THIS IS A DRAFT POST - DO NOT RATE.
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It is always a bit uncertain when I think about writing a trip recap. I’m not really sure where to begin because there are so many things that amaze me everytime I go somewhere outside the US – even if I have seen them repeated many times and in many places. So, regardless whether these things are new or old, I always appreciate the opportunity that my wife (and the wives/fiancées of those that came with me), my work and my clients give me to experience it. On to the recap…
I’m not sure whether I should say third time is a charm or three strikes and I am out when it comes to Munich, but the images of Oktoberfest are definitely something everyone should see at least one in their lives personally. Gamma and I took the overnight out of Miami through Paris. Everything went well, including the person next to Gamma getting upgraded at the last minute leaving the middle seat open between us, but CDG is one of the most irritating airports I have experienced in the world (including flying out of Miami), so all of the pleasantries of Air France were spoiled. We quietly arrived in Munich and took the east U4 line out to our hotel. We luckily were allowed in the room well before noon, so we put our luggage up and headed off to meet Mark and Ryan at the English Garden in the shadow of the Chinese Tower – which is incidentally where Mark, Gamma and I began our trip in 2006. After a few liters and some food, we headed down to the Wiesn, where we decided to follow the 06 trip once more and sat outside the Lowenbrau Tent, watching the tower with the turning Lowenbrau Lion until the sun went down. We then went to the most “foreign friendly” tent, the good old Hoffbrau.
We needed a bit of sleeping in on Friday after the long first day (really two days rolled into one), but we got up and swapped hotels to the Westpark, which is a 10 minute walk (or one U stop) away from the party for the rest of the weekend. BMW Museum, Tents, Hoffbrau Haus, Last Day, long flight…
Arriving in Hamburg after the delayed flight and long weekend was well a definite disadvantage. After arriving in the hotel, we wanted to get a jump on the sightseeing, but knew it would be a bit of a challenge because of the time (10:30 p.m.), the day (Sunday) and the weather (cold and raining). We were fortunate enough to get some good advice at the hotel from a fellow that had only moved from Berlin to Hamburg four weeks earlier. He directed us down to what we would find out later is called the St. Pauli area, which is where the shipping center is along the Elbe. His advice was to hit a lounge at the Westside Hotel called 20 up, which on the penthouse floor (20 stories up). Even though it was at night, the view was spectacular and it was a good place to start getting our bearings. At 20 up, we talked to our bartender who gave us some advice about other locations, but then mentioned to us that the famous Reeperbahn was a very short walk away. We walked the couple of cold and wet blocks to the area and before we even made it to the famous street, we were approached by two “nice Eastern European” girls that offered “pleasant company.” Between their aggressiveness, the length of the day and the weather, Gamma and I decided to call it a night and leave the sightseeing to the next day.
So, now that we spent the next day and a half checking out different parts of Hamburg, I can jump into some of the “fun facts” that I thought were most interesting.
Hamburg is the second largest City in Germany (first is Berlin, third is Munich) with a population of over $1.7 Million. It is in just about the most Northern portion of Germany (same latitude as ), but is located along the Elbe River, making it a very major port town. The City has been built and burnt down more times than I could keep track of, but was under both Danish and Prussian control prior to being formed into the German country.
Okay, given that information, I’ll run through the remainder of our time in Hamburg going through the random sightseeing that we finished. Our hotel was right on the Alster, so it was a short walk (less than 1,000 m) into the older parts of the City. We spent a good bit of time walking around and doing some random sightseeing before looking for an “American meal” to settle our bodies down. After a meal at Subway, we jumped onto a “hop on, hop off” City tour where we were able to see a number of the nicer sights. We drove past the City Hall, the port, the Reeperbahn (some of the things we had seen before, but at least this time we knew what they were!). After the tour, we decided to head back to the room for a break. In the room, we watched a soccer match (U20 Italy versus Spain – it was actually an interesting match with 6 yellow cards and 1 red card, but Spain had a chance to tie with a penalty kick with about two minutes remaining and a 2-1 disadvantage) to get in the European spirit. We then walked around the very nice area called the ____ and decided to get dinner there as well. We passed up the very popular Block House (there are a ton of them here now) for bistro called “Prime”. The food wasn’t spectacular, but we both finally got our “Hamburgers in Hamburg”. After dinner, we back to the Reeperbahn to see what it was like a little earlier in the night.
Reeperbahn – same girls, strange clubs, one very busy one, drunk kids.
On our last day in the City we decided to take up the advice of the City Tour from the day before to ride the U3 in between Rathaus and Landgursen – they suggest this area because the U runs on elevated tracks through the heart of the old City, giving a view you can’t get from the buses or walking around. We came back to explore the Rathaus and St. Nikolas’s moument, before heading back into the trip home – three flights in 36 hours…
Sights and Memories…