Hamburg, Germany

HERE ARE SOME MORE PICTURES! < Click there to see the pictures. These are from my trip into the city of Hamburg in Northern Germany. The city is only about a 40 minute drive from my village without traffic.


The pictures include:

Shots of the Red Light District

The building with the green roof is the government building (Town Hall). The German name for a Town Hall is "Rathaus" Pronounced Rat House. I think the name fits! ;)

There are some pictures of an old burned church this is:

"The Gothic Revival Church of St. Nicholas (German: St.-Nikolai-Kirche) was formerly one of the five Lutheran Hauptkirchen (main churches) in the city of Hamburg. It is now in ruins, serving as a memorial and an important architectural landmark. When Hamburg residents mention theNikolaikirche, it is generally to this church that they are referring, and not the new Hauptkircheof St. Nicholas, which is located in the Harvestehude district.
The church was the tallest building in the world from 1874 to 1876 and is still the second-tallest building in Hamburg."
(Wikipedia)

The church was left standing after it was destroyed in the second world war as a reminder of what war can do and as a warning to future generations.
They installed an elevator in the church which is how I got the areal shots of the city.

You can probably see the Harbor in some of the pictures. Hamburg's harbor is the 3rd largest in Europe.

There are a couple pictures of another church, which is one of 5 of the mother churches in Hamburg.

The picture of a waterway and on either side a long line of brick building is what used to be the Old Harbor. The buildings are now used for, I believe the storage of carpets. There is also a Maritime Museum and a couple other things to see inside.

The picture of me with the guitar is taken in the Red Light district. It's actually a memorial to The Beatles, who made their start in Hamburg, not far from where I was standing. Looking down on the memorial it looks like a giant record. Then there are the statues of the 4 known Beatles and the 5th Beatle who left the band on good terms to peruse an education at a prestigious art school in the city. Not long after leave the band he died suddenly from natural causes. He was the one who gave the Beatles the "look" that we know today as belonging to the band.

The swans in the picture have the best life a swan could have. There is someone working for the government, who's job is to take care of them They live in the Alster, which is a right tributary of the Elbe River. During the winter months they are moved to another part of German to "vacation" in an ice free pond.

"After more than four months in their winter quarters, Hamburg's “swan father” Olaf Nieß lead several boats to move 120 birds to the port city’s outer Alster lake.

The animals will now be able to find sufficient food on their own, a spokesperson from the Hamburg-Nord district said.

At the end of the November the swans made their traditional trek to their winter retreat in the Eppendorf district’s mill pond, which is kept free of ice year round.

They have been a part of the city landscape since the 11th Century, under the care of a “swan father” - Hamburg’s oldest municipal post – since 1674.

The birds now grace the Hamburg city emblem, and their return to the Alster signals the start of spring each year. " (http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100412-26495.html)

There is one picture of an apartment building painted red with the word "OUT" on it. This is one of a few building which belonged to the government. They were unoccupied and a group of squatters moved in. Soon these squatters had families and turned these building into their homes. When the government went to sell the buildings the squatters refused to leave. After numerous arguments the squatters won. This is how I understood the story. Apparently the buildings are now owned privately and the apartments are leased to the people who live there.

"The Hafenstraße (Harbour street) is between Landungsbrücken, the most tourist crowded place in the city, and the fish market, which is open only on Sunday morning from 4:30AM-9:30AM. The street between was a place for squatters in the 1980s and was well known by the media when there were battles between the Autonomous movement and the police. Some houses still exist there, though the 80s-Myth is dead. You can go to the Punksbar onkel otto or eat at the vokü." (http://www.live-like-a-german.com/destinations/show/hamburg)

The black and white pictures are just old pic (that I took from a screen) of Hamburg. There is one of the St. Nicholas church.


I hope you enjoy the pictures!! I also hope all of my information is accurate. Some of you already got this stuff in an email. I will make a new post at some point to give you something new. :)

I took the pictures while giving a friend of mine, who lives in another part of Germany, a tour of Hamburg. I had confessed to the father of a friend that it was absurd for ME to be giving a tour of Hamburg when I know next to nothing about the city. He replied,
"In the kingdom of the blind the man with one eye is king"

Sounds good to me! :D

I'm Pretty Bad At Blogging

Well after being harassed by both my mom and my dad in the sates I have decided to please them by updating my blog. It's funny that just two years ago I was explaining to them what a blog was and now they are the ones trying to refresh MY memory. My mom has started using words like "creeping" and "wall post" after figuring out the Facebook basics. She will probably have something to say to me after seeing that the entire first paragraph in my blog about Germany is in fact about her, but I don't mind. Now for the juicy stuff. I'm in Germany! So my mom and I went to a neighboring village and this is one of the lovely, old buildings.

Germany, after only a month, is a place that I can see myself calling home. Everything about it is fascinating and attractive. I'm living in a small village, as I have said before. However, for the last 2 weeks and for the next 2 weeks I am studying in Hamburg. I go to a language school in the city. I take a car, a train, and a metro to school every morning. My day usually starts at 7:45 or 8:00 am. I have coffee and toast with my mom and we head to the station. After school I usually have a couple hours to kill before taking my train back to meet up with my ride. I have been using that time to explore parts of the city near my school. Since I'm only a metro ride away from everywhere my exploring has taken me to a few neat places. Now that I'm more confident in my ability to find my way back if I take the wrong train, I'm planning on my next two weeks being very entertaining. I love Hamburg. It's beautiful and clean! Germany isn't just going green, it is green! Hamburg is especially green and not just energy wise. For it's size, Hamburg is one of the greenest cities in the world. (Green meaning grass, trees, etc.) The Elbe river runs through the city thus giving Hamburg the bragging rights for having more bridges than Venice. The houses are lovely and recycling is a big deal here. I'm constantly learning. Today I was on my way to school and I found out that the metro I had to take was down for some reason. I was going to be late for class and I had no idea what to do. The lady told me to take a bus, so I got on a bus. Then the bus driver told me to take another bus...so I did. Finally I ended up somewhere where I could supposedly get on my metro. However, my metro didn't run through the station where I was. I ended up taking a subway and then my metro. I was 20 minutes late to class. Now I know more than I did about the train system. See, I am learning. I have been wanting a pet hedgehog. My parents think I'm kidding. I told my dog to find me a friendly hedgehog that will will in my room and tell me jokes. She found one today and ran away with it. She is back in her cage now. The poor hedgehog probably didn't make it. I'm refusing to speak to the dog now. Other than my killer dog, everything else is lovely. German's take pride in what they do and how they act. At least the one's I have met so far. Having coffee at a friends house means that the coffee cups and plates are brought out, and there is a tablecloth and cake. It's nice to sit around with a group of people to enjoy good company and even more importantly, good cake! I've been playing my Ukulele and trying to stay warm. It's getting colder and colder. Still fall, but you can tell that winter is going to be a "blast". I'm sorry for this being a lame post. I tried to fit the past month into a summarized entry. Trying to do that probably makes this a bit boring. I'll try to be better in the future. :) This is my sister and I. While putting cardboard boxes on our heads, sword fighting, and taking pictures, we forgot about the pizzas in the oven...