Friday the 13th falls on a Tuesday in Hamburg.
There’s a little sign in my room: Wenn Sie keine Zeit für ein ausgedehntes Frühstück haben: das schnelle Croissant-Frühstück an der Hallenbar! Montag-Freitag 08:00 – 12:00 Uhr. I have visions of waiting frantically until 8 to grab a croissant from the hall bar, rather than going into the breakfast room at 7:45 or 6:30, and if necessary, grabbing a croissant and running.
A cool, cloudy morning, but not raining. Too bad I have to work today. The convention center was large and very nice. The Forum sponsors a continental breakfast, consisting mostly of fat, protein and sugar. Glad I ate at my hotel an hour ago. Pleasant overlook out to the botanical garden (Planten un Blomen, sounds Dutch).
I’m underdressed. I don’t remember when I’ve seen this many suits. As for me, I didn’t bring a tie, not even leather shoes. But I’m not the only one. Kein Problem. (As Friedrich pointed out later: I wasn’t underdressed – everyone else was overdressed!
They kicked off the opening session with a juggler. Chainsaw, lighted torches, all the while doing his spiel about Telemanagement Forum, a topic on which he was certainly no expert. And just to make it a tad more difficult, he did it all in a foreign language: English.
I took advantage of a break to drop some things off at the hotel. Got a few pictures of the gardens. This section is Japanese.
A woman at the U-Bahn asked me where Dammtor was, and I was proud of myself for being able to tell her. Until the next day, when I learned there is a Dammtorwall, a Dammtordamm and a Dammtorstraße. As I recall, she wanted the -wall and I pointed her to the -damm. Oop, sorry, lady.
It was a day where you’d see sunshine out the window, and rain by the time you got out the door. But it wasn’t actually raining when the afternoon sessions finished. Asked at the info desk about an Altstadt – they insist on speaking English – got a recommendation for Deichstraße. They said there are only one or two streets left, not really a district at all.
Started off by wandering through the part of the botanic garden I hadn’t yet seen. What a lovely place! |
Came out at the TV tower, which has a memorial plaque to native son Heinrich Hertz, and good for him! The tower is also a bungee-jumping site, though with today’s wind and rain there were no jumpers. Didn’t go up. Wandered down toward the Elbe, looking for interesting people, interesting places, or interesting restaurants. Sunny one instant, raining hard the next, blowing hard a moment later. Quite a day. |
Came upon Zorba the Buddha’s vegetarian restaurant. Too soon, sorry – I haven’t yet worked up an appetite. The Asiatic specialties restaurant claimed to have Korean, Thai and Chinese food, which likely means none of them are particularly well done. Tomorrow, maybe.
Very young girl in the park, maybe 3, riding a bicycle with training wheels, making a noise like an emergency vehicle. Going maybe 5 kph, rode directly into a brick wall. She’s starting with the riding part, and will worry about the steering and braking later. Not hurt; Mom and dad helped get her squared away again.
Deichstraße is a short block. Half a dozen buildings have signs dating them from the 1600s. Not much to see. But just off the end was a Spanish restaurant, and a little further on, Chinese.
Chinese won. Sour veggies with beef. The beer was served in a glass marked Tucher Weizen, so I presume it was.
The skies mostly cleared up and it was a pleasant walk back. There was a drunk on Jungfernstieg, exhorting one and all, “Sie können alles machen, was Sie machen wollen!” Well, yes, but if that’s your philosophy, how come you’re a drunk?
There was a guy on the Colonnade playing a clarinet. No donation for this one: he was accompanied by a percussion soundtrack coming from a boombox in his gym bag.
Read the menu at a pub that sported a Franziskaner sign. German cuisine... not my favourite. But as well as the expected salt, fat and protein, there were also three or four vegetarian entrees. What! When German cuisine gets healthy, the world really is changing!
I was thinking about what to do Friday and Saturday. Hamburg isn’t a really exciting city. I’ve already seen Lübeck and many of the surrounding small towns. Bremen? Looks as if it’s only a hundred km away. How could I not have thought of that? Too bad I don’t have Hendrik’s phone number.
