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I've returned from a week-long trip to visit friends (both American ex-pat and natives) in Western Germany. I've visited Europe five times before: and in Germany that meant the northeastern city of Berlin (on re-unification week) and southern Germany (Stuttgart, Munich and also Salzburg, Austria). This time, I visited a different part of the country: my American ex-pat friend Kevin lives in the northern port city of Hamburg, and his German friend Thomas lives in the west-central town of Siegburg (near Bonn, and not far from Cologne) where we did an overnight trip during my visit.
I allowed a 2-1/2 hour layover for my connecting flight at Frankfurt to Hamburg (providing a cushion for delays, passport control, changing terminals, etc.) Good thing: because a Boston-Frankfurt flight ought to pass over Ireland and England: instead, we flew way south over Madrid and Toulouse (re-routing due to ash from the volcano that must-not-be-pronounced) and so I arrived for my connection just as they were beginning to board.
Kevin and his girlfriend Petra graciously picked me up at the airport. And because it was the season for Spargel - the nation's delicious large white asparagus - I was treated to a wonderful home-cooked meal the next night from them and Petra's friends Franziska (Franzi) and Ulrike (Uli) - a respite in a series of dining out - that featured that vegetable prominently.
Being a port city, we spent some time there:
We took a harbor ferry ride (and yes, that's "The Lion King") in the Elbe River.
It was the weekend of the annual Hamburg Hafengeburtstag (harbor festival) and so there were ships of all sizes and nationalities:
One other stop was the Miniatur Wunderland - the world's largest model railway exhibit: with several floors, we saw the lights dim-and-brighten (to simulate daylight and nighttime) and exhibits of Switzerland, Scandinavia and the American West - Las Vegas plus the Grand Canyon (as you can see model Santa Fe railroad cars in this photo).
For any of you who ever owned a model railroad (these are the equivalent of HO scale) this is a mother-lode of model railroading. Their control center had enough TV screens and computers to launch guided missiles, I thought.
On Monday we took a 4-hour actual train ride south to meet Thomas at the Siegburg/Bonn rail station. When we did, we set out for some local sites in North Rhine-Westphalia:
This is the Drachenfels - "Dragon's Rock" - castle, with a cog-railway train ride uphill, and your faithful correspondent looking out on the observation deck below:
As Joel Grey sang in Cabaret, "The Rhine gives its gold to the sea" - and this is how the river looks in west-central Germany, with all sorts of river traffic:
In the town of Siegburg itself is the Michaelsberg Abbey - with our native friend Thomas (on the left) and ex-pat Kevin (on the right) of a statue of Saint Edith Stein who perished in Auschwitz.
That night, Thomas graciously put us up; we watched Germany's Wer wird Millionär? - with its edgy host Günther Jauch (rather than Regis Philbin or Meredith Viera). Though I speak little German, the slow pace of the game makes it so that even I understood a few of the questions. The next day Thomas treated us to a fabulous Frühstück (breakfast) before heading out to Bonn and Cologne:
This is the University of Bonn - the alma mater of our host.
Having been the capital of West Germany from 1949-1998, Bonn has several history museums: the one pictured (ancient history) and also the Haus der Geschichte - literally "House of History" - with a new exhibit that examines the 60 year history of the modern German state from the occupation, Berlin airlift, construction of The Wall, all the way to today. I didn't have my camera with me, but it was quite informative; had actual seats from the first Parliament, numerous photos, audio exhibits, etc. And there was one priceless painting (shown below) showing a German leader ...
... with a dove on his shoulder, angels in the sky, men in lederhosen and women in dirndls - which I expected would be East Germany's long-time leader Erich Honecker; the proverbial "Dear Leader" painting. But it actually was of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl .... I hope I didn't laugh too loudly.
Bonn is also the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven - of whom I've never seen any image of in which he smiles - and above is the Beethoven Geburtshaus - literally "birth house" (birthplace) with that bust that is not clear up-close, but which becomes clear when you move further away.
Here are (L-to-R) Thomas, Kevin and myself in front of a statue of the great composer, along with an old Post Office in the background.
Next on to the city of Köln (Cologne) - and this is the famed Kölner Dom - Cologne's Catholic Cathedral - that is magnificent inside-and-out; stained glass to die for. This ended our overnight trip; we had dinner at the nearby Gaffel am Dom restaurant - a local variety of sauerbraten was unlike any version I've had before, with some excellent Kölsch beer - and the railway station was adjacent for our trip back, where we bade Thomas a fond Auf Wiedersehen.
