Wanderung 30

We walked through the huge Ohlsdorf Cemetery to Heinke and Gustl's condominium for a very nice breakfast. As it was still Spring time in northern Germany, the Rhododendrons we saw along the way were beautifully in bloom.

We drove with Heinke und Gustl to the cemetery where Monika's parents were buried. This is a small cemetery with many small plots that are taken care of by the relatives. Heinke and Gustl are doing a wonderful job with ours so we just weeded and watered Mammie's grave. The spring flowers were blooming, so very pretty.

The cemetery is only a few blocks from the Elbe. So we all walked down to the Elbe at Ovelgonne. There were several old ships at Ovelgoenne Ship Museum. There Heinke und Gustl went back to their car and we continued upstream past a dock for tugboats,

A couple of those tugs were helping a huge container ship coming slowly up the Elbe to the container harbor. There also was a dredge deepening the channel in the Elbe.

At the new cruiseship terminal in Altona, we decided to tak a bus to Landungsbruecke. There we had lunch at a little Imbiss by the U-Bahn station called "Die Imbiss-Eck". Very tasty.

We took U-Bahn to the Rathaus and wandered around the Alster Lake and the downtown shopping district. It was such a beautiful almost summer-like day with bright sunshine and blue skies, so we stopped for lots of pictures.

Our main reason for shopping was to get something for Natali's girl-to-be, and finally we found a baby outfit and teething ring at Karstadt that we thought she would like. We also found some bicycle maps for Hamburg in a bookstore as we walked past. Bob picked them up as he was not sure our phone would work as a GPS and he wanted paper maps as a backup.

We were finally worn out about 3pm and returned to the hotel for a nap. But then we went back to Heinke and Gustl,s for dinner. Detlef joined us and rode Bob's new bicycle over. It seems to be very nice! Strong disc brakes! 7-speed with electric motor in rear wheel hub and detachable Lithium-Ion battery! Slick LCD monitor! Bright lights! We planned to test ride it tomorrow but for tonight we stowed it in H&G's garage for safekeeping. As it was dark, we took the bus and S_Bahn to get back to the hotel for the night.