Hamburg
/Almost as quickly as it began, my time in Europe was coming to an end. My time in France was done and I had only a few days left in Germany. I did however have one weekend left and I had booked in a to visit a good friend whom I had met in Paris who now lived in Hamburg. Other than a recent trip to Berlin, I had not spent much time in the North of Germany. Moreover, there is not much (German) cultural overlap between Berlin and Hamburg, but I had heard many good things about the city. It often appears on list of "liveable" cities, basically meaning that they are excellent destinations for highly-paid expats usually at the cost of the local population, but that would not stop me from going and visiting my friend the expat and having a great time.
With the standard measure of punishment, I was transiting the 5 hours from Mainz to Hamburg on a very busy train on a Friday night. A had a bit a time to pick up some dinner during a changeover in Frankfurt, but otherwise it was a fairly dull affair. It did provide a good opportunity to read up on Hamburg, which beyond being a large port city I knew little about. Officially, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany with about 5 million people in the metropolitan area. It sits at the confluence of the Elbe and Alster rivers and is approximately 100 kilometres upstream from the North Sea. The area is a sheltered natural harbour and is Europe's 3rd-largest. Consequently, it is both grungy and industrial, conditions which often foster prosperity but also strong counter cultures, and Hamburg is known for both. I arrived at the HBF at 2230 on a humid Friday night and contacted my friend O'Shea to find out where he was and how I could get there. A group was out at The Boilerman Bar in Hoheluft, northwest of the city. I asked for directions via metro but my preferential use of public transport was mocked and I was told it was necessary to take a taxi. I always feel strange taking a taxi, and this would be the first non-essential taxi ride I had ever taken whilst living in Europe, and even then I had only taken one out of necessity in 2013. I feel very uncomfortable as it feels like such an extravagance, especially when I was greeted by a large Mercedes as was standard for taxis in Germany.
Arriving at the bar, it was clear that the place was cool and prices were commensurate with this coolness. Moreover, it was definitely somewhere specialising in spirits and mixed drinks, so obtaining a beer was akin to extracting blood from a stone. But the location was warm and the company very pleasant. It was great to catch up with O'Shea, a friend from my first weeks in Paris whom I met the Alliance Française and in addition to general things in common, we both had a strong desire to gain command of the French language, a not-so-common train amongst expats. As the night progressed, others peeled off and we eventually left and started walking back to his place, but not before finding a quiet pub where we (well certainly I) felt much more comfortable. We returned to his place in Eimsbüttel and crashed for the night, ready to act the tourists the next day.
The life and times of a Hamburger
O'Shea's kitchen was cosy, all the more so with porridge. We were pretty slow to get going, but it felt as though the whole city was slow to get going. The grey skies characteristic of northern Europe had rolled in overnight and everything was just a bit subdued. We made our way down to to the metro and into town, descending at Jungfernstieg which is in the heart of the city. The town is well-known as a maritime town perched on the banks of the Elbe, but the centre of town sits to the north on the river Alster. The confluence of these rivers allows for the complex web of canals that facilitated the city's industrial exploits, but it is the damming of the Alster which is responsible for the two large lakes (Außenalster and Binnenalster) on which the old town sits and ultimately dominate the aesthetics of the town, or at least they did for me, given they were the first thing I saw of Hamburg during daylight hours. Like so many European cities, they could not resist placing a fountain in the lake, but somehow despite this novelty we were headed elsewhere.
Like so many, taking the time and seeing the sights that a tourist is likely to want to see in your own town is not something O'Shea had done. But, as what I see as a benefit from my visit, we went and saw the sights. Other than the industrial complexes in the city, and now the new Opera house, the most striking building in town is definitely the Rathaus. The enormous neo-Renaissance building dominates the Rathausmarkt and in addition to being fairly imposing, for the meagre sum of a few euros one can get a guided tour of the house of Hamburg's parliament, senate and city council. And this is exactly what we did.