Now it's time for some DEBAUCHERY CENTRAL .. yeah, you know you wanna ....
Hamburg's famous Reeperbahn - literally "rope-maker's way" - is in the city's St. Pauli district, where there is lots of nightlife. Some eminently respectable (restaurants, nightclubs, discotheques and bars) and some less-so (strip clubs and sex shops). People (not just sailors) from around the world come here to have fun.
This is an off-to-the-side, pedestrian-only street called the Große Freiheit ("Great Freedom") where the Beatles got their early start (more on that later). A higher concentration of debauchery than the Reeperbahn itself, but it's nothing like .....
...the Herbertstrasse - the actual red-light street which has a fence at both ends (you may be able to see the red lights above it). A sign says verboten for women and juveniles, but being a public street nobody screens you.
For years, Hamburg didn't market its connection with The Beatles (who came-of-age here in the early 1960's) very well, but that's changed: and just last year this Beatles Museum opened on the Reeperbahn. I'm not a big Beatles fan, but this is a gem. It thoroughly documents the band's days in Hamburg (photos, memorabilia, films, narratives) and also does a good job of covering the history of the band through 1970.
Here is a plaque commemorating the 1962-1969 Star Club which was a mainstay of The Beatles; a bootleg live album featured a recording on a home tape recorder. Other bands performing there: Ray Charles, Cream, Everly Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Brenda Lee and Richard Thompson.
Meanwhile, this English gent is selling t-shirts for the soccer match that took place that evening: the 2010 Europa Cup final between the London team Fulham (for which the US forward Clint Dempsey plays for) and Atlético Madrid in Hamburg.
Europe doesn't have a standard regular-season then post-season like we do: but they have various playoffs played intermittently during the year (based upon last year's results). The Europa Cup features second-place teams from across Europe's national leagues, and these two clubs made it to the final.
We watched on TV as Hugh Grant cheered on Fulham from the stands - but they lost 2-1 in overtime, with Atlético Madrid scoring the winning goal with only 5 minutes before it went to a shoot-out.
I chose this time of year to visit because air-fares go up after mid-May, but also because this game was scheduled here - and to watch all of the fans with their Fulham and Atlético Madrid jerseys was part of the fun. "Good luck tonight", I told a Fulham supporter: "Cheers, mate" was his smiling reply.
This is the entrance to the St. Michaelis Church in Hamburg - a Protestant church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel (the two men on the right wearing red were Atlético Madrid supporters).
And that is a view of the Elbe River from the top of St. Michaelis Church which we saved for my last day - an excellent way to cap-off.
Many thanks to my hosts, and despite all the beer-and-wine drinking: with all the walking I did I managed to lose three pounds by the time of my return.
P.S. - if you are interested in watching a championship soccer match: Europe's Champions League - which will crown the top European professional team for 2009-2010 - will take place this coming Saturday. It features Germany's Bayern Munich - its equivalent of, say, the Montreal Canadians - against Italy's Inter Milan to be played in Madrid. And for the first time it will be shown in the US on free TV (not cable) - on the Fox broadcast network, beginning at 2:30 PM Eastern (11:30 Pacific).
Now, on to Top Comments:
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From Miep (two nominations):
Lovely and powerful comment from mojada about her life in love with the ocean, as a response to Memories of the ocean - my essay.
And then crose offers this (selected passages):
The first to be published in the Time-Life Nature Series of books was "The Sea" and I memorized every photo of every fish and coral...... we have irrevocably changed her, our Mother Ocean. She will never be free of the plastic that seethes in those enormous gyres until the last molecule goes down in a trench and melts in the subductive heat. And then what? ..... at the rate we're going, we won't be there to find out.
From Julie Gulden:
Too funny, from Slinkerwink in the Rachel Maddow at Smith College commencement diary: "I would've given my right egg for Rachel to be at my 2005 Smith commencement".
Two from RiaD:
First, Bob Johnson asks "Since when is BP in charge of the U.S. territorial waters of the Gulf of Mexico?"
and then in a diary about octogenarians Margaret and Helen - Loggersbrat declares "I want to be Helen when I grow up".
From Land of Enchantment:
In case you've not had enough sardonic sarcasm on the clustergush in the Gulf, check out this comment by ontheleftcoast in the latest RLMiller diary.
