Family History day

Today we had a few areas of Hamburg to see before we leave tomorrow.

Sherry's maiden name is Everest and her grandfather was of German descent with the surname Wohlers so today we went to find Wohlers Park.

It was a train ride from the central station and then a walk of around 20 mins to get to the park but on the way we ran into a restaurant sign which was advising all


that were passing that Sherry was special - the restaurant served Nepalese food.

The park was rather delightful and clearly was once a cemetery and while we asked





a few people how the park got its name no one could tell us. The street running alongside the park is called


and there is a pub on the corner bearing the same name


Leaving the park we then walked towards the river and through the red light area known as Reeperbahn, which was as seedy as one would imagine, the best thing


being the Police station. Onwards we tramped arriving at Landungsbrucken which is an area on the Elbe from which river cruise boats run. With our train ticket we could go on


a ferry and we took the 62 which went to a stop on the other side of the river and returned back to where it started, a trip that took around an hour.





The port of Hamburg (Hamburger Hafen) is 110 kms from the mouth of the River Elbe at the North Sea.

Finishing our ferry ride we then found the Alter Elbtunnel which is a pedestrian and vehicle tunnel from one side of the Elbe to the other with entry both for people and vehicles being by lift. We walked from one side to the other and then obviously


back again. The walk seemed longer than it looked when we were standing on the shoreline.

On to another train we ventured further north to a delightful "village" called Blankenese which had a Remuera village type feel about it.

We walked around the area for an hour or so before back on the train to Rathausmarkt from there we walked to St Michael's church to go up the tower


for our final look at Hamburg. The city is spread over a vast area but what


particularly struck us was how close the nearest wind turbines were to the city.


The inside of the church was also stunning


Leaving there we moved back to the Rathaus and had our evening meal in the equivalent of Bellamy's - in this city called Parliament Restaurant.

Tonight's meal was Labskaus, a mixture of beef brisket, herring, potato & beet root with a rollmop and an egg on top - to say the least it was interesting!

Our travel ticket today cost 10.40 euro for both of us i.e. one ticket and we took 3 train trips and one river cruise and if we had wanted to we could still be on the system until 6am tomorrow morning - it is a pity that our city father's can't get their act together and price our regional transport similarly.

Walking Tour Hamburg

As luck would have it we woke to a cool Hamburg morning with rain threatening but we were committed to the tour.

Downtown we went and like Zurich last Sunday everything was closed other than the coffee bars and eating places.

We met the tour guide and other participants outside Starbucks in Rathausmarkt and after the normal formalities set off.

The tour meandered through the historic areas between Rathausmarkt and the River Elbe and took us past some delightful buildings and other touristy sights before concluding some 3.5 hours later at Hafen City.

The guide an American who has lived in Hamburg for 15 years was very informative and provide a very good background to what we were seeing.

The following photos tell the story of the day


St Petri church





A building put up by a shipping firm


Chilehaus


A plaque outside of the building where they made the gas for the extermination camps


Africahaus


St Nikolai memorial - all that remains of the church after WWII bombings


Inland waterway


Overlooking another waterway


Hafen City


The final stop in the tour with Brent

While it was a cool day in fact apart from a light drizzle prior to the start of the tour it didn't rain

North to Hamburg

We left Kassel for the 300km drive to Hamburg around 9.15 am with Mrs GPS suggesting we would be there by noon.

Around 2pm we arrived after a trip that was slowed in places by traffic congestion and the mandatory roadworks.

That we made stops for morning tea, then a toilet stop and then for lunch didn't help!

The first impressions we had as we entered the city was that it was a tad dreary but we were wrong.

We left the hotel and walked into the main area of town through a relatively seedy part of town if the numerous sex shops that we passed are any indication.

However when we got to Monckebergstrasse it was a different world.

At the end on Monckebergstrasse there is Rathausmarkt a square dominated by the Rathaus - the town hall - and it is a magnificent building. In the square there were


the usual street performers but this trio were very intriguing








We went inside the Rathaus and out through to the courtyard and saw the full beauty of the building





Leaving the town hall we then went a short distance to Binnenalster which is an artificial lake in the city centre and on passed that to Jungfernstieg which is a


shopping street with more top end shops than low end.

By this time it was around 5.30 but the streets were as busy as they had been some


three hours earlier.

The city has an novelty way of doing a "city tour"


After a meal we arrived back at the hotel around 8pm and we look toward to tomorrow which begins with a 3hr walking tour of the city.

Hamburg is as far north as we go as when we leave here we swing east & south.

We have driven approx. 900kms up through the western side of Germany and still have approx. 5000kms of driving to go before we arrive back at Zurich!

Moving on to Kassel

This morning we left Frankfurt at around 9am en route to Kassel some 195kms further north.