The tour started in the imposing Rathausdiele, a pillared hall and from here we were shown through some of the buildings 647 rooms. The building was initially constructed in the late 19th century but was heavily damaged during the second World War. Since then, it has been dutifully restored and many of the rooms and halls are exquisitely decorated, with the grand hall being the highlight with its coffered ceiling and atmospheric chandeliers. Whilst I was dragging O'Shea along for the tour, I think by the end of it he was happy to have come along.
Out on the street we went for a stroll through what is described as the heart of the city, but which is certainly not the soul. The canal system, and in particular the northern side of the Alsterfleet is an aesthetic delight, but leads onto the Neuer Wall which is self declared as one of the finest shopping streets in Europe. Consequently, the vibe it is putting out has no overlap with the vibe I am looking to pick up. There are some beautiful buildings, but mostly it is just generic fancy brand stores ready to vacuum up the money of people too wealthy to care. Unsurprisingly, we did not hang around all that long.
Rather than be up the glitzy end of town, it was not long before we down on the much grimier end of town on the Reeperbahn, the centre of Hamburg's bar and club scene. We were meeting up with some friends of O'Shea, but also there to have a bit of a look around. We wandered into a few bars and pubs - which were open and ready for action but with nobody around as it was still only the mid-afternoon - but also saw some attractions, including Beatles-Platz and Herbertstraße. The former is a tribute to the Beatles, who spent time performing in the area before their rise to fame, and latter is a street much alike the De Wallen area of Amsterdam, namely a street with prostitutes advertising themselves in windows. I did not realise that this was a thing in Hamburg nor did I know we were there before having been led in by O'Shea. To be fair, I should have twigged much earlier than I did given the street is effectively walled off with a large sign warning that there is no entry to women and minors. In my defence, I was unaware that we were in the red light district, it was just a little seedy in the way many areas that have a high concentration of bars are. Running against this is Hamburg being a major port town, and where there are sailors, there are sex workers - as I found out previously. But perhaps as one might expect, 1600 is not peak hour in the sex industry, so there was little happening and I just felt somewhat uncomfortable. It should be noted the the trip down Herbertstraße was not a pure detour, it was actually on our route to the docks where we were metting O'Shea's friends.
Approaching the pier, it was clear that it was no normal evening on the Elbe. People were pouring out of the streets which connected to the river and being funnelled onto the area surrounding the port. It would turn out to be a show of support for one of the town's main industries, ship building, as a new cruise ship was about to be launched. And this was no ordinary ship, but rather the second largest class of cruise ship ever built (this was true at the time, it is now the third largest) and this was the lead ship of the class, the Quantum of the seas. Boats are not really my thing, I love the idea of sailing but have only dabbled with it but find the idea of cruises repulsive on many levels. I can certainly appreciate the engineering that goes in to building one of these things (it has a length of approximately 350 metres and a gross tonnage of 169,000 and carries about 6000 people) but it sickens me that such machines are essentially pitch-fuelled enablers of hedonism. In a strange contrast, I was struck by how lovely it was that all the locals came out to support the local industry. It was truly impressive when the little tug boat managed to get the behemoth moving.
In a rather odd turn of events, it would not be too much later that we were seated in a tequila restaurant, Café Mexico Hamburg back in the northern suburbs of Hamburg. Whilst it may seem an illogical thing to do (getting Mexican food in Germany) but the partner of one of O'Shea's friends was Mexican and maybe had a connection to this place. As it would turn out, the food was exceptional and remains some of the best Mexican food I have had, and perhaps even more surprisingly, we were treated to some tequila that could have almost been described a nice. From here we moved onto a party at the apartment of another of O'Shea's friends and colleague, which was good fun and saw me chatting to people with whom I perhaps normally associate. Most people there were working for big tobacco, which is some distance from the ivory tower and the price of admission is a single soul piece. Unsurprisingly, everyone was really nice and we had much in common, but I still find it hard to imagine holding such a burden - in the form a moral trade off - and consequently could not truly open up with anyone. I think if I were with the same crowd today, I would be happier to probe what people thought about the ethics of working for an objectively evil company.
