We left Copenhagen after midnight and spent a long night traveling by bus and ferry southward. In the morning we woke up in Hamburg, Germany, inland on the Elba River.
Diane and I received a carefully articulated list of directions from Jan Sven to the interesting sights of the City. After a short walk through the streets, our course carried us by train to the center of town at Jungfernstieg, where we planned to catch local tourist transportation to see the city. We managed to catch the double-decker Stadtrundfahrt to get the panoramic view of Hamburg.
Frankly, there isn’t much of old Hamburg to see. As Nazi Germany’s major port, it became a prime target of destruction during the Second World War. The Allied bombers were very effective. About all that was left of the original city was the Speicherstadt – the old storage warehouses down beside the harbor, and a small cramped district of brick structures nearby. Diane and I took a leisurely walk around the area and ate at the Haus Der Bretagne, looking forward to some genuine “Hamburger” cuisine. The food was delicious, but, of course, “The House of Brittany” was a creperie, serving the fare of Northern France. So much for sampling the German culture.
When time came for us to return, the language barrier itself made it difficult to retrace our steps. Everyone we met was very nice, but very few of them spoke English. It took us a while to find our way back to the train station in Jungfernstieg, where we wandered for what seemed like an hour to relocate the express that would take us back to Littenkamp, where we had started from.
We were extremely grateful when we stumbled back into the Sporthalle on the outskirts of Hamburg, where Lindsey was performing in the evening. It was a magnificent venue, and had to be. That night we reserved a place on the platform where the lighting and sound crews were poised to run the show. They were the best seats in the house – where we were surrounded by more than 6,000 enthusiastic fans who came to witness the spectacle of Lindsey Stirling, the Hip Hop Violinist. It was the largest live audience of her career. What a triumph. What a night.
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Dear Mr. Stirling.
Finding old, amazing and romantic places in Germany is difficult for an tourist because all big cities were destroyed in World War II. There are still many very beautiful old places but not in the big cities. There are many great smaller twons and villages which are very old and beautiful.
Greetings
Andreas Janke