Hamburg

The colourful city of Germany

I spent my last weekend with about 70 other exchange students as we went to a trip to Hamburg, which is a port city situated at the North of Germany. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany after Berlin. The journey to Hamburg from Mannheim via bus took us about 9 hours! We left in the middle of the night and arrived the next morning.

The Port of Hamburg

Named Germany's gateway to the world (because Germany is in contentintal Europe, and in the past the only way to access the world by sea would be through the port of Hamburg), it is the second largest port in Europe. From our hostel, we could see a view of the jetty as below. To my dismay, the leftmost tower was under repair!

what it should have looked like!

After dumping our luggage at the hostel, we went to the harbour to take a boat ride. It appears that the Singaporeans, me included, were not very excited at all, and the most spontaneous thing which we all said was that Harbourfront is more beautiful, but the other exchange students were excitedly clicking away at all the cargo containers and ships as well as piles of scrap metal which are also all lying at Tanjong Pagar. I was also quite surprised to learn that some of them have never seen such big ships before. I suppose that's difference when two people grow up in different parts of the world.

holding the German flag on the boat.

Hamburg Speicherstadt (Warehouse "city")

Completed in the late 1880s, this warehouse district was the largest in the world at its time. The length of the row of the warehouses was estimated to be about 1.5km long. It was opened by Bismarck upon completion. The reason for having such a big warehouse district was simple. Based on the fact that Hamburg is a free trade port. Today however, these warehouses are mostly no longer used for storing goods such as tobacco or coffee, although there are still some coffee firms there, but rather some of the most interesting museums are housed in these warehouses.

Miniaturwelt (Miniature World)

The Miniature World is a model railway attraction in Hamburg, and the largest in the world. Although the entrance cost 7 Euros, it was an eye opener. It consisted of 5 sections in it, South Germany, Hamburg, USA, Scandinavia and Switzerland. It attempts to build a miniature version of the cities, as the name suggests, with railways and trains running through it. If you look at the next picture just below, you'd have recognised the Hamburg harbour jetty as well as part of the Warehouse district (second picture). The close resemblance to the real buildings is simply amazing.

What I found very interesting was the day and night concept. When night falls, the room would be darkened and the buildings would light up. So beautiful is this, in the display of Las Vegas at night below. The miniature world brings people to places which they have never been to before as well as bringing back recollections of places that people have been to before.

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and Rathaus

It is my habit to take pictures of the Hauptbahnhof (abbreviated as Hbf) as well as the station sign (Hamburg Hbf) when I arrive at a new city. So that is why if you see the picasa photo album, the cover picture of all of the cities visited are the railway station signs. Even though I arrived in Hamburg via bus, I went to the Hbf to snap a picture, as well as take a look at how the train station looks like. And as expected, the interior was very big with 18 platforms and a shopping centre. Looks more like an airport than a train station.

The main entrance of the Hbf - I later learned that it was opened in 1906 by Kaiser Wilhelm II (the last emperor of Germany). During its time of opening, it was the only building which was almost fully made of see-through glass. (Today of course not anymore. I think even the Esplanade has more glass than the Hbf)

At the core of the Innenstadt (inner city) lies the Rathaus (city hall). I was fortunate enough to be there at the right time to get the above shot at dusk. A pity however, that during the next day city trip, we did not stop at the Rathaus to take more pictures. In fact, I did not cover much of the Innenstadt during my trip at Hamburg, which is a pity because there are a lot of beautiful buildings within and I missed quite a lot of them.

truly global - Singapore, Korea, Holland, Korea, Turkey - my room mates for the weekend

My first German Musical

On Saturday afternoon, most of the people went to the dungeon, which is like a horror house which tells the terrible events which happened to Hamburg in the past, for example, the Great Fire of 1842 which almost swallowed the city. The rest of us, in fact, only 10 of us, went to watch a German musical! I was quite surprised to find out that I was the only Asian out of the 10, because I thought more Asians would be interested. But anyway, I was glad I went to watch the musical because it's my first German musical and hey, it was not as complicated as I thought it would turn out. At least I could understand what was going on and the plot. The title of the musical is called Heiße Ecke (literally "hot corner). Heiße Ecke is actually the name of a store that sells snacks like Currywurst (curry sausage, a German favourite) along the Reeperbahn (a street in Hamburg, which will be mentioned later), and many stories evolve around the store. Something like "Under one roof" kind of concept.

