Friday 6 January 2017

Hamburg: Aug 15

As you know, I have been to Hamburg a couple of times with my Dad (see here) and then for a sex trafficking conference (see here). This time I was visiting a childhood friend who moved to Hamburg, and some pretty sweet Viking sites.

The trip began very adventurously with an hour and a half delay on picking up my hire car from the airport. It was my first time hiring a car abroad and I was nervous. The first thing I did was drive the car the wrong way down a dual carriageway. It was a super stressful experience, but I did eventually complete the trip from Bremen to Hamburg. I remain unconvinced that German motorways are all they are cracked up to be for speed; at no point on the holiday did I escape the Summer 'Staue' (queues)!

City Centre Fun
Hamburg being a harbour city there are many opportunities to discover the watery-environs. We hired a row-boat to explore the Alster and did plenty of messing about on the river, or should I say lake. For entertainment there is a great riverside bar on a re-purposed light-ship; we enjoyed a night of jazz music on board the Feuerschiff - at least there was a legitimate reason for the horizon to be moving!

Who left me in charge of an oar?!
Feuerschiff
















Beyond Hamburg: Lübeck and Hedeby
One of the advantages of hiring a car is how much easier it is to explore the wider world beyond your immediate town; so I took day-trips from Hamburg to two other places: Lübeck and Hedeby.
Lübeck is a pretty Medieval town which really shone in the summer light. Big city gates, beautiful warehouses, and old winding streets. Lübeck is also famous for marzipan; they have been producing marzipan there since 1806 and there are several shops dedicated to the stuff in the town centre. On the way home the radio played David Gray's Babylon for the nth time!

Salt-store
Old school high street





















The Viking trading settlement of Hedeby was founded in the 770's. It was the first town I ever studied whilst at Cambridge. And only 1 and a half hours from Hamburg. I had more driving stress on this journey, this time associated with parking. There were very few places to park; when I did find somewhere to park turned out it was for coaches only - I was driving a Fiat 500!

When I eventually parked safely Haithabu Re-enactment village it did not disappoint. Neither did the boar sausage and mash I had for lunch, very Viking! On the way home I stopped via Gottorf Castle and saw the Nydam clinker-boat in real life. This is something akin to being able to touch the shroud of Tutankhamen in my world!

Hedeby village
Wildboar and veg. Viking diet.

Clinker boat at Hedeby



Bremen
And so on the last morning, I drove my car back to Bremen with plenty of time, and prayed they wouldn't charge me for the wing-mirror paint scratches. Trying to find somewhere to fuel up was quite a challenge in the unknown city; and I felt like Bremen and I already had car-related beef. Having dropped the car off I explored the city in the afternoon. I came across this group of street performers chanting 'eat.work.sleep.repeat' and wearing all black. I was fairly sure these were Christians. I was trying to take a photo and the man in the photo engaged me in conversation. When I told him I was waiting for a flight he said 'perhaps you are waiting for Jesus!' and I prayed he wasn't prophetic!


Bremen town
Waiting for Jesus?





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