Celle to Hamburg

 We have had a pleasant and not very long day on the road. We arrived in Hamburg about 1pm and whilst our room wasn’t ready the lovely girl on reception guided us to the parking area and indicated that if we were able to get the bike around the barrier we could park for free and save ourselves 44 Euro. Brilliant. We were also free to use the coffee machine and by the time we finished our coffee our room was ready. 

So after settling in we set off to explore this large city. Hamburg has a lot of industry and a massive shipyard. It is also regarded as an arts centre. 

We wandered around, and tried to get a feel for the place. It has a big city feel about it and there are waterways all over and most are lined with restaurants and bars. I’m not sure Hamburg would win any architectural awards, the buildings seem square and largely featureless to our eyes. I guess it may have had something to do with the fact that it was almost wiped out during WW2. 


A little bit of the old reflected in the new. 

Some of the buildings including the Rathaus (city council) appear to have survived the bombing and is a very impressive building. 

We wandered down one street which was just one designer store after another. All the big names you have heard of and some you may not have. The cars lining the street were equally as impressive amd some of them had their chauffeurs waiting for the owners to complete their shopping. How the 1% live!

We then headed to the St Nickolai cathedral or rather what is left of it. Most of this cathedral was destroyed but surprisingly the spire survived. After the war it was decided it wasn’t worth restoring but the remains were not demolished. Then some enlightened officials decided to preserve them as a memorial. 

Today the body of the cathedral serves as a display to prick people’s conscience on current issues. Today’s display highlighted various refugee issues that are occurring at the moment, a lot of issues particularly in Syria. 

There has been an elevator cleverly installed inside the original spire to a height of 75 metres and at the top there is fantastic lookout platform which has large photos taken at the end of the war and it is easy to compare that landscape to what it looks like today. The level of destruction during the carpet bombing is staggering. 


We the wandered back to our hotel for a drink before having a meal at the hotel next door to ours. 

We are on the top floor of the hotel at the end of a long  corridor.  Needless to say we have been around in circles  tonight trying to find our room. 

The view out the window looks over the rail yards but the sunset was pretty good. 



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