Dinner With Marie andOur Last Day in Hamburg

Days 5 and 6:
September 4 and 5, 2012 - Our dinner with Marie and then our last day in Hamburg.

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Wales seems like weeks ago and it Hamburg is now almost over. When we got here we wondered how we could spend an entire week. It went very fast. Tonight we'd have dinner with our new friend Marie, tomorrow we'd spend our last full day in this city that we've come to enjoy so much and then the next morning Kris would drive us to the airport for a nine-hour flight home.

We met Marie out front and got in her car for a trip back down to the harbor. She knew a nice little French restaurant and since we brought such nice un-Hamburger weather with us (so everyone told us - it had been mostly sunny and warm all week), we sat outside and I had a delicious, clear bouillabaisse.   It was a pleasant evening.

Marie and Marseille - dinner at the harbor.

Stacey and her husband (The Blogger) at Marseille Restaurant.

After dinner, Marie took us to 20 Up, a hip and hot bar on the 20th floor of a steel and glass office building. It looked out over the entire city and was packed with very young people. When we walked in, the big guy at the door looked at me and my camera and said "you can't take any pictures in here with a camera like that." Oh, OK. What did he think? I was going to make glossy photos and sell them on the street down below? Marie insisted that I used the men's room. No, I wasn't fidgeting or anything. She just wanted me to see it - it was unique (how did she know that?).

On the way up to 20 Up. Hot!

Room with a view - the men's room at 20 Up.

Floor-to-ceiling windows and a magnificent view. I had to sneak this
shot as the bouncer told me "no pictures." Weird.

On our way down in the elevator, I wanted to do a group
photo in the mirror. But these young women got on
and joined the photo. Cute!

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Our last day in Hamburg was not very different from every other day. Breakfast at City Bakery and our friendly proprietor gave us a bag of pastries when we announced that this would be our last visit. Then Stacey went shopping with Marie and Mirjam while I hung out at the apartment and wrote some of my blog and edited photos. Are you curious to know how many photos? Well, a lot. Over 1400 between the U.K. and Germany! Most will never see the light of day. But this blog is written with the aid of the photos as they serve as a visual and chronological cue of what transpired each day - the camera records the date on each image file. What the mind forgets, the camera does not; it's easier than keeping a diary.

Our last breakfast at Stadt Bäkerei and Stacey's last herring sandwich
We'll miss those. Our friendly proprietor gave us a bag of pastries to go
when we told him that this was our last day in his town.

When Stacey returned from her shopping trip with Mirjam and Marie (which took a good part of the morning) we walked over to the University neighborhood and had lunch. First, we passed by a big plaza that had an engraving in the concrete. This was the outline of the largest synagogue in Northern Germany. Here had stood a grand old temple. Signs placed near the plaza showed photos of it when it stood there in its elegant glory. Pictures also showed its zwangsabriss, forced demolition by the Nazis. Stacey walked around the outline to get a feel for the size of this building that was no more.

Stacey traces the path of the outline of where the former synagogue stood.

Photos on a sign memorializing the site show the grandeur of the building.

A photo of the interior.

Nazi thugs demolishing the synagogue.

Kris met us after lunch and we, once again, biked some neighborhoods that he wanted to show us. Lovely old garden apartments which sat on the edge of green parks filled with children and cyclists coming home from school or work. We passed by a new synagogue. A police guard is assigned 24 hours to watch the building. Kris said there is absolutely no threat to it but that the authorities don't take any chances given the history and their aversion to the publicity it would generate. In all the graffiti that i saw in Hamburg, I never once saw anti-semitic scrawling or symbols (I've seen more in my own city). Not to say it doesn't exist but there was no evidence of it and it mgiht be more prevalent in other cities in Germany, particularly in the east where unemployment and resentment are high (the latter particularly visited upon immigrants from the south).

Our last lunch. Stacey and I had one last German beer! Prost! (Cheers!) 

A woman pushing eight kids in this cart walked by our lunch table. How cool!

Kris took us on one last bike ride. We rode through lovely green parks
lined with old, and well kept, garden apartments.

Old brick apartment in theneighborhood that Kris took us through. 

Our trip was coming to an end. For our final dinner we met Mirjam and Kris at a restaurant half way between our lodging and theirs: Luxor on Max-Brauer-Allee. The next day Kris picked us up (using Marie's car) and drove us to the airport for a long flgiht home.

Our last dinner was at Luxor, an Italian restaurant on Max-Brauer-Allee. 

Kris and Mirjam and Luxor. Thank you for making our week magical! 

It had been a magical week in a beautiful city. A large part of that had to do with my nephew and his wife (and her mother). They went out of their way to prepare our visit - an apartment (that really makes travel very much more affordable), two bicycles which allowed us to explore the city in an entirely different and accessible way. And the time that they spent showing s around - we got to see their city from a resident's viewpoint. Thank you for all of that. Equal appreciation goes to our "landlady," Marie who said she was just doing her thing and enjoying the company of the American visitors. We should be so generous when foreign friends visit our home town. And we will! We're just waiting for the opportunity when Marie visits us so we can return the good times.

To Wales and Hamburg we say thank you also - for being such wonderful places to travel to, visit in. We got to meet your people and see your sights. That's the beauty of travel - it shows you a world filled with amazing places and people.

To the readers of this blog - thanks with putting up with my overly wordy, sentimental and, perhaps sometimes boring - though I hope not too - dialogue. I write this for myself as well. Looking back at some of these recollections brings back wonderful memories of long ago trips. That makes the time and energy (and it takes lot of that) well worth it. "Remember the time we visitied ....?? Um, no, I don't."

Good bye.and Auf Wiedersehen. And happy travels. - Matt