Simon had to
go to work today – poor thing! Maren had a day off so enjoyed a slow start
before taking us out to show us Hamburg.
The day had
dawned sunny but by the time we were out in it the grey and wind had won out.
Still Hamburg is a pretty cool city and we loved seeing it with Maren our
fabulous tour guide – thank you!
We caught
the U-Bahn to Baumwall then explored the waterfront, Speicherstadt and
HafenCity near the still unfinished and highly controversial Elbphilarmonie
Hamburg in the biting wind. Grabbed a coffee to warm us up before catching the
ferry at Sandtörhoft. The ferry took us past the massive dry docks and
some of the Port of Hamburg (very impressive), Landungsbrücken, a retired
U-Boat, the famous fish market, architecturally interesting Docklands building
and to the beach! We had a look at the museum boats area, went to touch the
sand, watched a dog digging like crazy then skipped back to catch the next
ferry as Maren’s lips were turning blue from the cold. This time we rode on the
top deck of the ferry – what a fun and crazy wind blown experience that was!
Especially for Roni in short sleeves and a skirt... We hopped off at Landungsbrücken
and walked down to the St Pauli Elbtunnel. SO interesting! Constructed between
1907-11 this tunnel let vehicles travel under the Elb river and people can walk
or cycle across too. Weird to be under such a volume of water in something constructed
a fair while ago. A cool feature is the car-lift....you drive your car in, a
man pushes a button and the lift descends, next thing you know you can drive
along under the river!
We took the
steps down and walked along the tunnel for a bit before catching the lift back
up.
Back onto
the U3, next stop the Schanze. First sight when out of the underground station
was Flakturm IV, one of eight massive Flak towers commissioned by the Third
Reich during WW2. It is crazy huge! The 3.5m thick concrete walls now hold a
club, music store and recording studios. We checked out their ukulele selection
while marvelling at just how huge this thing is.
Next we
wandered off past the old butcher’s market, down the historical Bekstrasse with
a stop for falafel lunch (with pommes for Bray of course) before wandering along
funky Schanzenstrasse checking out the shops on our way to the next U3 station.
Back on the train past Michaeliskirche and more sights on our way home. Maren had
an appointment around 5pm so we relaxed for a while before Roni ventured out to
the supermarket for dinner supplies. Here she randomly met Maren buying lactose
free yoghurt so had a buddy for the walk home. We made tom ka soup for dinner
with capsicum, bamboo, mushrooms and noodles. Tasty! Nice to be able to do
something for Simon and Maren at the end of their busy dayafter all they
organised for us on the roadie.
