Hamburg

I arrived in Hamburg on Sunday evening local time after a long 12-hour flight from Phoenix to London, then London to Hamburg. Flying long-distance is not much fun nowadays because of the over-crowded planes, lousy food and poor entertainment. Airlines are trying to make money by doing code-sharing and reducing flights so that they can squeeze as many passengers as they can into a jumbo jet.

My friend, Ralph, picked me up at the airport and I was starving because they gave me only a muffin and coffee just before we landed in London. At the train station, I had my first meal in Germany on this trip. It was a Turkish dinner. It is quite similar to a gyro, except that I had rice instead of pita bread.

By the time I got to Ralph's apartment, I was very tired, not having slept much on the plane.
The next day (Monday, August 22nd) was a beautiful, sunny day in Hamburg. The temperature was around 70F, a drop of more than 40 degrees from Phoenix.

First, I was welcomed by the mayor of Hamburg to his office.

On the left is a picture of his office, called the Hamburg Rathaus.

(Wishful thinking....I am just kidding)

The mayor's office is in the downtown area. One of the first things I noticed about Hamburg is that it is very clean and green.

Germans are known to be fastidious about their cleanliness and orderliness. That is evident everywhere you go. The other thing I noticed right away is that there are not too many overweight Germans around. I think that can be attributed to the northern German diet, which is a lot of fish and little meat. Another reason I think, is that the Hamburgers (yes....that's what the locals are called, not something that you eat at McDonald's) walk and ride their bikes a lot. They use a lot of public transportation, whether it's buses or trains. In order to get to the bus stop or train station, they have to walk. If you walk 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, very soon it adds up to 60 minutes a day. Well...that is enough exercise for a day. Is this something that Americans can learn from?

If you are a Beatles fan, you should know that the Beatles started their journey to fame in Hamburg. On the left is a picture of the nightclub where they used to perform. It's called the Grosse Freiheit 36. Grosse Freiheit literally means Great Freedom. I don't know what the 36 stands for. I think the place is still operating but on the night that we were there, there were a couple of homeless people sleeping in the front of the building.

The Grosse Freiheit is located in a famous area in Hamburg called the Reeperbahn. Unfortunately, it's famous for the wrong reason. It's the "red-light area." The picture on the left is the street leading to the area. This is legal business in Hamburg. As you stroll down the streets, there are big display windows showing off the products. This is similar to another European city famous for the same thing - Amsterdam. Guys....I will leave the rest to your imagination.

Just to get our priorities in order, Hamburg is actually better known as a port. It is the biggest port in Germany. It has recently grown tremendously because of the growing business in Eastern Europe. It is also the second-largest city in Germany.

On the left is a picture taken in the evening, about 9 pm, of the sun setting over the port area.

Hamburg is also the wealthiest city in Germany. I saw a lot of BMWs' and Porsches' everywhere I went plus huge mansions around the lake.

As we walked around the city, you can see that this is a very livable city, with many parks and a big lake. There is plenty of greenery everywhere. Bike lanes run on almost all streets.

You find migrants from all over the world, although I don't see as many Asians as I have seen in other European cities. There is a big Turkish population, many of them running small grocery stores. There is a young vibrant student population around the Hamburg University area.

I just found out that my Eurail Global pass does not include Poland, Serbia and Montenegro. This changes our plans slightly. Originally, we were planning to go to Warsaw first, then Krakow (to see the Auschwitz concentration camp). Now we'll probably go to Prague, then Vienna instead. Before we start on that trip, we'll take a short overnight trip to Copenhagen, which is about a 6-hour train ride north of Hamburg.

From Vienna, we'll go to Budapest, Hungary, then west to Slovenia and Croatia.