From ridemybike:
this comment by NamelessGenXer extracted an important point from this diary (about Elena Kagan) which gave me a lot to think about.
From Dartagnan:
A comment from Citizenx suggests that the Tea Party movement may have jumped the gun (in a manner of speaking).
From ezdidit....
.... following his comment about Clarence Thomas, he salutes JenS for her observation, "According to his originalist leanings he is really only 3/5 of a justice, and cannot vote at all".
And from yours truly ....
In analyzing the conundrum of having a Muslim woman named Rima Fakih crowned as Miss USA, SadTexan opines that anyone who can "stir up both the Islamofascists and the Christofascists (and both are legitimate terms for certain people, as far as I'm concerned) must be doing something right".
Finally ... Top Mojo - the top 30 Comments excluding tip jars, first comments and stuff:
1) Fishgrease thinks the tube will clog by FishOutofWater — 226
2) She is jaw-droppingly beautiful by John Campanelli — 160
3) Gut-wrenching... by grannyhelen — 153
4) Great diary by TXdem — 147
5) Is Thomas the worst supreme ever? by MD patriot — 122
6) BP Responds to Your Diary by JekyllnHyde — 118
7) BP chose profit by BlueInRedCincy — 116
8) Agree 100%. Her willingness to by Gary Norton — 109
9) "clustergush"? by Lady Libertine — 105
10) Question... by Bob Johnson — 105
11) They should've just used a bendy straw by ontheleftcoast — 99
12) corporate death penalty = by ARS — 91
13) A Classic System Accident by grapes — 91
14) There was a case in South America where by HylasBrook — 91
15) YES. by beholderseye — 85
16) Please update to include Atlantis by Dallasdoc — 85
17) What's in Store for BP by JekyllnHyde — 83
18) get the Fossil Fools out of Congress! by MD patriot — 82
19) Wow, that's tough. At least Taney by Gary Norton — 82
20) And, these are the jobs the GOP would... by markthshark — 80
21) "gusherf**k" by Guadalupe59 — 78
22) If this was written in the concurring opinion by ultra lib — 78
23) It should also be noted... by mole333 — 73
24) I'm Sorry by kaleidescope — 72
25) Islamofeminazifascist? by maxomai — 71
26) "Better to keep one's mouth shut... by Caelian — 71
27) Clarence Thomas is an Absolute Embarrassment by CityLightsLover — 69
28) and as i keep saying... by Turkana — 67
29) I'm no fan of Rahm... by Bob Johnson — 66
30) Mark my words by gchaucer2 — 66
Top 30 (plus ties) Comments with no exclusions, aka the Tip Jar & Pooties list :-):
1) Tips for my shower after wading through by Gary Norton — 623
2) Tip Jar by maxomai — 489
3) Please help with tags, etc. I'm at work. by FishOutofWater — 486
4) Meanwhile, the mainstream media trumpets by RLMiller — 441
5) I hope this speaks to some by teacherken — 425
6) Tips and flames go here. by LaFeminista — 374
7) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 310
8) Tip Jar by A Siegel — 272
9) yes by Turkana — 269
10) No tips for me, just by iampunha — 235
11) Fishgrease thinks the tube will clog by FishOutofWater — 226
12) She is jaw-droppingly beautiful by John Campanelli — 160
13) Gut-wrenching... by grannyhelen — 153
14) Great diary by TXdem — 147
15) Tip Jar by New Deal democrat — 132
16) Is Thomas the worst supreme ever? by MD patriot — 122
17) BP Responds to Your Diary by JekyllnHyde — 118
18) BP chose profit by BlueInRedCincy — 116
19) Tip Jar by Bill Halter for US Senate — 111
20) Agree 100%. Her willingness to by Gary Norton — 109
21) Question... by Bob Johnson — 105
22) "clustergush"? by Lady Libertine — 105
23) They should've just used a bendy straw by ontheleftcoast — 99
24) I stand with our troops. How about you? by Clarknt67 — 96
25) Tip Jar by jpmassar — 95
26) There was a case in South America where by HylasBrook — 91
27) corporate death penalty = by ARS — 91
28) A Classic System Accident by grapes — 91
29) Scritchie Jar by triciawyse — 86
30) YES. by beholderseye — 85
31) Please update to include Atlantis by Dallasdoc — 85