I realised that majority of the crowd were middle-aged people above the age of 30s. Young people were almost non-existent. And the interior looked more like a beer hall than a musical theatre. There was no dress code, you could order food and beer and sit in round tables while you watch the musical. After the musical some of us went for dinner.

the finale of the musical

before leaving the hall, I managed to take a shot of the stage.

pretty obvious that I am the "odd one out"

Reeperbahn

The Reeperbahn is the main street that passes through Hamburg's St. Pauli district. This district is famous for the nightlife for Hamburg as well as the cultural and sub-cultural of Hamburg. Cultural because the musical theatres are mostly located here, including the one I went to watch the musical. Subcultural because of the redlight area, striptease bars, sex joints and brothels.

One of the very popular alleys along the Reeperbahn

Eros - the concept of Eros is that women who want to ply their trade will rent a room and then the market themselves via the windows. However after the AIDs scare in the 90s, this Eros was closed down. But of course it does not mean that prostitution does not exist in the area. In fact the alley across the Reeperbahn which the Eros is facing is an alley of glass-windows brothels where the women would stand in front of a the glass panel and passerby can take their pick. I had a look there and found out that the rates were 50 Euros for 20min. So bloody ex! Also, because it is a tourist district, women may tend to want to go and have a peek at the alley too. However this is discouraged by most people even the locals. Firstly it may not be safe and secondly there were incidences that the prostitutes have hurled used condoms at women who wanted to kaypoh because they are not there to frequent their service!

Another concept which is not explicitly having sex is such of a table dance or live show. Used to be a platform for men for alternative thrills, this is also becoming a curious attraction for tourist. However it is important to know that although entrance is free, the compulsory drinks are exorbitant! A glass of coke which is the cheapest drink costs 10 Euros!

Fischmarkt (Fish market)
The Fish market is one of Hamburg's must see on a Sunday morning. Although the market opens till bout 10 plus in the morning, the most happening period is just before sun rises, between 5-6am. With only 2.5 hours of sleep after clubbing the previous night, I forced myself to crawl out of bed and dragged my feet to the fish market, which was thankfully, very near to the hostel.
It turns out that you don't just buy fish at the fish market. The main highlights are stalls selling fruits and vegetables. What would happen is that the sellers would lay empty baskets, and then start filling them to the brim with different fruits and vegetables, and would sell it for 10 Euros. Not a bad deal actually, by German standards of pricing. And they're really generous. You could ask for one more bunch of bananas for example, and they'd jus go .. OH... Scheiß egal! (oh! shit that's not a problem!)
Reminds me of the chinese new year stalls at Chinatown earlier this year, where we could eat all we want at the stalls. However here we could not only try out the fruits but also fill the basket to the brim.

The buyer asked - How long is the "Zehner" (10, 10, 10 Euros) going to last? The seller replied - been going on the whole of last night... together with my wife! Also check out the whole load of stuff for 10Euros

Other finds included German bread, which is a hell of big loaf....as well as German cheese (Käse)....... Specialities (sweets) from all around the World, Self servicethis building was the original fish market of the past. When it started, all the trading activities would take place inside there. Today all the stalls are set up outside and inside is a beer hall where there are benches to eat and drink as well as .....

...listen to some music concert early in the morning at 6am!

last shot of the Fischmarkt before going back to the hostel

On the way back - Bergpark and Schloss Kassel Wilhelmshöhe

The Schloss Wilhelmshöhe (1798) is a palace in the city of Kassel in central Germany. We stopped by on the way back to Mannheim. With just only an hour to spare. This palace was home to Elector Wilhelm and later Kaiser Wilhelm II. The reason why you see the word Napoleonshöhe is because Wilhelm II offered the defeated French Emperor Napoleon III to live here after France lost to Germany in the Franco-German War in 1871, which resulted in the complete unification of Germany then.

Facing the palace is a castle called the Löwenburg (Lion castle). This castle stands on top of the hill and was quite concealed from the bottom if you'd look up from the palace. Because there is another more prominent structure facing the palace that lies at the centre whereas the Löwenburg is mostly covered by trees. I was glad I saw it from the bottom and made my way up just in time before they close the gates of the castle.

Back view of the castle, the view which you'd get if you climb up from the palace grounds

front view of the castle

The courtyard, thankfully I got in just in time before they locked the gates.

View of the palace from the castle.

A lake that is at the bottom facing the palace at the bottom of the elevated hill.

Afterthoughts about the Hamburg trip

2.5 Days could have been sufficient to cover Hamburg actually. However I felt that despite spending that amout of time there we did not cover some parts of Hamburg, which I felt were very important, for example the 2 lakes in the Innenstadt as well as many of the beautiful structures which I missed out. At the same time, there were a lot of waiting time in between which I felt was a serious drawback. This could have siginificantly reduced if there were lesser people on the trip and decision making can be made faster.

