23-07 Hamburg-Germany 6

Hamburg-Germany 6,

July 15, 2023,

Hi Everyone,

I must have been exhausted yesterday as I slept for 9 hours, waking up rather refreshed after my race yesterday. As a senior citizen I might even start getting used to sleeping for more that 8 hours, after 50 years of sleep deprivation of 6.5 hours of sleep per night. I wrote my blog this morning for 1 hour and set out to explore Hamburg on foot. I walked from 11:00 to 6:00 only stopping for a brief sandwich for lunch.

It was sunny, 28C, a beautiful day with a small sprinkle of a shower that did not require an umbrella. I used Siri and Apple Maps to get around. It is nice having someone to talk to. She doesn’t even get annoyed with me if I take a wrong turn.

Hamburg is a city, rebuilt with 19th century architecture. The buildings are not uniform like in Paris but somehow the buildings seem to go well together. The city is built on a series of canals. My first stop was the Maritime Museum. I spent 2 hours there but could easily have spent the whole day. The museum traces naval history from the first ships in the Middle Ages to the present time. They explain the European conquests of the New World and the East. A pope at the time divided the world among the Catholic powers so as ‘not to cause conflict’. Spain was ‘given’ the Americas and Portugal was ‘given’ India and the East. Britain and France were not consulted and obviously did not agree with the ‘unfair’ devision setting the stage for 400 years of colonial warfare terminating with WW2 and beyond. The slave trade was atrocious.

I then made my way to the new and modern symphony and opera house, the Elbphilharmonie. It is an incredible building, ultra modern, married well with its surroundings. I could not visit the symphony hall itself as it was closed to the public. However, I was able to go up to the terrace which gives a beautiful view of the harbour. It costs 2 Euros to visit but when I got to the entrance, the nice lady told me in English, without me having to ask the price of a ticket, that it was free for me. I guess with my white hair I resemble a senior American tourist. I took the Metro back to my hotel, cheap, clean and not at all crowded even at rush hour