Stopped at Dammtor Bahnhof to see about trains. Best I can tell, a Wochenendekarte now costs DM35, and Bremen is a bit more than an hour away. I checked with the info stand at the conference center, where the woman thought it was 25 marks, and promised to check. She also recommended Berlin, but admitted it would be a long time on a train, particularly the local runs.
There is an internet cafe in the Radisson. First time I’ve done this, but it’s pretty easy. Put in your credit card and you’re on the web. Only real disadvantage is that the keyboards are covered with rubber boots to protect them from spills, so it’s hard to touch-type. I used my Yahoo webmail account, sent a note to Ron about the conference, and a query to Jacky about Hendrik.
At the break, I went back to the information desk, where I found that what I want is a Regioticket (not a Karte), DM25, good for only 24 hours, rather than the entire weekend. It also includes U-Bahn and S-Bahn access. I can go to both Bremen and Bremerhaven if I want. Asked for recommendations; the woman said she had only lived in Hamburg five years and had (therefore) only been to Bremen once!
Got a couple of chances during the breaks to wander in the garden – what a great place! – only got rained on once.
After the day’s sessions, I went as far as the Musikhalle on Brahmsplatz. Brahms is another native son. How about ein deutsches Requiem for Kopfmusik?
No big hurry to go to the hotel. Wandered around the Binnenalster – this may be as much sunlight as we get this week. Cold! I had considered bringing along only a rain shell; glad I decided to bring the full winter jacket instead.
I have an antique 5-mark note that can no longer be spent; it can only be exchanged at a bank. There’s a Citibank near the hotel, but it’s closed on Wednesday afternoons. Bankers’ hours! The next bank I tried wasn’t a retail bank. When I saw another, it was 6:30, too late for today. Well, maybe tomorrow.
Enjoyed the sign in the window of the bed store: Carpe noctem.
Back to the conference center, where we’re all meeting busses to take us to the harbor for an evening dinner cruise. The busses only leave between 7:30 and 8; it will be a late night.
The boat was built in 1996. It’s rated for 500 people, it’s 11 M wide, and 55.50 M long. I presume the second decimal digit depends on how recent the paint job is. There were two decks and buffet food spread out on several tables around the boat. It was close to dark by the time we sailed, so there wasn’t a whole lot to see other than lights. We sailed down the Elbe for an hour, then turned and went back.
The smokers drove me away from the table where I was sitting. Spent most of the evening standing at the wall surrounded by a bunch of drunken colleagues making stupid jokes about rot-wine (at least they were past the hamburger phase), trying to avoid the smoke from across the boat. Moomph! (But people later said the lower deck was pretty clean. I should have explored, but I had no reason to expect it to be better anywhere else.)
The streets were wet, but there was some blue in the sky and even sunlight here and there. No replies to yesterday’s email. Last day of the conference, but a busy one.
Chatted with Menachim somebody from Israel over continental breakfast. Interesting fellow. Lunched with a guy from Zürich. He said a) it was a much worse winter than usual and b) it was nowhere near as bad as the media would have you believe.
Just down from the hotel is a museum of Post and Telegraph, on the third floor of a pretty classy old post office building. Eintritt frei – my kind of price. |
The post was not so interesting, except for some examples of letters mailed during the great inflation of the 20s, stamped with billions of marks of postage. And some wax seals. |
The Telegraph was more interesting, to my mind. Telegraph, by the way, includes radio. Not just stationary, but train and marine radio as well.
Toward the upper right is a variable transformer. Here’s a detail view:
I expected to see a Siemens step-by-step switch, but their stepper was from some company I had never heard of. There were also Siemens steppers further along, however. In the mock-up cable vault, two of the splice closures were by Raychem! |
Leaving the museum, I came past Citibank, open today. But they couldn’t exchange my ancient Schein – I have to go to the Landeszentralbank. The woman jotted down the approximate address.
Well, why not? It was sunny and chilly, nice to be out. I certainly had no better direction to walk. By the time I found it – just off the end of Deichstraße – it was too late. Their hours aren’t posted; it may be impossible to actually catch them while they’re open for business. Not a disaster if I don’t.
What next? Well, since I’m near the Landungsbrücke anyway, let’s check out the old Elbe tunnel. This is the one I discovered by accident on my bicycle tour. It was built in the early part of this century, before pure utilitarianism took over the day. Pretty classy! Here's the outside.
