Hamburg... Not the birthplace of the Hamburger

When we last left our story, Tim was staying at his German friend's house. He is now safe in Munich, but had many good travels in Hamburg! Maya and I got up Saturday early and went to the town bakery to get some bread - so awesome!! All the townspeople were there, ordering delicious breads to consume. It was so precious. We went home and had a huge breakfast of bread (the white hard kind, some brown kind with seeds, a cinnamon-sugary kind, and a raisiny-sugar kind) with butter, cheeses, tons of jams, salmon, ham, and the best of all: honey. Not the gloopy stuff we're used to, but honey you have to spread with your knife. I totally love these breakfasts!!! The really great thing was that all the cheeses had a distinctive flavor, not just the fat flavor I'm used to all cheeses having in the states. Breakfast was so good, we missed the early train into the city (but we caught the next one an hour later). Our first stop in Hamburg was the HafenCity, a gentrification project along some old dilapidated harbor, followed by the old canaled streets - who knew Hamburg had canals? Next we took a ferry ride on the Harbor. Hamburg is situated along the Elbe river, and has been one of Germany's major seaports for ages. Many of the vessels containing would-be American emigrants left from Hamburg (interesting, right?). The ferry was so fun, especially when we went up on the deck to get a better view. It was SO COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hamburg was already 20 and snowing, but on the boat, it was probably 5 degrees with 30 mph wind. But, it was totally worth it. Left one cold place for another cold place. Figures. We then visited a few churches (including the Michel, Hamburg's favorite), and the City Hall (roughly equivalent to the Iowa or Nebraska Capitol building),

as well as Hamburg's art museum. By the evening, we were ready to sit down for a while, and we had bought tickets to a viola concert. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves in to... 4 hours of atonal new age music with two 15 minute intermissions and an MC (who spoke in German of course) that wouldn't shut up, we realized how crazy it really was. The vast majority of the music lacked any kind of rhythmic or tonal coherency whatsoever. They played two Bach pieces, but chose probably his two weirdest pieces, played them way too slow and out of context. When it comes to modifying old music, I say if it's not Baroque, don't fix it (sorry for the shameless pun. actually I'm not sorry). I definitely gained appreciation for that music, as the players were fantastic (though we didn't enjoy the show as much as the packed house around us - they totally digged that stuff).
The next day, we awoke to another fantastic breakfast (same as the day before), and began to plan for our day's trip to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. Maya drove us in her family's VolksWagen, and yes, we drove on the Autobahn!!!! However, it was snowy so we couldn't go fast, and contrary to popular belief they do have speed limits. The Camp was very interesting and had a great museum. It was originally a Soviet POW camp, then changed to a "special" Concentration Camp for more important Jews, but eventually devolved into what we know all the camps to be. Bergen-Belsen was where Anne Frank and her sister Margot died, and there is a symbolic grave built in their memory. What a sad reminder of a terrible and difficult time for the world and for Germany.
Later that night, I had to leave for Munich (after another delicious traditional German meal of course). We'd bought an overnight ticket for me, so after I packed my bag (yes, I did get it all in to one bag), I was off, leaving Maya's house :( I can't say enough good things about their hospitality!!! I had such a great time!!!


I learned several things on the overnight train trip:
1. Deutsche Bahn workers do not speak English. Any of them. They just try to speak German slower to me, which really doesn't do any good at all.
2. You can generally trust people not to steal your stuff (still makes me nervous though...)
3. You can actually kind of sleep in a train overnight.

4. Train delays suck.
5. There is a very steep learning curve for a kid from non public transportation small town Iowa to negotiate the train system in a foreign country.
But now I'm in Munich, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Sorry for the long post, but I just couldn't cut it down!!! Things will settle once I get to Spain.
Check out the Facebook album for pictures - I can't figure out how to put them in the blog.
Peace and love and bunnies and all that stuff,
Tim