Today driving conditions were a little hairy with numerous hold ups due to roadworks and heavy traffic.

We arrived into Kassel around 12.15 and were lucky again to find our room was ready, in fact 2 rooms as the booking was for a studio apartment and we have plenty of room to stretch out.

After a quick lunch we found the Information Centre to see how we could get to Bergpark Wilhelmshone which is a mountain park with at least three historic buildings.

Tram 3 followed by bus 22 dropped us off close to Herkules monument at the top


of the park. We paid our 6 euros to climb to the viewing platform which gave superb views out over Kassel and the other two buildings we wanted to look at - Lowenburg Castle


and Schloss Wilhelmshohe both of which were lower down through the forest


Before we left the platform Sherry had to embarrass me by taking a photo of the


little fellow - I swear the photo doesn't do it justice!

Down to the base of Herkules we set off to go to Lowenburg and despite the lack of good signposting through the forest we finally got to it after clambering down


numerous steps from Herkules and walking numerous paths through the forest





and passed some delightful forest huts


From there we ventured further down to the Schloss, a majestic building which is


watch over by Herkules


After a well earned drink in the on site cafe we then had a further walk to the nearest


tram stop from where we could look back up to the forest and just make out Herkules before journeying back into the central city.

We only have the half day in Kassel and we think that we have used the time to our best advantage.

A view from the top

After completing laundry duties we ventured back into the city to go up the Main Tower to the observation deck 200m above the central city. This provided a



panoramic view across greater Frankfurt which is a flattish city, the hills being very








distant. Down from the tower we walked over to the nearby opera house, Alte


Oper, which was a building of some beauty.

After lunch in a sidewalk cafe, one of approx. 25 in the street we walked back through Dom-Romer to the river and crossed over on the Untmainbrucke (a bridge) and wandered through Sachenhausen before circling back and walking down the southern side of the Main passed the numerous museums.


Back into Dom-Romer we came across a wedding party and we watched the


"happy" couple cut out a heart from a large sheet before the groom picked up his


bride and carried her through the heart.

A thought regarding Europe from the short time we have been here - it is in many ways the antithesis of New Zealand in that:

* we ban dogs from nearly every where whereas they allow them in restaurants, public transport etc.

* we regulate cyclists to wear helmets - I haven't seen one cyclist here, and there hundreds of them, wear a helmet

* we frown on drinking alcohol in public places, they have no concerns

* we regulate against smoking, they obviously don't think smoking is an unhealthy habit.

Also they are only too willing to help those of us who don't speak their language enjoy our holiday - it can be quite interesting trying to make oneself understood but they show patience and do their best to give the correct advice etc.

Frankfurt...

...is the 5th largest city in Germany and we have managed in two days to see a hell of a lot of it without once taking public transport!

As said yesterday the imperative today was to get a green sticker for the vehicle so last night a lot of googling suggested that there was an outlet around 2km from the hotel that sold them (that is if my translation of the German website was accurate).

After breakfast we set off to the TUV outlet and after around 30 minutes fronted up and asked to purchase the sticker but alas TUV Nord which we were at didn't do these transactions and told us we would need to go to TUV Hessen some 5kms further along the same road, so off we strode.

Flagging somewhat in the morning heat around 45 minutes later and not yet at TUV Hessen we came to a Peugeot dealership so I jumped in there and asked if they sold the stickers - thankfully they did and so we are now the proud parents of a green environmental emission sticker good for all of Germany and achieved at the


bargain price of 5 euros.

With that out of the way we then walked back towards the city via an area known as Bornheim which had some delightful building frontages as well as an open market


outside of the station


With the need to get some laundry done and again relying on google we went to find the local laundromat which was achieved with the location stored away for use tomorrow.

While walking down Sandweg, a street in the area, a gentleman asked whether we knew what the plagues he was pointing to on the ground were for - obviously we didn't so he explained that during the war the Jew who lived in the house which the plaque was outside of was removed by the Germans and exterminated in a concentration camp





It was very sobering reading these plaques and we were thankful to this stranger who took the trouble of pointing them out and explaining them to us.

After getting to the central city and having lunch we walked back through Dom-Romer which had been cleared of a stand and rubbish from a concert some days previously and this gave a better view than we had yesterday of the lovely buildings in this square





We then took a 2 hour river cruise on the Main which gave an appreciation of this waterway and how it served Frankfurt


While on the boat we were struck by the number of planes that were in the air over Frankfurt - on one occasion 9 planes were in view.

Frankfurt airport is the 3rd busiest in Europe, the 11th busiest in the world but at 264 international destinations is the airport that serves the most international destinations of any in the world.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped off at a restaurant that served the local specialities for another nice meal before arriving black at the hotel some 10 hours after we left it this morning.