Friday April 15: Hamburg, Germany (Fleet Tour)
Bob: We wanted to see downtown Hamburg and reacquaint ourselves with the "Venice of the North", so we set off at 10:00 a.m. for a day of wandering around the town, a "Stadtbummel" as the Germans would put it. The mass transit network in Hamburg is excellent, so the best way to get around the city is to buy a daily ticket, and we started off our day doing exactly that. Heinke and Gustl had informed us that the S1 train now branched out to Hamburg's airport at Fuhlsbuettel, so we took the first bus over to Ruebenkamp station and hopped on the S1 out to the airport. We were amazed at how well designed the system was, down to having all the stations and instructions conveyed in both German and English for the international travelers. We even stopped for a snack at one of the airport cafeterias, and were surprised to find them reasonably priced as most airport eateries in the U.S. charge rather dearly for food. Having satisfied our curiosity about the new airport link, we returned to the middle of downtown Hamburg on the S1 and disembarked at Jungfernstieg (American: Maiden's promenade), which is located on the Binnen Alster (American: Inner Alster lake) in the middle of the city. First Monika obtained some Euros from an ATM and then we checked out the Alsterhaus. On previous visits we had found nice maps, clothes, and leather goods on sale for good prices at the Alsterhaus, but they had raised their prices overall and eliminated the sales, so there was nothing there that interested us. |
Monika: Today we wanted to go downtown to check out how things had changed. But first we packed a parcel to send back home. Between the souvenirs and crafts from the cruise and 4 plates I had bought on E-bay and sent to Heinke, we needed to lighten our load. So we carefully packed some of our bulkier cruise clothes, like Bob's suit jacket, the plates, and some of the souvenirs and crafts and lugged it to the next post office. The postage was heftier than I thought it would be but still cheaper than an extra piece of luggage we would have to pay for on the plane. That done we took a bus to the next S-Bahn station. Heinke had told us, that the S-Bahn now had an extension to the airport and we wanted to find out how easy it was to use and then get around the airport. It turned out that the new S-Bahn link was very easy, and in the airport we even found a little grocery shop with Deli attached where the prices were quite reasonable. We picked up two Frickadellen (large hamburgers) at the Deli and I bought a beer and a coke at the store for a very satisfying lunch. So now we were ready to hit the town. First we hit a branch of my bank with an ATM to get some cash. Then we went into the Alsterhaus, one of the flagship department stores. They used to have reasonably priced stuff but had gone up-scale during the last two years and I felt completely out-of-place. |
Bob: We walked down the Jungernstieg to the dock on the Binnen Alster Lake to see the passenger ferries that ply the Inner and Outer Alster Lakes. Most of the ferries were sleek modern models with diesel engines, but one of the real, old-fashioned, steam-powered ferries was still chuffing up and down the lake. It was quite sight as it huffed and puffed along, pouring out clouds of steam and smoke all the while. |
Monika: Across from the Alsterhaus is the Binnenalster. The Alster is a river that flows through downtown Hamburg to the Elbe, a major river that flows into the North Sea. Right downtown it had been dammed centuries ago to create two lakes, the smaller Binnenalster and the much larger Aussenalster. Between the Binnenalster and the Elbe are several channels. These are called "Fleets" because they carry flowing waters. Hamburg used to have a fleet of commuter boats going up and down the Binnen- and Aussenalster. But when this was no longer profitable, they were turned into excursion boats. We even watched one of the old steam powered Alsterdampfer come back to the pier, always a good photographic subject. |
Bob: On the dock we saw an advertisement for a 2-hour bout tour of Hamburg's "Fleets". On previous trips we had taken boat tours of Hamburg's harbor and canal system, but never the Fleets. The Fleets are the channels connecting the Alster Lakes and the harbor area, and are different from canals in that there is a natural flow of fresh water from the slightly higher lakes to the Elbe River in the harbor. Since we had never toured the Fleets before and it was a bright, sunny day, we decided to purchase tickets for a tour in the afternoon. From the dock of the Inner Alster Lake we walked along the Alster Arcade, a very pretty section of marble arches alongside one of the main Fleets, over to the Rathaus square (City Hall square). I saw a group of protesters out front with signs that roughly translated as "people can't sleep on bridges", and I was puzzled by that until Monika explained that the protesters were urging the city to spend money on building more housing for the homeless rather than on renovating bridges. Hamburg has, in fact, more bridges than Amsterdam, London, and Venice combined, so I suspect that bridge renovation is a significant part of the budget. |