Andy in Wunderland
I was woken in the early hours of the morning by O'Shea bidding me goodbye as he had to fly to Hong Kong for work. Besides leaving me to return to sleep, this left me with the day to explore Hamburg. We had seen many of the main sights, but I was keen to revisit a few places, take some photos and also to visit one the city's most famous attractions: Miniatur Wunderland, the world's largest model railway museum with over 15 kilometres of track. The museum is in the heart of the industrial district which was the only area that I hadn't yet visited but had wanted to, my day had effectively planned itself.
Loaded up with another bowl of porridge I took the same route as Saturday into the town centre, and given it was a Sunday morning there was hardly anybody about. It was a good opportunity to take photos, so I passed by the Binnenalster and Rathaus. There is something about taking photos of monuments in German cities on Sunday mornings which I really enjoy - perhaps it is the solitude one can find in an area normally bustling with activity, or the ability to take in the often exquisite beauty of the sites that is harder to appreciate when you are navigating through a sea of activity. In any case, given I have done it almost every Sunday during my time in Germany, it is my sort of religion and will be one of my fondest memories.
Before visiting the main industrial area of the city, the Speicherstadt, I made my way to the nearby Chilehaus. The building is famed as an example of brick expressionism, gargantuan is size and resembling a ship. The building was funded by a shipping magnate who made his fortune trading sodium nitrate from Chile, hence its name and the various elements of Chile found scattered throughout the building. Its construction and form are really impressive but also rather strange. The building is so unique that when the industrial area of the city was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site as "The complex exemplifies the effects of the rapid growth in international trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries", the Chilehaus was included. This is all to say that the building is both unique and worth a visit. Still being a quite Sunday morning, I was alone once again with this enormous building that really does look like a ship. It is both brutal and sleek, adjectives which don't often go together.
I returned once more to the Rathausmarkt on my way to the Speicherstadt proper, but couldn't resist heading back into the cavern-like Rathausdiele to take a photo, and similarly I could not help myself retracting my steps from the day before to take a few photos on and around the canals. I have mostly decided that the strategy of visiting first and then photographing on a second visit is the best strategy in all aspects, except in the time and availability categories. But on this occasion I had the luxury of both, so was able to take my time. Indeed, my wanderings ended up with me coming out at the Hauptkirche St. Michaelis, which was both impressive and not at all in the direction in which I was trying to go.
Before too long, I was wondering amongst the red-brick glory that is the Speicherstadt. As I mentioned previously, the area is a heritage industrial area, and in particular, "the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on timber-pile foundations", which in this participial case are oak logs. To my dismay, accessing Miniatur Wunderland is on a roster, and the only available time slots were too late for me, so I could not see it. I was genuinely gutted, but I had only myself to blame. But at least I could wander the canals and really enjoy the scene. Once again, it could not be described as traditionally beautiful, but it is certainly an industrial delight.
In the Speicherstadt
It was perhaps a fitting closure to my trip to have a closer look at the Elbphilharmonie, the town's much lauded opera house located just to the south of the Speicherstadt. Just like a Bavarian will tell you about Bavaria being great, any German will tell you at length about big projects that have not gone well, be they over budget or not on schedule, or worse both. They most severe pain one could inflict upon oneself would be to discuss the train station in Stuttgart, but the Elbphilharmonie would be number two. Plagued by countless problems, it is drastically late and over budget, and whilst it looked nearly done, apparently it still did not have an opening schedule. From I was standing, it looked pretty cool though; people were often touting it as something akin to the Sydney Opera House, which I get in terms of the parallels between big impressive opera houses, but in terms of visual statements: no way. The Elbphilharmonie is both impressive and stylish, but does not come close to the visual sensation of the Sydney Opera House. But with the time winding up and no other attractions known to me to be seen, I started making my way to the station. The moment was not lost on me: this would be my last travel in Germany and Europe, other than to the airport and home. As fate would have it, I ended up having a lengthy text exchange with Mia, with the excitement building for once again being together and continuing our lives together in Australia.