Ausflug 38

Making Lemonade from Lemons

Two weeks in Northern Germany

September - October 2014


 

Hamburg-Monday 4
Index


 

Arriving in Hamburg

When I found out I had to go to Hamburg for business at the end of September, we decided to make it a vacation. So I set up my business appointment, asked Detlef to set up a 2-week vacation rental for his apartment on the Baltic Sea, booked our flights, and even found a hotel close to the airport where we could stay while in Hamburg that was near my sister's home.

Our flight to Germany was an early afternoon departure, so we decided we had the time to try to get to the airport using public transportation. First we had to catch a local CUE bus, then take the Metro's Orange Line to East Falls Church, transfer to the Silver Line out to Reston, and finally take a shuttle bus the rest of the way to Dulles airport. It worked out really great. Although it took one and a half hours, it was a pleasant and inexpensive way to get there. That route will be even simpler if Metro's Silver Line is ever finished all the way out to Dulles airport!

After a long night on the plane and changing planes in Frankfurt, we saw the sun rise while flying northeast across the mountains in the middle of Germany. Slightly groggy, we arrived in Hamburg in the early morning. Taking the S-Bahn to our hotel at the Ohlsdorf train station, we left our luggage at the hotel and were picked up by my sister and brother-in-law who took us home to a nice breakfast.

The Hamburg public transportation system offers a "Group Day Ticket" for 10 Euros, where up to 4 adults can travel all day on all public transports, which includes trains, buses, and ferries. Since it was a beautiful, sunny day we bought one of those tickets and decided to take the train down to the harbor and then a ferry over to a little island in the middle of the Elbe. We were not the only ones having this idea! Landungsbruecke, the main ferry dock, was crowded, but we managed to get on the next ferry. It took us a few stops down the river to Oevelgoenne. I grew up a couple of miles inland and would often walk down to the beach there. Many people don't realize that there is a beach along the Elbe, and, yes, people do actually swim in the river. On a beautiful day like today, there were also quite a few kids playing in the sand.

One thing that had not been there during my youth was a new cruise ship dock, where the MSC Magnifica was docked. Otherwise, there was the usual traffic on the river, from container ships to sailboats and ferries crossing the river. There even was another cruise ship sailing down the river.

Disembarking at Finkenwerder, we walked around a bit, checking out the two restaurants for a possible lunch. But in the end decided to go back home and eat there.

On the trip home, Bob managed a spot right up in the bow at the railing and got some beautiful pictures of the container loading docks, river traffic, and the skyline of the old downtown area with the iconic steeple of the "Michel" (St. Michael's Church) in the middle. The new Elbphilharmonie concert hall built at the edge of the new harbor town was almost finished, and the city fathers want it to become a new symbol for Hamburg, although so far it has just cost a lot of money.

Copyright 2014 by Robert W. Holt and Elsbeth Monika Holt
Arrival in Hamburg Hamburg Day 2 Haffkrug Niendorf Eutin
Neustadt Luebeck Travemuende Sailing to Kappeln So Long, Scharbeutz

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