Los Nach Hamburg

Hi everybody,

Once again I will try to present you the trip (maybe the last for this awesome semester in Le Nord ?) I had last week end.

But why is he writting in English ? Well, I am not sure, but since we have 'created' a blog which should tell the stories of the gugusses abroad, maybe it would be nice to make the stories themselves a little bit "international". Moreover, I am sure it will help us all to work our English, because as engineer, we have to do speak it well.

Anyway, I left KA January, the 14th at night and under some snow, and when I came back (January the 18th), the city was quite dry. Here is what happened meanwhile :

One of our friend here in KA is in internship (at L'Oréal), but she spent the last year at Hamburg, as Erasmus. She has kept saying that this city is marvellous, and that she would be glad to drive us in there. So we took the train to Heidelberg on Thursday evening and the the bus all the night to go far North (well, farther than KA, but not than Stockholm or Trondheim...).

The very beginning of our trip at the MacDonald of Heidelberg train station... We have thought that we had missed the bus, but don't worry we caught him (half an hour late)... I remember someone saying 'I wouldn't rest before I reach Hamburg' !

On this photo you can see Lucia (on the right), one of the spanish girls of our group 7, Lucie, our french charming leader for this trip, Brian, a parisian and me.

While travelling we have been disturbed by a -nice- policeman at 4 in the morning, who asked us "Ausweis Bitte", which mean "ID-Card please", and it's pretty much the only thing he said. But he was cool and tried not to disturb us too much. For the trip it can also be said that we saw a strange man (at the back of the bus), who was trying his binoculars during the night (so we assumed he was crazy or he had spy-very-cool-night-vision binoculars).

Anyway we got to Hamburg on friday morning, came to our hostel and left our luggages before having a very nice breakfast in a bar which belong to an afghan family.
Then, we visited the place, because we slept during this week end in the "alternative" place of Hamburg. For instance, this theatre has been closed due to "the inflation, the inflation and the crisis..." but it became then an open place to people who want to sleep and who have no money...

After what we got to a park, from where you can see a nice hostel (alone in the middle of a great Park which is quite funny even in winter (there might be only one hill in Hamburg, because there was a lot of children playing sledge here). From this park, we have also seen the "Fernsehturm" similar to the one you might or might not have seen in my previous trip in Berlin.

The Hostel viewed from the town

The Fernsehturm or 'TV tower'

Damned it was cold. In fact, it was 'only' -5°C, so, nothing enough to bother a guguss, but there was this wind, and as you can see, Hamburg is on the sea (be sure you'll know about the harbor later !) and maybe it is why th wind is so cold.

So, what do we do when we are cold ? We find a greenhouse of course ! In this, among the large amount of trees I will not speak about here, we found some nice turtles !

So, as you know, Lucia comes from Spain, and here is a photo of her in her 'natural' environment.

Brian come from Paris, so he is a little bit like John, he is often surprised by the different species he doesn't know. For this time, he was pleased by this thing :

I would like to underline here that I am pleased that my father read this blog regularly.

After that, we went from one typical tourist place in Hamburg : the Rathaus or 'city hall'. It is quite important because it the place where sit the parlament of Hamburg (which is also a Land i.e. 'like a state in USA'), which is the second city of Germany.

I have to say that it is nice inside, but the square in the front of the building should definitively be seen without snow. Because, yes, faithfull gugusses, I faced the snow, the wind, and the sea to give you this narration !

The rathaus

One of the statues you can see on the front of the Rathaus, whith a ship which remind you it is a harbor city.

From inside I will speak later, because we have gone there two times. We were indeed waiting for Cristina who has rejoigned us at friday evening. But at the first time we also went outside to see this nice statue (very more complicated than what you can see there).

Before going home and make us ready for the crazy night we had, we took a walk near the lake that is not so far from the Rathaus, and which is the very best view one can have on this magnificient city.

By the way, we walked a lot this day !

Here is this view, one of the most known from Hamburg, and it was said (I trust) it can be more beautiful.

An other view of this lake, as you can see, dear father and mother, I'm still well ;-)

After that (or before, I don't remember well), we took a break in a Starbuck's Coffee which was warm, quiet, smooth...

As previously stated, the photos I can show you for this day stop there. We had a lunch with friends of Lucie, we met Cristina in the choosen S-Bahn station and we had party all night long, in a place called reeperbahn, a street crowled with prostitute, sexy girls, clubs, discos and -at night- policemen.

Allright I don't want you to be disapointed, so here are two photos...

As you can see, we are all eating Hamburger, because, indeed, hamburger have been invented in Hamburg !

I would also like to express my gratitude to Lucie's and Lucia's friends who have been very nice to us during this week end.

