More of Hamburg, Wedel and Lueneburg

I’ve got to inform any readers I have, that for the last two to three weeks here in Hamburg I’ve been working my butt off. We have, in between times managed a trip to Lueneburg last weekend and met Gunhild’s lovely friends Sabine and her partner Ulrich who went out of their way to show us their gorgeous medieval town

They were wonderful guides, and Urlich was particularly entertaining with his historical knowledge brought to life with his storytelling skills. Sabine with her architectural knowledge was able to fill us with anecdotes about some of the more interesting buildings as well as those she’d worked on. The day began by the river with a coffee. We walked through the town and up towards the old salt mine.  We bought tickets for a tour of the town hall or Rathaus. This was all in German but Sabine was very helpful in translating what was being relayed to us. You could almost work out what the guide was saying as she was very animated in her descriptions. 

Before we left town, we took a ride with Sabine and Urlich out to their home and tasted plum cake on their front porch.  The day ended with a ride up to the top of the old water tower and we got a great view of the city. We were able to recognise places we walked. The day ended very quickly as we’d arranged to meet Anja and her Mum back in town at 6. It would have been nice to stay for tea, but Anja had kindly driven us up and was now waiting to take us home. Our final stop at the end of a busy day, was the beach bar in Wedel. As the sun went down we watch the last of big ships create waves on the shore and we ate delicious salads and drank beer.

 

On Thursday Anja and Dirk had bought us tickets to Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg. As the tickets were not valid until the evening, we decided (since it was a sunny day) to head into town early and maybe see the Planten and Bloomen Gardens without a cold wind. We’d attempted it the week before but we’d given up and headed indoors to the museum. We were much more happy this time to wander, and enjoy the sunshine. There are some lovely sections including a Japanese Garden and in the glasshouse, we even got close to a red squirrel that had somehow broken its way in.

We tried shopping for a while but it wasn’t altogether inspiring, so we decided on just wandering slowly towards Miniature Wonderland. I took a heap more photos as we ended up in the part of Hamburg we’d wanted to return to with more modern architecture next to some of the much older warehouses. Anja and Dirk met us at 6.What a surprise Wonderland ended up being. It’s a mind boggling three storeys of model makers bliss. There was plenty for all of us to get engrossed in- the model stadium, theatre, the rock concert, the ski resort, the queue for outside toilet, the penguins waiting for a train, the traffic jams, the miniature airport with planes coming and going and even the arrival of a cruise ship! I couldn’t possibly include everything as it would take too long..but if you ever are in Hamburg you need to see it.

Yesterday Anja took us for a lovely walk through the forest park near Wedel where she used to ride ponies as a child. There were small children still on ponies being led by various family members who we passed as we walked and talked. Later she took us for a tour of her impressive office then home to her house for a traditional Northern German meal of boiled bacon, beans, potatoes and pears. We followed this up with a tasty chocolate pudding which Anja’s Mum had made. Dirk then invited us around for a wine tasting at his house with neighbours Oliver and Suzanne.   We sampled two sparkling wines- a white and rose, four reds and then decided to leave the two whites for another evening. He’d also put on a marvellous spread of nibbles- cheeses, chocolates, pretzels and sausages and then generously presented us with a bottle of the nicest wine of the night - a Pinot Noir.

This morning Anja picked us up at 6.30am so we could visit what she described as The Fish Market. It is a fish market but it is also a lot more than this. It’s a market selling everything from live rabbits to handbags, beer to fresh fruit baskets, clothes to souvenirs, and it’s huge. We needed to be there early as by 8.30am one could hardly move through it. We took some light relief in the large concert hall where a live band played some familiar hits we knew…so we swung along a bit with those who were still awake from last night’s revelling.

We’re starting to think about coming home, finalising tickets and working out what luggage we need to leave behind. I’ve already managed to lose the lovely scarf I bought in Tours but we did find another one at the market this morning. Another reminder it’s nearly time to head home, is it’s turning to scarf weather here.