Hamburg is a beautiful city. I would definitely want to return to Hamburg again, and I hope to be able to do so in Summer when the sun sets at 10pm. Also I learnt from Laura (my levelmate) today during dinnertime that Hamburg is her hometown.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/07MarHamburg

Mainz

The city of red-buildings

Mainz - pronounced as "Mind-z". It was the third consecutive day I was out sightseeing, and I must say that all this walking climbing left me tired at the end of Sunday. I climbed out of bed early Sunday morning and took the train to Mainz from Mannheim together with 4 other Singaporeans.

The trip took about 1 hour and when I got into the inner city, the thing that struck me was that most of the buildings, especially those which have aged, were built using red brick. The Museum, Schloß, St Peters Church, Mainz Cathedral and even part of the Theodor Heuss Bridge were red.

Along the River Rhine

We began our trail at the St Peters Church but could not go in and take pictures since there was a mass going on. And then we walked along the River Rhine. Its not the most beautiful of all places actually. I thought that the banks of the River Rhine along Köln was much more beautiful when I was in Köln two years ago. At the bank of Mainz, you could see people jogging or walking their dogs on the Sunday morning. The Hilton hotel and casino stands along the river bank, followed by the Rathaus. (the ugly grey building in the second picture)

I have to admit that this is by far the ugliest Rathaus (city hall) I have ever seen. A check online revealed that the Rathaus was acutally built between 1970 and 1974 by Danish architects using Swedish marble, which probably was like the Esplanade of the day, but thought by many as being not pleasant looking.

The Mainzer Dom (Mainz Cathedral)

The thousand year old Cathedral was built around the year 975. It was predominantly Romanesque in style. In front of the Cathedral stands a beautiful monument. Together with the cathedrals in Worms and Speyer (all of which I have been to), these are today the oldest in Germany.

At the Cathedral is also the Marktplatz, here stands a row of tastefully decorated houses which resembled the Chinese version of shophouses.

One of the alters inside the Cathedral
There is a small garden which is enclosed by the Cathedral. Like most other churches, this garden is actually a burial ground for bishops of this Cathedral.
I found this statue to be really interesting. It shows a decapitated man holding his own head.

Outside the cathedral. Notice that the flowers are starting to sprout in the spring season.

View of the cathedral from the other wing. The small white patches give a snowy effect.

Schillerplatz

Along the way we stopped by at Schillerplatz. Schiller was a German poet and philosopher and together with Goethe, were the most famous of such people in Germany (before Karl Marx). The German question - What and where is Germany, came from the 2 of them in the year 1797. At the time when they wrote, there was no Germany in existence, but rather a collection of many many small states collectively referred to as the Holy Roman Empire, which Voltaire criticised it to be neither holy, not even Roman, nor an empire. This so-called German question continued to exist throughout the course of German history, 1871, 1914, the interwar periods, 1949 as well as even up to 1989 with the fall of the Berlin wall.

The Statue of Schiller.

Walk up to the Zitadelle (citadel)

A Citadel is like a fortress on elevated grounds used for the purpose of protecting the city. From the Schillerplatz, we walked up towards the Citadel in the hope of getting a panoramic view of the city. Along the way up we passed by this interesting windmill, which was in the past a windmill but today converted to a slide.

The not-so-panoramic view of the city

Most Germans that I spoke to regard Mainz to be a beautiful city. I would think that it is perhaps the presence of the Cathedal that gave the Innenstadt its touch. However if I would to compare to places like Heidelberg then perhaps Mainz does not stand out. One thing for sure, the bank along the river Rhine could have been better looking.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/2MarMainz

Bad Herrenalb.. and the first time of....

1) going to a sauna in Germany

In Germany, there are some towns with the name "Bad something something". Now its not pronounced as bad as in "good and bad", but rather "ba-d". Bad means in German Spa or Bath, and hence the town is known to be a Spa town with water from mineral sources. Today we went to this place called Bad Herrenalb which is somwhere near Karlsruhe. Initially wanted to go Baden-Baden (another spa town), but last minute revised our plans and came here instead. This small town is a resort town, which most people would spend their holidays in, perhaps during summer. Bad Herrenalb is also situated at the north of the Schwarzwald, which is why we saw the lush green coniferous trees at one side of the town.

It was a terribly quiet place by German standards on a Saturday. The roads were empty, rarely see cars zooming, and most of the shops were already closed at 1pm when we arrived there. We made our way to the Kurhaus (known as Spa hotel in German, but no hotel at all), and sampled some real mineral water as you can see below.

