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Ok, I mentioned that there was a couple that insisted on making out in the children-friendly Botanical Gardens. Well, this seems to be a common theme in Europe…the making out part. Maybe it’s my prudish ways, but QUIT WITH THE MAKING OUT. This isn’t some quick, “HI! I’m SO glad to see you” peck on the cheek or on the lips. It’s the, “HI! I have no awareness of my surroundings, so I’ll kiss you like they kiss on Soap Operas,” full blown make out session. When does this happen? When one of said couples gets off the airplane, meets in the train station, meets for lunch, is in the romantic botanical gardens with Foreign people walking all over, waiting in line for the train, waiting in line to be seated for dinner, waiting in line to check out at the grocery store, picking a bottle of wine, picking out a book at the bookstore. Ok, maybe a BIT over dramatic, but so is the making out. Ok, I’m done.
After returning home from a wonderful weekend getaway to Munich, we were facing our last day in Hamburg. Somewhat disappointing, yes. The only thing Brother Bee and I had planned was picking up some awesome Hamburg souvenirs. Oh yes, and breakfast at Ikea, the furniture store. And I dead serious. Maybe it’s just me that didn’t know that Ikea not only sells you somewhat quality furniture at low prices, but they also sell you somewhat quality food at low prices. After seeing an article in a German newspaper that raked Ikea third, out of ten, in a list of the top 10 fast food joints with the best customer service, I HAD to try it out! Turns out German Boyfriend Bee also had a hankering for Ikea breakfast. So, Brother Bee decided to sleep in while German Boyfriend Bee and I headed to the furniture store for some breakfast. I had a traditional German breakfast:
While German BF Bee had Swedish Meatballs. With Ketchup.
What else would you have at Swedish Ikea?
Well, it was good, actually the service was fantastic, and the food was decent. If you can ignore the screaming children who have been pulled by their non-working mothers (not that there’s a problem with non-working mothers) to a furniture store at 11am in the morning. Isn’t that nap time or something?
After a filling breakfast at Ikea. Wow, I still can’t say that with a straight face. We headed back to get Evan up and begin the end. German BF Bee was leaving again, and we accompanied him to the local train stop and then to the Hauptbahnhof, where he was on his way to Berlin, and us to treasure hunt (my new name for buying souvenirs)!
Treasure Hunting lead us to another copy of Harry Potter 7 for the Mother Bee, and some picture books-a good start to our collection. After that, we decided to check out the Planten un Blomen, or Hamburg’s huge city park. It was gorgeous. The flowers are blooming this time of year…mainly daffodils and tulips and cherry blossoms. We took a stroll through the park, visited a completely free Botanical Gardens. Oh yes, this is where the little old German lady tried to talk to me about the flowers, and I just didn’t know what she was saying, so I talked to her in English. It worked quite well, actually. I mean, imagine a little (shorter than me) lady who as soon as she saw us was asking me questions in German. I gave her the common, contorted face that immediately told her, “I really want to help you, but you’re speaking a foreign language.” This face had become common place on this trip. But, instead of being discouraged, I listened to her…covering up the snickering of Brother Bee behind me, and we went on our merry way. Passing the couple, for the 5 time, who were intent on eating each other’s faces in the gardens like some twisted Romeo and Juliet…but I digress.
After the Gardens, we headed to the Japanese Tea Garden, which happens to be the biggest in Europe (a whole 1.5 acres) and just for a moment you can put blinders on, focus on the quaint tea house with it’s straw roof, pool of Koi and running water, and imagine yourself back in Japan. It was lovely. With the cherry blossoms encircling the pond of 2 foot long, orange Koi. Aww.
It was time to get back to the flat to meet Anja so we could pack and visit the local mall. Odd thing to do in a foreign country, but then again, the mall was odd. It had the same upscale shops you’d find at Cherry Creek Mall in Denver, minus the GARDEN of real grass and flowers in the middle of the hall. Yes, complete with garden gnomes. Twice. Even Anja was amazed. Then there was the food court. No, this is not where you’d find an over priced peace of grease that maybe resembles pizza, or a soggy box of MSG Chinese Orange Chicken. No, this is where you get fresh fruits and vegetables, hummus that is freshly mixed with figs or almonds, your own personal assortment of olives and fresh cut meats. Oh yes, and pastries right out of the bakery. This is dinner!