This is not a tunnel you drive into. You elevate down at one end and up at the other. Cars pay DM2,50. This view shows the elevators (well, the doors of the elevators) at street level. Pedestrians and bicycles have separate elevators, and I of course took the stairs. |
The inside of the shaft, opposite the elevators where the stairs are, is decorated. Here’s the architect, holding a model of his creation.
And the bore itself. Walked through and back. A fair bit of traffic, half and half bicycles and cars. One of the bikes was a recumbent.
Up the hill into St Pauli. Thought the side streets might sport some interesting hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Not the side streets I was on, at any rate. At the Neuen Pferdemarkt, I turned back toward the city. Thought I might end up at the one-size-fits-all Asian restaurant just at the end of Karolinenstraße. But I saw a Mexican place first. This one was a real hole in the wall: the menu said the beer was Erdinger Weiß, but it was served in an unmarked glass!
The waitress kept wanting to speak English (hers was perfect), and I kept responding auf Deutsch. At the end, she asked me if I spoke English, and I had to admit I was Amerikan. “Have a good evening!” she said.
At Johannes Brahms Platz, I turned south down Poolstraße and Kohlhöfenstraße, where I found an interesting old library.
Bücherhalle Kohlhöfen |
Kohlhöfen library |
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Für die 1899 von der Patriotischen Gesellschaft gegründete erste Hamburger Öffentliche Bücherhalle wurde 1908-09 dieser Neubau nach Plänen von Hugo Groothoff errichtet. Die Backsteinfassade im Reformstil greift Barockformen auf. Erstmals in Deutschland wurde hier eine Bibliothek nach englischem Vorbild „freihand“ aufgestellt, d.h. der Leser erhielt freien Zugang zu den Büchern. Das 1945 schwer beschädigte Gebäude wurde nach dem Krieg wiederaufgebaut. |
This building was constructed in 1908-09 from plans by Hugo Groothoff for the first Hamburg public library, founded by the patriotic association in 1899. The brick facade continues the Baroque in its Reformation style. Following the English mode, this library, for the first time in Germany, permitted readers direct access to the books. The building, severely damaged in 1945, was rebuilt after the war. |
There was a school for calligraphy, exhibits in the window, and students inside, carefully scribing their exercises on parchment. Here and on Alter Steinweg I also found a Portugese restaurant, another Mex, Greek and even Caribbean. Ha! No chance I’ll starve.
A block away, I could hear the rhythm of the geese at the Gänsemarkt – no, it turned out to be a spontaneous parade on Jungfernstieg. Cops keeping the traffic back. A spontaneous rally always works better if it’s well-publicized in advance.
Time to be getting back to the hotel, since I hadn’t sought out the Toiletten when I ate. The clerk recognized me, handed me the right key as I came in. Glad to get to the room – had I been four seconds later, I would have been desperate.
A day to myself. What to do? Since I’m apparently living right, it was sunny and bright. Too bad about the museums. Nothing particular around here that I want to see. Decided to check email (nothing) and the Bahnhof, just to make sure I’m not missing the opportunity to spend the day on a serious adventure. The Regioticket, interestingly enough, is not available from the ticket automats, but has to be purchased over the counter. I’ll spend the day wandering. Strolled up the west side of the Außenalster, which is a pretty good-sized lake. A few crews out on the water. High-rent district. This is one of the more modest examples; they get fancier as you go further north. |
At the north end of the lake, I had to decide which way to go. On around? – and then what? Or stay with the water and go further out? I’m off the map, but I assume the Alster is a river, and I can follow it upstream.
So I tried it for a while. But there are forks, and it isn’t clear which fork one should take. I noticed that the bus stops have small area maps, and the Bahn stations have large regional maps. Ha! I can navigate by the transit system. Now I need to select a destination of some kind, just to guide my steps.
Ahrensburg? Why not? I saw its Schloß once before on my bike tour from Copenhagen, but that’s ok. There are U-Bahn, S-Bahn and bus lines along the way to help me navigate, and if the feet fail me, the train offers a way back. Let’s do it.
