Der Michel

At the train station, I bought a large streussel square. It was so large that I couldn’t finish it all—I will have the rest tomorrow.

From the station, I walked down to St. Michael’s Church (“Der Michel”). Here are some pictures on the way there. The last ones are of “ZitronenJette,” a lady who sold lemons in Hamburg. Apparently you can rub her hand for good luck, much like the nose on the statue of Abraham Lincoln at his tomb in Springfield, Illinois.

You can go to the top of the church spire, so I decided to take the stairs up to a platform near the top. That is not the absolute top; there's a stairway to the very top of the church, but it is outside, and it was windy, and I just did not have the nerve. However, I did get some good views of the city. You can see from one of the pictures that someone with a rather devilish sense of humor decided to put a number on the church.

Reeperbahn and Points North

From there, I walked to the Reeperbahn, which is the sex shop district. Of course, during the day there’s no activity there.

I decided to keep walking on to the Altona train station, and from there I walked a way further north. I returned to Altona, and went into Media Markt, which is very much like Best Buy in the U.S.

I returned to the main train station and did some souvenir shopping, then went back to the hotel for a while. There is a Harley-Davidson motorcycle convention in town this weekend, and I saw a few bikers checking in to the hotel.

Evening Activities

I spent some time editing the notes from yesterday’s meeting, and then went back out for dinner. IMHO, German cuisine seems awfully heavy. I went to a place near the train station and ordered Pilzpfanne, which was mushrooms, onion, sliced potatoes, and cheese. Man, did they go heavy on the cheese. It was good, but I doubt it was particularly healthy.

I am watching the Germany/Portugal soccer match now; Germany is ahead 2-0. I imagine there will be all sorts of drunken revelry downtown tonight no matter what happens. Oops. Portugal just scored; now it is 2-1 Germany.

I am off to Amsterdam tomorrow at 7:46 a.m., and will write a brief report from there tomorrow evening if time permits.

Here are some painted statues of Hans Hummel, Hamburg’s mascot.

Today’s Miscellanea

Today’s garbage cans: “Feed me” and “For me, only contents count.”

I had to take a picture of this for all you fans of the movie Young Frankenstein.

Some interesting signs. The first one is on the side of a bus and says, “Who knows us, loves us.” I just thought the pizza place logo was great.

Near the main train station, they have a clever way of keeping people from crossing against the “Don’t walk” signal—just let people know how long they will have to wait for a green light.