Hamburg, Germany - 2005 thru 2008
Our home and neighborhood in Hamburg
Stuff to do and see in Hamburg Side trips to go on while visiting Hamburg
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Shots from a summer trip to Hamburg, Wingst, and Berlin 2005 and 2006
   

This was a shot of northern Hamburg taken from our hotel room window – 22 floors up – just after a summer storm. The tower in the middle is a TV antenna with a revolving restaurant up top that has been closed for a couple of years. We were talking after a walk and before dinner when I looked up and say the rays of sunshine breaking through the clouds. Click on the picture for a larger version.
 

This is Laurel having her first Donner Kabob amid the street life on the Reeperbaun – an area that is the largest red-light district in Europe outside of Amsterdam. We took the subway down there; drank a beer or two, ate, and people watched on the street from the safety of a bench in a beergarten.

This was such a funny site. This girl was decked out and riding a four-wheeler with matching helmet. Note her nails… Click on the picture to see another great detail of her outfit.
 

We spent an afternoon in the small city of Wingst where there was a petting zoo. Mrs. Burton-Talley is a huge fan of the baby animals. A couple of the pigmy goats took a shine to her and followed her around.

The Rathhaus is the city hall and this is an image of its copper roof from the St. Nicholi Church Memorial. Note the gargoyle on the right side.
 

Just a couple of the cool graffiti murals on what is left of the Berlin Wall. The one on the right is a plea to keep portions of the wall and the art intact. It has been taken down piece by piece to make way for new construction and for souvenirs.

This is a bronze sits in the middle of a fountain near the Kaiser Wilhelm Church Memorial in Berlin. The beer bottle next to her is a nice touch. I am not sure if it is part of the art or was added by a citizen.

 

A still standing piece of the wall. The “damage” is from “woodpeckers” – people that chipped away at it day by day for either souvenirs of just to make it go away. It has been protected to serve as a memorial.

Another Shot of the Hamburg skyline form the St. Nicholi bell tower. The steeple in the picture is the St. Michael and again, a gargoyle makes an appearance.
   
So, we are in Berlin and this guy sits down next to us and we couldn’t help but to stare at him a little. I told Laurel to sneak a picture just because he was so out there and he leaned away so that he wouldn’t interfere with our shot. Laurel sat down and we started talking to him a little bit. He was covered in tattoos and piercings. He apparently loved his tunes as he had musical notes tattooed in his ear and a treble clef on his neck. His name was Werner and he spoke maybe thirty words of English that mostly revolved around, “I love America.” “I love San Francisco.” “I am a homosexual, etc…” He was a funny little man that was really happy sitting in the sun on a summer day, listening to music, and talking to strangers.
 
   

We saw these great ads for Axe body products all over Germany and they were hysterically funny. It got to a point that we looked for new one to point out to each other.

   
Painted cows have taken over for the painted Hummel-Hummel’s shown below and littered Hamburg while we were there this summer.
 
This is another of shot of northern Hamburg taken from our hotel room window just after a summer storm. Click on the picture for a larger version.
   

Me standing in the midst of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. All these concrete blocks of varying height populate an entire city block and there is a museum located in a corner of the site that is underground so as to not disrupt the impact of the blocks.

This is the bomb damaged steeple of St. Nicholi. The church was destroyed during “Operation Gomorra” in 1944. Most of Hamburg was destroyed during the attack. Click on the picture for an additional image.
 

Another picture of these copper plaques is below, but I include this one because of the number of names at the same address. They are a memorial to Jews that lived there and were deported and killed during the holocaust. Simple, yet very moving.
 

Me looking for a map in front of a sweet little Mini Cooper.

Laurel giving a Hummel-Hummel a little smooch on the cheek. This was one of the last ones left on display in the city.
   

This tower is located down by the Harbor and the Fish Market. It was built prior to 1944, but I am not sure what purpose it served. Drag your curser accross it and you can see how it was altered after the war.

I have a thing for VW vans and we chanced upon this one while walking around the Altona neighborhood in the city.
   
 
Pictures taken in Hamburg when it was ARCTIC cold there in February
   
On my first day in Hamburg the weather was amazing for Germany at the end of February: cold and crisp, but almost no wind and very sunny. This is a picture of the Gross Alster in the middle of town.
   
Again, a shot from the first day of the trip. This is a shot of a canal in the Planten un Blomen park in the middle of town. It was cold enough for the water to freeze, but the running trails (right side of pic) were ice free. I ran there (it was right by my hotel) four out of five days. On the second to last morning in town it snowed 1-2 inches around 5:00 AM and I ran in the park around 6:00 AM. The trails were covered with a dusting of snow with no tracks at all but mine and there was just a little bit of light in the sky. It was a truly great run!! The tower in the back ground is a TV tower that has a revolving restaurant near the top (currently closed).
   