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The gas stations have witty adverts. One Tankstelle advertises its convenience store with a picture of kids, faces covered with chocolate, and the caption Wie tanken die Reste der Familie? BP’s sign says Tanke schön! Another advertises quick oil-change service: |
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Long walk. Pleasant day. Took the jacket off about 10. Came into Berne just about noon. A medevac helicopter had just landed on the green. Not an emergency – don’t know what the occasion was. The crew was chatting with people who had gathered round. Maybe they just dropped in for lunch.
At Berne, the city more-or-less ends, and the country, while still flat, becomes largely wooded. Beautiful! I’m afraid to really take a cross-country woodland trail without a map, but sometimes there’s a trail between road and tracks. |
Volksdorf, despite its off-putting name, is a pleasant little place; and then I got into extensive forest. Just before meeting up with route 75, I exited Hamburg. Since Hamburg is a Land as well as a Stadt, this was also the boundary to Schleswig-Holstein. |
And then another 4 km into Ahrensburg. The sky had mostly clouded up, and I put the jacket back on. Feet getting sore – the signpost distance would be 22 km, but with the extra wandering, my conscience will be clear if I log 30 km for the day. |
Had to hunt for the Schloß. Sometimes there are road signs to the local attractions, but not here. Eventually spotted signs pointing the way to the Hotel am Schloß. Well, if the Hotel down that way is am Schloß, the Schloß is likely to be am Hotel, and it was. Pretty place. No indication that it’s open to visitors, though it may be. |
There’s a mill just behind it.
Ahrensburg is itself a pleasant enough little town. Enjoyed the Dancing Bar, not to be confused with a Dancing Bär. If I ever get the chance for another day like this, I should buy a Wanderkarte, come out to the end of the S-Bahn, and spend the day wandering the countryside and the small towns. Much better than walking through the suburbs, pleasant though they were. Nächstes Mal!
I am unbelievably spoiled. This sure feels like coming home. What if we were to retire to Germany someday?
The S-Bahn was fast, clean and efficient – as expected. So was the U-Bahn from the Hauptbahnhof to Stephansplatz. I was a little surprised to find no ticket validation machine, but they don’t have Streifenkarten, so perhaps it isn’t necessary.
Hobbled into the hotel, where the clerk handed me my key and a fax from Jacky that contained some Hendrik information. Ausgezeichnet! Up to the room to take the shoes off and crash for an hour. Maybe I’ll find a place to eat tonight that isn't too far afield.
Oh, yes, changing that old Geldschein. Well, too bad – it will have to wait until next time.
Went out around 7. The brochure says there’s an Indian restaurant on Budapester Straße near the Reeperbahn, but that’s quite a ways for sore feet. It also says there’s a Thai restaurant in Gänsemarkt Passage. Ha! That’s just a block away, and I haven’t had Thai this week. If it turns out to be a Stehcafe, maybe I’ll try the Franziskaner place with the vegetarian selections.
It was fine. Not as scharf as I like, but good. They had no Weizenbier, so I had a Duckstein, golden-red, served in a glass marked, of course, Duckstein – and beechwood aged! Where have I heard that before?
First time I’ve received a bill that was denominated in Euros (as well as DM).
When it doesn’t rain, the sidewalks sprout tables like mushrooms. Great! And there were noises of another ‘spontaneous’ rally down at Gänseplatz. Didn’t go investigate.
Tried calling Hendrik. The number on Jacky’s fax was his sister’s. Talked to her; she gave me another number, seven digits. But the phone rang after I had dialled six digits, and it wasn’t Hendrik. Well, too bad. Decided not to call his sister again. It’s more hassle than it’s worth. [Hendrik called us in California a week later, talked to Jacky – I got one digit wrong. The confusion between drei and zwei is the reason Germans often say zwo. What’s interesting is that I read back the number, and Hendrik’s sister heard it wrong, too.]
I wore a new pair of pants today, been washed once, if that. Both legs are chafed and raw from the knees up. It’s amazing how many ways there are to damage oneself!
Jacky phoned later. Nice to talk with her, even if I was a bit spacey from suddenly waking up. By the sound, there may have been fireworks over the Binnenalster later in the evening. It would be a terrific venue – but I didn’t get dressed and go find out. Maybe in my next life. [Found out later they were at the Domfest. Still not worth getting up for.]
