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German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents

SEEKING OUR GERMAN ROOTS

Chapter I    
May 11 - 13, 2003

Hamburg to Luebeck

Tuesday, May 13

By 3:30 a.m., local Hamburg time, we were wide awake. After all, it was only 6 p.m. back in Salem! At 4 a.m., an early bird, the robin-like blackbird called the "Amsel," was singing its flute-like song somewhere outside our open window and the sky was beginning to lighten. We gave up on any more sleeping, read some background information on our hotel (Built in 1906 as a church hospice, taken over by the Wehrmacht in 1942, used as part of the British Forces headquarters in 1945 and became a hotel in 1949 when the British left), got dressed and decided to stroll through a park we had spotted yesterday near the Dammtor train station.

In the "Blumen and Pflanzen Park" the birds (ducks, pigeons, cormorants) were all busy with their early morning activities. We walked on well-kept trails through beautiful gardens--filled with those familiar rhododendrons and other flowers new to us. The park contains an amazing glass-walled cactus garden, and many were in bloom. Like Central Park in New York City, this park was surrounded by the city but within, it seemed miles away from traffic and city bustle.

After our early-morning walk, we found the hotel breakfast room and by 6:45 a.m. were enjoying an excellent breakfast buffet with scrambled or soft-boiled eggs, various rolls, fresh fruit, cheeses, sandwich meat, juices and coffee. Having breakfast at our hotel or guest house room proved to be a great convenience throughout our trip.

Our plans for today called for a harbor tour in Hamburg--Germany’s busiest seaport, now, and when our relatives were coming to the USA in the 19th century. After that, a short train ride to Luebeck, to see this World Heritage site that was the capital of the "Hanseatic League" in much earlier times and do some birding with a young man that Karen birded with in the Luebeck area two years ago.

We packed up our suitcases, left them safely in the hotels’ lobby closet, paid our bill and by 9 a.m. we were walking along the beautiful Alster Lake to the harbor tour boat office. Bought tickets for their first "Fleet Tour" of the day (10:45 a.m.) and spent the intervening time exploring the streets bordering the lake. Last night, Friedrich-Franz had pointed out St. Peters Church where a von Pressentin once served as the head of the church in the Middle Ages (1100’s). We walked around the church--not yet open for the day. Hamburg had a huge fire that burned up the original St. Peters--this one was built on the same site in the 1890’s.

Next, we walked over to the magnificent City Hall building (the Rathaus). It was open and already gaggles of school kids were lining up with their teachers for a tour of the building. Throughout our trip, we were to see kids on their school field trips. Karen’s theory was that the teachers pretty much gave up on formal instruction once the nice May weather came--and made May "Field Trip Month."

The Rathaus was a big and very elegant building, both outside and inside. Stained glass windows portrayed not religious figures, but the Zodiac symbols. Again, it was built around 1892. So many of the really elaborate buildings that we saw on this trip were constructed in the 1890’s. This must have been a prosperous period for much of Germany.

We boarded our harbor tour boat, sharing it with a busload of senior citizens--this was a day trip for them from nearby Hanover. The tour narration was all in German, but with the help of a printed guide in English, and with Karen and others at the table adding some translation, I got the gist of most of the trip. The boat was similar to ones that take the tourists on canal tours in Amsterdam. We had to go through several locks to drop down from Alster Lake to the Elbe River which is Hamburg’s gateway to the sea.

Hamburg has been a shipping center since the Middle Ages, and we saw some warehouses dating back to that time. Apparently goods can be warehoused in Hamburg and no taxes charged until the merchandise is moved out.

Many of the narrow, four-story high warehouses appeared to contain oriental rugs, according to the signs on the buildings. The guide book said that Hamburg has more canals than Venice and Amsterdam combined--a watery place, indeed! The "new" harbor area was filled with huge cranes, used to move the containers from shore to ship. Lots and lots of new cars were lined up on the dock--coming or going? We never learned.

After the tour, it was back to our hotel to retrieve our bags, and start the ten-minute walk to the "Hauptbahnhof" which means "really big, main train station." I had a few moments of trepidation as we trundled our rolling suitcases over the Alster Lake bridge and up a low hill to the train station. It struck me that we were cut loose from all my usual security. It was just Karen and me, our backpacks and suitcases, all alone and strangers in a foreign land. Karen reassured me that we could handle all this travel by train and car and bus, although she did admit that people might wonder that she would subject her 71-year-old mother to hauling a heavy suitcase over cobblestone streets!

The Hauptbahnhof was indeed a really big train station. Probably about like Grand Central Station in New York City. Certainly not like the deserted train stations in much of the U.S. Bustling with people, coming and going to their trains, the station’s interior was lined with shops of all kinds. The train tracks were a level below but Karen spotted an elevator that made hauling our bags relatively easy.

Karen’s travel experiences in Germany two years ago paid off now. She led the way to a nice delicatessen where we picked up hearty meat sandwiches wrapped in a cheese pastry. Some bottled water, and of course some "kuchen" and we were set to board the train to Luebeck and eat our lunch enroute.

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