#boroughlife

[superdyna103-blog]

[1positivekat]

Delight in the little things

Day 26 - Oct 3 2014

The best thing about staying in homes while far away from home is the ability to have lazy mornings to lounge over coffee and breakfast, read & write, do crosswords, or have imagination time before getting out the door for a new day of adventure. This apartment was such a warm and creative energy inspiring place to be, and our host was clearly a musician with great taste in music, so we enjoyed listening to local talent she had in the CD collection while we relaxed.

This is the #1 apt #1 we were looking for, not 11. :)

Along the beautiful tree lined road we found this: holy random graffiti Batman!

The lovely Italian restaurant where we dined on our first meal in Germany.

Has a downstairs patio overlooking the canal.

Across the road from the restaurant is this windmill that was build in the 1830′s.

We followed the path along the canal a little bit.

Then turned up the road that would lead us to the train station for our ride into the city for today's adventure.

I loved that is was only a 20 min train ride into the city. We hopped on this one, and then had one transfer onto another train for a few stops.

Just before we got to our destination a couple of guys got on and started performing, one of them rockin’ the sax. (Video volume has a loud lead in, so careful if you choose to listen to the short boppy clip I captured of their song)

Once off the train we made our way to the waterfront, and here’s a few images along the way.

This was where we chose to have a quick bite before going any further.

Mark wanted to try the curry wurst...not so awesome sauce at this place. Basically a ketchup with some curry power added to it. Well, Hamburg is actually known for its seafood, so maybe he’ll try again later.

This building has at least a few floors that are devoted to the Miniature Wunderland, otherwise known as:

One of our first views inside was a corner of the workshop.

The first exhibit has vignettes of Germany over the centuries. My fave was the celebration of the fall of the Wall.

Another cool exhibit was the “Utopia”, 6 square meters of future - party models for the Federal Election 2013. Leading up to elections in 2009 and 2013, they had offered all parties represented in parliament one squre meter of land, and invited them to show the people what Germany would look like if the were to shape it. They were all laid out so you could compare how the party visions changed over 4 years. Wish I could remember which party created this block which showed 2 drastic paths combined in one square. One path a life that is sustainable, green and built around community; the other path one that focuses on banks, oil, military and a culture of fear.

The rest of the Wunderland is simply room after room of vast landscapes from various countries around the world, that have been planned and laid out down to the tiniest of details. From Greenpeace balloons in the air,

to dead bodies found in the river,

the giant gods watching over the game,

the nights life of music festivals.

The airport was one of the best parts, with planes taking off and landing, and everything else you could think of.

Animated scenes all over the place, like this fire being put out.

This building from the Hamburg waterfront, still being built, which shows the concert hall and apartments it will house when it’s done.

One of the best scenes: Pippy lifting her horse!

This area shows elements of Vegas, Miami and Cape Canaveral, which was extra cool when the night time lighting kicked in. Take off!

We were done with miniature world and keen to get back outdoors, so we meandered on an exploration walk of the area, and then walked a different path back to the train.

“Ich liebe dich!”

View from the platform while waiting for our transfer train.

Back in Hamburg-Bergedorf we made our way to the pedestrian plaza in search of some dinner.

We were super hungry and exhausted by the time we found the Block House, and settled in for a full on German meat and potato meal. Wunderbar!

Sasha captured a pic of all of us:

This day was a great way to kick off our 3 weeks of family fun in Germany!