Monika: On our last visit we had taken one of them on a cruise up the Aussenalster and through some of the channels of the Alster. This time we decided to take a cruise down the Fleet to the Elbe. After buying the tickets, we had an hour before boarding, so we decided to go to the other department store we used to like, Karstadt. This one had not changed as much as the Alsterhaus, but we still did not find anything we liked. By then it was time to go back to the pier, in time to board our boat. We were in time to get a seat on a bench in the open stern, much better for photography then the glass-enclosed inside. The only disadvantage was that because of the noise of the engine, we could not hear the commentary very well. But that was a small price to pay. |
Bob: Returning to the Inner Alster for our Fleet tour, we climbed aboard one of the low-decked passenger ferries and found a place in the stern from which we could take pictures without worrying about reflections in the windows. The low roof was absolutely necessary, as we found out when we chugged under the first bridge and saw the underside of the bridge less than 6 inches from the roof of our ferry! |
Monika: But then we started out by going underneath the first bridge and into the first lock. To regulate the difference in water level between Elbe, a tidal river, and the Alster, there were several locks and it was fun being in a boat, rather than watching from a bridge above. The commentary told us about the different houses we passed and some of the history. Some of that history I knew, other things were new. For instance, why was one road close to the harbor called "Baumwall" (English: "tree-wall"). Well, this used to be at the edge of the first harbor and at night they would lower a palisade of trees over the opening, so that pirates could not get into the harbor...now I knew. |
Bob: The Fleet tour first concentrated on the old warehouse area, which had been made largely obsolete by the advent of containerized shipping. Most of the beautiful old brick warehouses had been converted to apartments, businesses, and the odd museum or two, but some were still used to store Persian rugs. Curiously, Hamburg was the second largest sales point for Persian rugs in the world after Tehran. Who knew? You could tell the old brick warehouse buildings because they all featured wide doors opening straight onto the water at each level from the ground floor to the 5th floor. In the old days a crane on the top floor was used for hauling the cargo out of the lighters and into the door of the warehouse, but I didn't see any buildings that still had the cranes. In contrast, the buildings that had been converted to aparments or condominiums had changed those exterior doors to a semi-circular column surrounding an external stairway that led from the top floor to the street level. Apparently the stairway is sealed off from the building interior and can only be entered from the semi-circular balcony surrounding the stairway on each floor. It was a curious-looking arrangement for sure, but purportedly safer in the case of a fire. |
Monika: Once in the Elbe we turned into the warehouse area, now being rebuilt as a modern "Hafencity" or Harbor-city in English. Hamburg's harbor always was an important link between the overseas trade and the domestic trade. Overseas goods were brought into the harbor, unloaded into the warehouses and from there re-loaded into barges to be taken into the rest of the country. With most of the re-shipping now done by containers, the old warehouses are no longer needed and have been converted to luxury apartments and lofts. There is still one curious use of the warehouse area, namely to store and sell Persian carpets. On our last visit we had wandered the streets of the Hafencity, it was fun seeing it now from the water. |
