Lately I've heard a lot about Hamburg, how awesome it is and I was curious to see it with my own eyes. Being in Berlin these days, was the perfect moment to do it. I bought train tickets and here I am in a train going to Hamburg.
With my book, enjoying a 2h train ride
The weather was not favorable to me, but I still have all my fingers. I must say, the rainy day enhanced the colors of this city.
I was not kidding about the cold
It took me a few time to get used with the temperature, but after that I forgot it was cold. I had set in mind to see the canals. I came here for that. I read some articles about this and I was impressed. It's said that it has more than Venice or Amsterdam. From what I've seen, it looks a lot with both of them, but on a different scale. If in the two cities mentioned the buildings are not so tall, here we find massive constructions.
All over the city you can spot Wasserträeger statues. Wasserträeger (in en. carrying water) was a popular profession that existed before the advent of centralized water supply systems. In Hamburg one of these Wasserträger, originally born as Johann Heinrich Bentz on January 21st, 1787, became a symbolic figure for the city. His nickname was Hummel, but it's not known precisely how he got it. The story says that kids made fun of him by yelling at him 'Hummel, Hummel' as they saw him passing with his filled buckets. Some of them even showed him their naked butts, well-knowing that 'Hummel' couldn't chase them with his heavy buckets. Therefore, he just replied by yelling back 'Mors, Mors!' which means 'Kiss my ass!' in a local dialect. Since then, the phrase 'Hummel, Hummel!' 'Mors, Mors!' has been a popular salute in Hamburg.
Another story about people of Hamburg, is the story of Henriette Johanne Marie Müller, called Zitronenjette. This woman made a living by selling lemons. Her famous call while she sold lemons was Zitroon! Zitroon!. At her memorial it's stated: "Your life was as sour as lemons; shall remembrance on you would it be worth? Your destiny is pointing to all the people for whom happiness has no time."
First I thought it is the evil queen from Snow White
Remaining in the history area, let's have a look at the five Hauptkirchen of Hamburg. Since I've got off the train, I saw some towers touching the sky. Wondering around, I got to one of them, the tower of St. Michaelis's church. In the morning there was very crowded so I didn't stay in the line, but in the afternoon the rain brought me again to this place. I was going to ask how tight are the stairs to climb the tower, but my brain was frozen. I went straight to it. It was ok, nothing compared to the experience from St. Peter's basilica. The tower offers you a panoramic view over the whole city.
The tower of St. Michaelis's church
In the picture below, the tallest towers that you see are as following: in the center is St. Nikolai church, in the right is St. Katharinen, and in the left, from front to back is St. Petri and St. Jakobi.
I end up this day with a walk in Speicherstadt, the warehouse district. In the twilight the redness of the buildings is enhanced. The brick architecture flourished in Hamburg in 1920. Brick was viewed by builders and their architects as a more effective and durable material in the rough climate of the north. What decides the brick's incomparable play of red, yellow is the firing process.
I have just returned from a 3.5 weeks unforgettable journey through Indonesia, from Jakarta to Bali. Our 3.5 weeks itinerary started in Jakarta , where we stayed for 3 nights . We were a bit dissapointed about the condition of the Indonesian capital, overcrowded and sinking. The highlights of this city were the stunning colonial-era buildings in the Old Town. In retrospective, 1 or 2 nights should have been sufficient, just for landing and continuing the journey towards more fascinating locations. From Jakarta we took the high speed Whoosh train to Bandung . The Woosh train was honestly “whooshazing” – super fast and comfortable! With 350km/h we were in Bandung in 40 minutes. The Grab from the train station to the hotel took longer. Get used with the traffic in Indonesia! While in Bandung we focused more on exploring the nature around. We had one tour to South of Bandung where we visited Kawah Putih crater, tea plantations, Rengganis natural hotspring and an old Dutch railway bridge wi...
November 9, 2024: A Long Travel Day and Off to Mount Bromo We woke up again at 5:00 for the sunrise… and once again, it was cloudy! Fortunately, we had to get up early anyway, as today was a big travel day: taxi to the Karimunjawa harbor, boat to Jepara, taxi to Semarang, train to Surabaya, and finally a taxi to the hotel. Luckily, everything went smoothly; we even managed to change our tickets to a cheaper option and arrived earlier. Lunch at Indonesian KFC while waiting for our train Very comfortable seats Trying to eat at the hotel turned out to be less successful: both restaurants were full, so we were directed to a strange spot at the front entrance. There, we had a mediocre meal at relatively high prices (and both Bintang and Coke were sold out—HOW?!). I even looked up how long Bintang stays good—9 months from when we drank it—making it even less excusable that they were out. After a quick one-hour nap, we’re already on our way for an excursion to Mount Bromo! November 10, 2024: ...
November 11, 2024: Arrival in Bali Today, we traveled from Surabaya to our final stop of the holiday: Bali! First issue—there are street dogs everywhere, and since Mark is not a fan (just plain scared), that’s a bit unsettling. We had a smooth taxi ride to the airport, checked in, had a coffee, flew to Bali, took another taxi to Ubud, and finally arrived at our hotel. Fun fact: we got an upgrade and now have an ultra-luxurious mini-villa! After that, we enjoyed a nice dinner in Ubud and are now off to sleep, as tomorrow will be a long day! November 12, 2024: Snorkeling around Nusa Penida Today, we were picked up at 6:20 AM for another snorkeling adventure—the last one was such a hit that we wanted to do it again! We started the day with an exciting ride, as the speedboat took us racing over the waves. We spent the entire morning and afternoon together on the boat, though only Mark went into the water. At the first snorkeling stop, he spotted a manta ray and a whitetip shark. Later, at ...
Comments
Post a Comment