A reclining nude Bronze at the entrance to the Planten un Blomen park in Hamburg. I ran by her every day, so I figured that she needed to be included with the trip photos.
   
A sun lit pedestrian street as seen fro a coffee shop that I sat in checking my e-mail the first day. It leads from near Gänsemarkt Square to the Messe CCH and is full of great little shops and restaurants.
   
The morning of day three dawned with snow, which continued for the next 6 days.
   
The tower in the middle of the field is part of the old city wall. It is next to the university and the field is part of a green space (when it isn’t covered with ice and snow) that connects to the Planten un Blomen park. In the summer it is filled with picnickers, students, impromptu soccer games, dogs, and children.
   
The Airbus A380 on the ground at the Airbus Finkenverder facility. This baby has been the reason for my employment for the last two years. It is MASSAVE inside and the cockpit alone is the size of my bedroom when I was a child. Some of the details include:

• Length: 73 m (239 ft 6 in)
• Wingspan: 79.8 m (261 ft 10 in)
• Height: 24.1 m (79 ft 1 in)
• Wing area: 845 m² (9,100 ft²)

   
2005
Pictures taken in and around Hamburg and Berlin in Febuary, June and December
   
A canal in Hamburg, Germany – “The Venice of the North” –
I don’t know about all that, but it was a pretty little city. The tide rises and falls in the canals roughly nine feet a day.
 
The Auto von Bismarck monument. Bismarck was from the area and is buried in a mausoleum south of town.
 

A Fishmonger at the Fish Market REALLY early one crazy-cold February morning. All the guides say get there at 4:30 am. Screw that!
 
The inside of the Fish Market proper. Beer, German polka music, fried food, drunken hookers just getting off "shift" in St. Pauli, college kids, amusments, club kids, all-night revilers and more beer. An intersting time it was...
 
The pulpit in St. Petri (St. Peter) Church in Hamburg.
 
A very interesting painting behind the alter in St. Petri. Not something you normally see in a church, much less in a German church.
 

   
The Hummel-Hummel. There are statues like these all OVER Hamburg. They are like cows and pigs in US cities: Marketing tools/artwork to see how creative a sponsor can be. They are a representation of the historic water carriers that were omni-present in the city long ago.
   
A tomb stone depicting St. George slaying the dragon – My favorite medieval theme -
 
A very touchy subject in Germany: WWII and the treatment of Jews. This is a “Davidstar” that was worn in the coat of Jews in public. It was on display at the Hamburg Museum.
 
The Jews at the brickwork in Hamburg-Neuengamme produced Millions of these bricks during their imprisonment.
 
Interesting sculptures and paintings from the Hamburg City Museum. The monk in stocks was very powerful and the bust with blank eyes was somewhat haunting. The mask and the nude are by Picasso. Both were gorgeous and helped me appreciate the man as an artist and not as a pop-artist that I perceived him as being for so long with the simple sketches, blue-period and strange out of proportion women that I was used to seeing as illustrations of his talent.
 
 
A deer stand along the rail tracks between Hamburg and Berlin. It is easy to forget that German culture was once a hunting culture and vestiges of it remain, like in the American South and West.
 
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church) is one of the most famous landmarks in Berlin. Bombed during the Second World War, the church has not been restored. It was built at the end of the 19th century to symbolize the unity of Prussia. Most parts of the church were destroyed in 1943, and only broken west tower is still standing and is left as a reminder of the horrors and consequences of war.
 
A monument in Berlin to those who died trying to cross from East Berlin to West Berlin during the Cold War
 
A weekend Flea-market in Berlin. I found some VERY cool stuff there including a WWI German soldier’s campaign medal, an antique pair of dresser’s shears for Laurel, and a unique kettle for my mother.
 
A representation of art found at the Picasso Museum in Berlin. The building itself is also very beautiful on the inside.
 

Smart cars are all over Europe, especially in the cities. Hamburg is full of them. They really are great little urban vehicles: fast, cheap, airbags everywhere high mileage, very stable, etc… They can be parked almost anywhere. I saw one from a train that was chained to a bike rack on a sidewalk.
 
 
These small brass bricks were placed outside some of the homes in Hamburg as a remembrance of Jews who once lived at the address and were deported to concentration camps during the horror of WWII. They were very controversial when they were first placed and are sprinkled throughout the city.
 
An infantry soldier’s monument in Hamburg near the Damak train station and the Messe CCH in a neglected little green space. I asked around a little and it seems to be very controversial - the newer generation does not want to be reminded about the possible sins or memories of the past.
 
A surf shop in Hamburg?!? It was right next to the West Coast Choppers shop and also near the central train station. Weird…