one of three "girls" in the whole place, and I am pretty sure one of the girls was really a man.  So that was quite entertaining. We stayed for a bit but eventually had to leave to go get some delicious dinner.  Another culture notch in the belt (for Nate too, not sure if he ever would have on purpose gone into a gay bar), had a good time though. :-)
I tried to convince him to come with me to a drag show after that, but there is a line which he is apparently not ready to cross... So girls.. one day we will have to go to one. I feel like I am missing out :-D

The next day we got up, packed up our stuff, ate breakfast, checked out, and headed back to the car to move it somewhere for the day... but oh low and behold... we are stupid Americans... we parked in a parking garage, because it was open on Saturday when we drove in there to park... and didn't bother to try to figure out what the little signs said.... I'll let you guess from the picture..

Oh that's right... the idiots that we are parked in a garage that is closed on the weekends.  So how it was open full of cars on Saturday is a mystery to everyone.... and Germany is just like Denmark... you can't get a hold of anyone on the weekends... sooooo we checked back into the hotel, dropped our stuff off and tried to lift our spirits and just accept that we had another full day in Germany (instead of the anticipated half day) and would just have to get up at 5am to get the car at 6 (when the garage opened), drive home and just be late to work Monday morning.  So we walked all round town, taking in all the sites we hadn't managed on Saturday.  By the end of the morning our feet were killing us though!  Walking that much on cobblestone is brutal on feet I guess!  We ate lunch at a delicious little authentic German restaurant.  We had only half an idea what we were eating, but it was amazing!  Think I was still full 24 hours later though, German food is so heavy! 

We went back to the hotel and asked them one more time to try calling the parking garage people, and someone answered!!!  He said he lived above the garage and would let us out... we ran back over to the garage to meet him.. where he looked at us like we were morons (which I don't blame him, we were freaking idiots for not trying to read/translate the sign), and off we went back home!!!  We made it home just after Nate's Vikings kickoff, however I think maybe he would have preferred to miss this one in the end though, they look like a train wreck this year :-(

Always good to make it home, even though the adventure is awesome!!!