After what a night we came back to the hostel (room 57) and rest for several hours (not enough ?) before coming back at life, have a breakfast and got to the bridge of a ship which make a round around the harbor.

On our way was a bunker

On the way, we saw a lot of marine shops that just reminded me the BD 'Le secret de la Licorne' and 'Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge'.

I would like to mention here that the aqualung have been invented by Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997). Those who think it has nothing to do we my story are right, but should read 'Le secret de la Licorne' and 'Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge'.

On the harbor we saw an nice anchor I can't resist to show you because... Well, it's huge !

And there it goes, we went on the bridg this ship which drived us around Hamburg's harbor. At the beginning, all was well, not so chilly, because we had the wind on our back and were also protected by the driving cabine where stayed the cool captain.

Maybe you can't see it very well, but he was making a sign at me.

But at one moment we faced the wind, and became a little bit like this poor cub.

By the way, a cub is not really a baby-dog, if you want to go further with this I recommend to you the lecture of Jack London's famous books :

Anyway, it was really cold on the bridge this ship, but a -maybe not so smart- sense of pride commanded me and Cristina to stay outside all the time (well, quite all the time because we went inside once during one break of the captain).

We saw a lot of the harbor, some buildings not so ugly for 'modern architecture' (or maybe not so modern ?) but please enjoy this photos :

At the end of the trip, the captain gratified us be a speed increase, increasing the relativ speed wind and the coldness too...

By the way I learned a spanish marine song on this ship. As you know, I study also spanish at KA, and I'm sure (or not ?) that this song will help me.
If you are a spanish and read that, please feel free to correct my mistakes !

Soy Capitan I'm the captain
De un barco Engles Of an english ship
En cada puerto In all the harbors
Tengo una mujer. I've got a girl.

After that we rested in a bar for one hour, before going back to the Rathaus, this time whith Cristina, in order (among other things) to make this photo :

Then, we went in a nice little "American Style" dinner, where we had cheap hamburgers and french fries. Anyway the ambiance was great. Then we went one more time in Reeperbahn to make this photo :

What is it ?
It's them

After some researches, I can affirm that on our photo, Cristina is Ringo Starr, Brian is Paul McCartney , Lucia is George Harrison and so I should be John Lennon.

Why can we find such a place in Hamburg ?
Because at the beginning of the 60's, the Beatles were not famous and played at Hamburg for a very fiew money. Anyway, they catched their first recording contract there.

After that, we had a quite night after having a drink in a bar where work Paula, one of the girls who led us through this journey ; and a terrific day :

First of all, on sunday, we had a brunch. It was expensive, particularly because we were in the wealthy part of the town, and because we ate with this fantastic view I spoke about some lines ago. But anyway it was an open belly, so we only ate here for -almost- the whole day.

Then we went to the memorial church, most of whose part have been destroyed during the war.

On the way there was this funny 'thing', like a statue that moove.

There was also this ugly modern 'art' thing

The first thing to show of the memorial chucrch might not be the "thank you" message to 02 (pronounce o-two in german) and MacDonalds but it was quite funny to see that MacDonalds paid for the restauration of this church. Anyway, during the war, american people have no bombed the city, they were at the harbor, while the english were bombing the center...

After that we went to "HafenCity" i.e. "HarborCity", where we saw a lot of boats and a lot of nice buildings. It was really great :

There was also a lot of ships, and (thank you Brian), the Lord of the Ships (this joke works also in french !)

After that (or before, I don't remember), we went through a tunnel that go under the harbor to reach an island, and enjoyed a view of the harbor and of the town from an other point.

After that, we regained a bar where we played cards waiting for the time to our bus to leave. On the way we found Bob :

But when the night hade came, there was a surprise for Jack ! If you are not Jack, you will probably not enjoy this part, but if you are Jack, then you should see this : the dream of Jack have already been realized in Hamburg :

A Climbing wall on a building !!!
Damned, they are so lucky ! Of course I triend to get up, but without the key, you cannot use the ladder and so, you can't climb. Anyway, Jack didn't have the material...

Just because it is written 57, reprent !

Here finishes the story of the trip to Hamburg, if you wonder what else you can see there, I have two ideas :

A girly blue leather Jacket, so cool.

A huge statue of Germany Hero Otto Von Bismarck, who gathered all the peoples of Germany into one German Empire.

He was in charge of German Politic during the war of 1870 after which the Alsace and the Moselle became territories of Germany. But it has been stated that he was personnaly opposed to this annexation.

Anyway, this trip in Hamburg was really, really a great thing to do, and I recommend to you to go there once if you can.

After this long week end, I had a agitated night in the bus, and a good nap in my house, where I discovered that the washer was out of function... Anyway, I now have to get prepared to the exams that come in February, but, from now, I'm up !