Back to the humble abode for one last night’s sleep in Germany. It all started with a German breakfast at a furniture store.
Ok, before I write about our Berlin tour, I supposed I should do some catch up. After our educational yet very fun day on Tuesday, with Beer and Brats, we didn’t have much planned for Wednesday. Hamburg is a great city with lots to see, but not too much to do. It hasn’t been know as one of the most visited centers, which is really nice when touring it. There were lots of tourists, but not very many English speaking tourists. Which is in one way kinda nice.
So Wednesday we got up late, kind of becoming a trend, and got ready. My main goal for this day was to visit the Hamburg Kunsthalle or Art Museum. It is supposed to be one of the best in Germany. So we took the train to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof because the Museum is right next to it. The art museum was great. A lot of art of course, dating as early as 1500 and as late as three years ago. The newer art is, as you can imagine, interesting, yet I’m not sure I understand it. I am more of a fan of studying the faces of 300 years ago. So, we saw more of that art after a quick tour through the deep and unusal minds of artisits today. The big steel cage with florescent 1 + 1 = 2 didn’t really inspire me. Sorry. We saw lots of German painters, a Monet and a Manet, which were beautiful.
Then we moved on. I had one quick errand to run before we travelled to our next destination, and what do you know, it was on the way. I had to stop by a book store, just a Barnes and Noble-type to pick up 2 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the British version. One copy for myself, one copy for Big Brother Bee who is patiently awaiting the copy as it was to be his birthday present last year!
After that we traveled down to the location of our short, third walking tour. This took us by some 17th Century homes:
Then we tried to go to the Johannes Brahms Museum, but apparently they are only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, I looked through the windows and took a picture of the entryway. Sneaky.
We walked across the street, through the park that surrounds the Hamburg Historical Museum, and back to The Dom, where we picked up some of the funnel things that German Bee had the night we were there, and back to German Bee’s house for dinner. German Boyfriend Bee was going to be home for the night for dinner (he’s a pilot for Air Berlin, and he’s off and on schedule at weird times). So we had more bratwurst and mashed potatoes and saurkraut for dinner. Then it was bed, because as you’ll see in our Berling post, we had to get up at 4:30 to make our train.
Here you have it…a traditional German beer(s) and brats, with corn. The brat in the middle is a Bratwurst, the other a currywurst. Delicious!
Day 4? 3-25 Tuesday
Being exhausted from yesterday’s excursions, Brother bee and I slept in today. German Bee had to work, so we were on our own. I woke up about 10:30am, it felt so good to sleep in! Anja had left and Evan was still asleep, so I just hung out, checked my mail, etc. I transfered all of my pictures to my USB key, cause I figured my card on my camera was getting full. To my surprise, I had already taken 117 pictures! Watch out friends that live near me! You’re in for a treat when we get home.
Brother Bee and I decided to take a walking tour outlined in the good ol’ Lonely Planet. It started from the Hamburg Haptbahnhof (main station) and took a jog down the “walking mall” to the Rathaus or Town Hall, this is a magnificant building that looks more like a palace than a city hall. Inside, we decided to take a tour, however, I was informed by the information desk that the English tour had left 10 minutes earlier and the next one would not leave for another 2 hours. So, we took the German tour. They did offer us a guide of all the rooms described in English. That was helpful, however the guide knew full well that we didn’t speak German, and he kept looking at us strangly. Maybe it was because he kept saying funny things, and we had no idea what he was talking about. Note to self: learn the language or at least a little!
We left the Rathaus, crossed the canal and toured a little bit of Italy, as they call it. It is a row of arcades that house high-class stores with fancy jewelry and cafes. Very quaint. As we retraced our steps past the front of the Rathaus, we saw a man, acting very suspicious. From the back it looked like he was just sweeping up some sawdust on the square. Turns out, he was also wearing a pink wig and a set of plastic breasts. Interesting…a group of friends were surrounding him, so we could only believe that it was indeed a prank. Look for that picture, coming soon!