In most spa towns in Germany, there would be such a source for people to taste the water

Although we could help ourselves to as much mineral water as we want, I felt that one glass was enough. It does not taste like the mineral water you'd buy from supermarket. The water is very thick, and you can feel the richness when you slur the glass. A glance at the poster revealed that the intake for an adult should not be > 1 litre per day because of the high mineral content. The water tasted really different. A little salty, a little metallic, and I felt that the taste is too powerful for me to gulp it down.

After that we made our way to the historical "monastery road", a little enclave which preseved much of the buildings from the time it was first built. I found the tree below to be interesting, it grew on top of the entrance to the monastery gardens.

But the highlight of visiting a Spa town is always the spa itself. The name of the place is called the Siebentäler Therme. Although there are swimming facilities, most of the people would go for the sauna facility. Naturally we went for the sauna.

outside the Siebentäler Therme

It is at this point that I mention the term Freikörperkultur (FKK - literally free body culture, meaning nudism). It is a requirement that we strip naked when we use the sauna. And males and females are not seperated. (On some days however there are like male-only days, or female-only days). However on weekends, generally all spas are mixed.That is to say, the males and the females use the same facilities, bath in the same pool, and use the same toilets together, naked.

And so everyone was walking around naked in the sauna section. Seeing naked women for the next two hours was a fait accompli. It was an eye-opener for obvious reasons but also as well as a unique experience. Nobody was shy of exposing themselves. Some females still sit with their legs spead in the sauna room to receive the heat all over. And although everyone was naked, there was nothing sexual and no hard staring at one another. People said hi to one another and engaged in small talk. It was really interesting and the saunas were very refreshing! After being in the room for like 15minutes in temperatures above 90degrees, we'd come out burning and drenched with sweat and then quickly dip ourselves in cold water of less than 10degrees! Its like fire then followed by ice.

here's how a typical sauna room would look like

2) partying in a kitchen!

Just back from the party in the kitchen at the next block. The Germans are really crazy people. They can just party anywhere, at places we will not even expect, such as the 5th floor kitchen at the block next to mine! The whole level was flooded with people and everyone was just shaking themselves in the kitchen. I would have thought that the people who went to the party were all living at Hafenstraße but who knows I got to know this German girl by the name of Vanessa who does not live here but just happened to be around the area. Very interesting gal indeed!

Mi, Vanessa's friend and herself

Ok, time to go to bed. Tomorrow we are going to Mainz, which Vanessa says that it will be a very beautiful place.

Wissembourg (Weißenburg)

Entering the French territory (which does not appear to be French at all, to me)

The name Wissembourg sounds German, but it stands on French soil. In fact Wissembourg is the French equivalent of what the German call Weißenburg, meaning white castle. Wissembourg is a small town at the tip of North-east France.

Today however I did not see any white castle. This place is a small town in the region of Alsace in Northeast France that lies on the French German border, (Yes the Alsace-Lorraine region which was annexed to Germany in 1871 and given back to France after WW1 at Versailles in 1919), and so it we could take the train from Germany to Wissembourg, no customs, nothing.

And as expected, the city looked more German than French, if you ask me. Its like you do not get the Paris feeling where people sit outside cafes in rows of tables facing the road, or everyone being well-dressed on the streets. The typical aspects of a German town such as the Marktplatz as well as the Rathaus (I don't know what are the French words for it), as well as Fachwerkhäuser which can be seen all over the place. The shopkeepers there are able to speak German as well, and most of the menus are explained in German as well. It turns out that throughout the course of history, the Alsace region were acutally ruled by changing French and German hands. No wonder now I remember seeing pictures of Strasbourg (60km south of Wissembourg, also in France) that looked more like Germany than France. And I found out from Malcom that to go to Strasbourg, the cheapest way would be to change trains at Wissembourg, since I could travel to Wissembourg for free with the Semester ticket.

Anyway we did not do much at Wissembourg today as we arrived pretty late in the afternoon. It was just a little walk and some cakes as well as eating raw oysters. The raw oysters were really good and I liked it a lot, its really tasty and I just ate it like that without squeezing lemon juice. We did some shopping in the supermarket but I found the prices in that supermarket to be much more expensive than the ones in Germany. I ended up buying pork meat in cubes as well as pig's liver and made some nice soup for dinner just now.

I swear that if I go there again, I'd eat one whole plate myself.

Now that I have found out the way to explore the Alasce region.... more places await me. But tomorrow its the long anticipated Baden-Baden trip!

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/29FebWissembourg