Hamburg, Germany - August 7 & 8, 2018

It occurred to us yesterday that while we are here in Europe, we might as well make the most of it and extend our stay. Why not??? We contacted our friends, Peter and Sumarah, from South Africa , who have a house in Figueres, Spain and told them we'd like to take them up on their offer for a visit. Well, things lead to things, and we think we'll stay even longer. We are working on a trip that will take us from Copenhagen in a couple of weeks to Figueres then on to Valencia, to Malaga, on to Madrid and then home to Atlanta on September 5. That's only a little over two weeks later than we originally planned to come home but what an experience! We are doing it! One of our bucket list items is to learn a foreign language. We have a dream to come to Spain or some other country and simply stay for a while 3 months or more, to immerse ourselves in the culture and truly learn the language. These two extra weeks will provide better insight inito the country help us determine if a village in Spain is where we want to settle for a few months sometime in the future.

This thinking means we had to spend a big bunch of time on the Internet figuring our trains, planes and Airbnb's. Still we got our 15,000 walking steps in - we walked our bo-hunks off all over Hamburg in 94 degree heat!! Ouch!

Our big to-do today was Old Town, but first we needed to change US$ to Euros then find and do a trial-run to the Central Bus Station where we will depart for Copenhagen early tomorrow morning. We did both, but it ate up a couple of hours. We learned that our at home bank partners with the Deutch Bank here which allows us to change US$ to Euros with no handling fee. The bank was located at the end of a lively pedestrian mall that had high-end stores and many outdoor restaurants and bistros. That accomplished, we boarded a subway toward Old Town Hamburg - we are getting good at this system - to a station that put us out at Rathaus, Hamburg City Hall. Talk about fantastic! It may be the most beautiful old building we have ever seen. It is big, very artistic with old- style architectural detail. Please watch for the photos. In its center is a platz that features the lovely Hygieia fountain. Many public events and festivals for the town's people are held here. Wow! This month's schedule featyures movie night every night. They have a big screen on which famous, grand movies are shown for the public each night. All around are kiosks and food trucks offering great food stuffs. What a place to frequent for free.

Next the spires drew us in. We went to St. Nicholai which reminded in harsh, harsh terms that World War II was horrific. This set of ruins was once was a grand cathedral, centuries old and glorious. It had the largest parish following in all of Germany. The church was grand. It was designed by English architect, George Gilbert Scott, and its spire was the tallest structure in the world in the late 1800's. In order to gain a stronghold on the Nazi's, the Allies had no choice but to bomb important industrial cities and critical sea ports. Per Wikipedia: "In 1942, the Allies initiated Operation Gomorrah in July 1943 in which destroyed much of the city of Hamburg, especially the factories and the sea port. The clearly visible tower of the Church of St. Nicholas served as a goal and orientation marker for the pilots of the Allied Air Forces during the extensive air raids on Hamburg. On 28 July 1943 the church was heavily damaged by aerial bombs. The roof collapsed and the interior of the nave suffered heavy damage. The walls began to show cracks, yet neither they nor the tower collapsed."

The operation sadly killed over 42,000 civilians and left 900,000 homeless. But it was an important turning point in the war against the Nazi's who relentlessly killed, tortured and put innocent people in harm's way because they did not meet with Hitler's ideation of members the perfect society.

This relic mad me very sad. I simply wonder why we human beings make war with each other. Why do we torture and kill? Why???

We trekked on to see other spires that called us. St. Katharine was next on our list. This beautiful church suffered devastating damage during the bombing in 1943 as well but this church was rebuilt. Among the bricks making up its wall, bricks of various ages and colors can be seen making its walls strong once again in the restoration effort. We went inside and took pictures of the crucifix, the sanctuary and the baptismal font.

We had an outdoor lunch near the church yard at a lovely little bistro featuring a chicken dish of asparagus, green peas, heavy cream sauce and chicken chunks. Stan and I shared that and a beer. We also shared a great slice of spinach quiche and salad. The man there said we should definitely see the Elbphilharmonie Opera House. We did and it's gorgeous! They say it cost some $800 million to build on the waterfront on the site of an old warehouse. Its outer construction material is glass and its scalloped roof line which resembles a water wave of quartz crystal. The Opera house also houses a very fancy Westin Hotel and the complex sits on top of an old warehouse. It is a major Hamburg destination. Wish we had time to see a performance.

We had planned to visit Reeperbahn, the red light district. Everyone told us, however, it's overrated and dirty . . . every city has something like this. Well, I wanted to see a true adult show - why not, I'm 71 years old!!! But you know, we were hot, stinky, and our feet were tired. We walked a whole bunch more, but when we found the subway, we said enough is enough. We needed ice cold water and we needed to get shoes off our feet.

Hamburg is surprisingly a wonderful place. While it is hot here now, I bet it is colder than an iceberg in January. Still it draws me and I think it would be a very nice place to live. The people here are wonderful. They have helped us with great smiles - I think they like us -- at every opportunity. They love our attempt at German language; they love an opportunity to use their English! What a wonderful world this is!!