Bob: Our tour also traversed the harbor area which included a brand spanking new cruise-ship dock that had been in construction during our last visit to Hamburg on Wanderung 18. The "Cara", a cruise ship for the Aida line, was docked at the new terminal, and I know that the Cunard line also operated some of its ships from Hamburg, so apparently the new dock is getting some use. Our little boat rocked a bit when crossing the Elbe River due to the wakes of some of the larger excursion ships and ferries plying the waterfront area. One excursion vessel was dressed up to look like the Delta Queen Mississippi steamer, complete with gingerbread woodwork, tall twin smokestacks, and a rear paddle wheel! On the far side of the Elbe we circled around the Blohm and Voss shipyards, which seemed to be quite busy with several ships in floating drydocks and one medium-large cruise ship having a superstructure installed in the main yard. I couldn't tell, however, if the cruise ship was a major renovation project or whether it was in fact a newly built ship. When I was talking to Rolf that evening, he mentioned a brand-new, German-focused cruise line that was purchasing older ships, renovating them, and running cruises out of Hamburg, so maybe what I saw was one of those ships. |
Monika: From the Hafencity we went across the Elbe to see some of the present harbor. One of the dry docks had a cruise ship in it. There was a lot of activity everywhere and commuter ships and tugs were crossing the Elbe. Along the Elbe we saw the museum ship Cap San Diego and the old sailboat Rickmer Rickmers, both old friends. But then it was back through the locks and the fleet to the pier in the Binnenalster. It had been a very nice excursion. |
Bob: We slowly returned to the Binnen Alster via the Fleets and the locks that prevent the tides from influencing the levels of the lakes. Disembarking, we hopped on an S-Bahn out to Altona where Gustl had arranged a family gathering at a local restaurant and pizza parlor, but we arrived early so we spent some time shopping and then walked out to the nearby cemetery to visit the grave of Monika's mother and father. We weeded and watered the plants that Heinke and Gustl had planted on their grave site, as is the custom in Germany . |
Monika: But our day was not done. Gustl had arranged a get together in a pizza restaurant with my niece Kimi who was here from her new home in the Azores, my cousin Rolf and his wife, and his son Detlef and wife. Since all this was happening in Altona, we hopped the next S-Bahn to first pay a visit to the grave of my father and mother. They are buried in a small cemetery in Altona, and as in every cemetery in Germany, the plots are taken care of by the relatives. I always enjoy walking this small peaceful cemetery and was surprised to find a wooden sculpture at the intersection of two rows. I am not quite sure what it means but it seems to fit into the surroundings. Heinke and Gustl do a wonderful job of taking care of the grave of my parents. So all we had to do was pulling a few weeds and watering the flowers - watering cans are always available at the water spigot - and then just stand there a few moments remembering them. |
Bob: Afterwards we returned to the restaurant to meet Heinke, Gustl, their son Detlef and his wife Susanna, Rolf, Monika's cousin, and his wife Gudrun, and Monika's niece Kimi, and had a rollicking good time. Kimi had moved to the fifth largest island in the Azores about a year back, so she was just back in Hamburg on a brief visit, so we were happy to have the chance to meet with her and the rest of the gang. She regaled us with various tales of island life. She was living just outside a town of 6,000 people, I believe she said, and many of her stories sounded to me much like small town life everywhere in the world. The Azores are still a part of Portugal, so Kim was also learning Portuguese to better communicate with the local folks, especially when their livestock escaped and wandered into her garden! Monika and I split a very nice, crisp, thin-crust pizza and we all talked and talked from 6 to 9 p.m., when we finally gave up and all headed home. Although I hadn't really done much during the day, I was exhausted and after having a night cap with Heinke and Gustl just fell into bed. |
Monika: We walked back to the restaurant and pretty soon the rest of the gang arrived. We had a wonderful time chatting with everyone and catching up. Kimi seems to be very happy in her new home, but comes back to Hamburg ever now and then to earn a few bucks. Rolf and Gudrun enjoy their grandchildren, twins a year or so older than Annalise and of course we exchanged pictures and stories. I always enjoy Detlef, the only sad note was Susanne, who had just come from the hospital, where her father is very sick. But being able to put this aside and having an evening with lots of people was probably good for her. We all kept chatting until it was time to go home. Heinke and Gustl also had taken public transportation, so we all went back to the S-Bahn to go home. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Map of Drive in Ireland | Epilog |
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