Grey Skies In Hamburg

Rebecca only had a half day in Hamburg before she had to get on a train and go back to school, so she and Jon set off to do a quick walking tour of whatever they could find. They bought a one-day subway pass so they could just get on and off the train without considering the cost.  Only trouble was that it was a rainy day, and walking around in the rain is not actually all that much fun. I stayed home in the super quiet apartment and lounged -- had breakfast, took a shower, wrote, read. It was delicious. I went out for a half hour walk in the neighborhood but it just didn't seem all that worth it, walking in the rain, so I went back up the 65 steps to the cozy couch and continued reading my novel.

Meanwhile, they went to the Miniature Wonderland, an expansive warehouse full of model trains and city dioramas and mountainscapes and airports with planes that land and take off on a schedule. Incredible.

Then they walked around until they found a random bus and rode for a while, got off and walked to a park, but it was raining so that seemed unnecessary.  Took a train back to the central train station, Becca got some lunch and got ready to go. It wasn't the best day to be a tourist on foot.

Jon came back home to collect me up. We had a little lunch together, he got dried off, and then we went back out.  Our host had told us to go and visit the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, so that's where we headed.  It is down on the harbor where there are huge boats, small boats, cranes for unloading cargo (big port city, very big).  We walked a few blocks to the entrance -- it is a blue-ish glass cube on top of another existing brick building, so it starts way up high. There are these unusual cut-outs on the windows, like a giant finger scooped out a divot and left the flap sticking out. Of course we will have to read about that because it was a design feature I have never seen before and don't understand.  There was a ticket booth, and many guards, and a bank of turnstiles. Since we didn't know anything, we walked up to the ticket counter and asked what you get when you buy a ticket. You get to go up to the plaza (a lookout spot), you can eat and shop. How much are the tickets?  They are free.  Huh. So we got two tickets, were strictly schooled on how to use the turnstile, and then headed up the series of escalators.  The plaza is a fancy, wide open indoor space with a perimeter balcony with lots of views. Cloudy, rainy views but you could see just how far this city goes. And it was very windy on one side.  People had to hold onto their hats.

When we walked back to the subway, crossing a bridge over a canal, we went through a crazy wind tunnel.  The winds may have been a steady 50 mph as we pushed our way over the bridge, and the rain was coming sideways.  People with umbrellas were not doing well.  We were going to head to another tourist attraction but instead we just took random warm, dry rides on the subway, getting off at various places to look for a place to have some tea.  Eventually we ended up in another relatively active tourist area and went into a tall, glitzy downtown mall.  The food choices were amazingly diverse: Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, sushi, Mexican, lots of pizza and gelato, burgers.  I just wanted something hot to drink.  We went to a coffee shop and had tea and hot chocolate and a pastry and then we gave up on the tourist thing and headed for home.

Very quiet without Rebecca but we were in touch with her by WhatsApp because she was frustrated to be waiting for a train that never came in Aachen.  For some unknown reason, it just never came so she had to buy a bus ticket to get herself the last leg home. She knows that town, and it was only another 45 minutes, but the ticket agent was completely unsympathetic and useless.  Eventually she got back to Maastricht without any further troubles. 

Heard from Alissa that she arrived in Antigua, Guatemala.  So now our family is as spread out as it will ever be, for sure.  Two in Hamburg, one in Haifa, one in Antigua, one in Maastricht.  And the last three are in residence in their foreign countries.  The parents are just flitting around, watching Colbert on YouTube to try to get some perspective on what we are reading in the news.  I can understand why our children are staying out of the country for a while.