Europe-Hamburg 10-13-09

Monday morning we arrived in Hamburg. The weather was quite cold and it sprinkled here and there – not bad. We were able to make our way to a nice little spot called Binnenalster (Lake Alster). We walked along the lake and took pictures of the swans. We strolled on over to one of Hamburg’s malls (Europa Passage). It may have been a full block in length with 4 floors of stores. Very small compared to our malls which generally cover many blocks. We walked to Rathaus (Senate and the City Parliament Bldg.); a very historic bldg nicely kept up. We continued walking around and found ourselves in a more exclusive shopping area on the streets and tried to imagine what it would be like to shop in stores like these and not give it a thought – what would it be like to have too much money? After this, we came back down to the real world and returned to the hotel to do laundry. There is one thing that we have noticed that has been common for all countries and that is what we have labeled, “universal art” (graffiti).

On Tuesday, we just walked around town. The entire city could be travelled on foot; and so we did. We went to Speicherstadt (Warehouse City); lots of historic buildings amongst waterways and canals. We went to Landungs-Brucken which was a docking place for tour boats and other tourist attractions. From this place, we walked to St. Michaeliskirche (St. Michaelis Church) and viewed the city from the top of the tower. We then descended to the lower parts of the church to tour the vault and crypt. The church itself was being pretty much fully restored – nothing really spectacular. We journeyed to the St. Nikolai memorial. This is a historic church that was almost completely destroyed in World War II. The main structure that held up is the steeple. They never restored it; instead it remains a memorial site. We finished the day strolling along the shops.