After that we traveled down past St. Nikolai memorial, which is the remains of St. Nikolai church that was bombed during WWII. Kinda strange. They have left it right where it is and how it was when the war was over. It is interesting to see that the buildings and late 20th century grew up around it. We then returned to the area we explored with German Bee a couple of days ago. Here Brother Bee and I had our first Koffee and Kuchen, which is a pastry around tea time. It was great. Then we headed over to the *free* Deutchen ZollMuseum. This is a museum about customs and immigration. It is based solely on explaining the history of Hamburg’s customs industry. Sound boring, I know!! But, when you see all the different ways that people smuggled in cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, etc., it turns out to be interesting. I had no idea that you can cut open the bottom of a chair and smuggle 15 cartons of cigs in the bottom of it. wow.
Now for the Carnival and Sex shop parts. This time of year is the time for the Hamburg Dom. It is a big carnival and fair that is held three times a year. Yes, it is just like our state fairs, with rides and crappy food all for one awful price! But, I did want to check it out, especially since Lonely Planet recommended it. We first rode the Ferris Wheel (4 Euros), then we walked around and took a look at all the Carnies. We settled on a Beer Garden for something to eat. This was our first chance to taste local food and local beer. Brother Bee had a Currywurst, and I had a Bratwurst on a baghette. We each had a different beer. It was wonderful. A delightful, carb filled dinner. We topped that off with wonderful funnel-cake type thingys.
On the way back to the train, Anja suggested we tramp (no pun intended) through the Reeperbahn or Red Light District. This is where all the interesting people hang out and where the Sex Shops are. We took a tour through one, I won’t go into any detail, but don’t worry, the USA is not missing out on anything! Hahaha. It was an experience, that and the dildo singing Aerosmith like that plastic Billy Bass that you can hang on your wall.
The end of the night came when German Bee made Brother Bee walk inbetween us because we were coming up on some women with interesting business pursuits, if you know what I mean. Tomorrow we’ll see what other educational adventures we can come up with!
Uh huh…So, I have an amazing array of stories to tell from our 7 hour lay over at Schiphol Airport until we boarded the train to go to Hamburg, but first, I have to get over the fact that the z and the y are switched on this key board and that all the punctuation is all over the place. So, if something is a typo, get over it!
Today was our first full day in Germany and Hamburg. The day started out a little earlier than I would have liked, but as it was German Bee’s only full day with us, we wanted to spend the whole day with her. Turns out, almost everyone gets Easter Monday off here. Interesting. Anyway, we had a traditional German breakfast of Hard Boiled Egg in one of those egg cuppy things, which I’ve never understood the use for, and now I do, toast, rolls with cheese and meat, and fruit. It was great. We got ready and left the house. Oh yeah, it’s cold here!
As we boarded the train, I looked out the window. Guess what? It was SNOWING. I’m calling a huge BS on German Bee’s weather assessment. We rode the train to a station and booked a double decker bus tour. We got on, except the guide spoke only German. That was interesting. Brother Bee and I began making up our own commentary: Here’s a lovely yellow brick wall, you can see the parking garage, this is where I typically park my car for this job…or…Ah yes, this is the famous kirsche where you can see the hole in the tarp where they are renovating, someone must have jumped. German Bee was none too impressed. She made us get off so we could wait for the bus that spoke English. It was very disturbing to her that they didn’t speak English, so we got off, waiting a half and hour, and got on the next one. Which did speak English, but it was a recording that most of the time was about 5 blocks ahead of what we were looking at. Still very interesting.
After that we toured a bit of the Speicherstadt area, trying to get into Hamburg Dungeon…more about that later, but it was booked (a 45 min. wait to get in). So we hiked up Michaeliskirche, 300 stairs of pure quad workout until we got to the top to see the whole city. Good thing it was snowing, otherwise our view might not of been quite so…foggy.
Finally at the end of the day, we went to dinner at German Bee’s house. It was great. 3 courses of pure German food. Pumpkin soup, pork with veggies, more veggies, and dessert of cream and chocolate. Yum!
Oh, and it snowed the whole day. I’ll show you pictures.
Now, I’m exhausted. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow.
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