What a difference a weekend makes ...

Friday was a humbling day.  We got the results of our monthly exam back, and boy do we have a long way to go.  We spent most of class reviewing grammar and discussing what we needed to work on.  As we usually do on Friday, we went someplace new to explore and we ended up at a Turkish restaurant where we enjoyed a good meal and a beer to drown our sorrows.

 What better way to end the week!

Our adventures also brought us to Saint Gertrud‘s Lutheran Church.  This is the only church in Hamburg to have survived the war with only minor damage.  We were wandering around outside and very nice lady riding by on her bike asked if we would like to see inside.  It turns out that she‘s a volunteer at the church and she wanted us to see the interior.   The churches here in the north have much less elaborate decor than in the south, probably because in the south, most churches are Catholic.

Saint Gertrud‘s

Interior - Saint Gertrud‘s

It‘s quite evident inside which of the stained glass windows have been replaced.  The older windows are the traditional scenes of people, while the replacement windows are almost Art Deco in style.  It‘s an interesting combination.

Back to school on Monday where we are now B.1.1 level students.  Our class has gone from 4 to 15 students, representing 12 different countries.  Our common language in German, so the conversations can be quite comical.  We have a new teacher who kept us so busy that the 3.5 hours flew by.  I think it‘s going to be more fun with the larger class.  

Food Adventures

Paul and I are pretty adventuresome diners.  The biggest obstacle for both of to overcome is slimy texture.  Just can‘t do it!  In advance of coming here, I did some research on local specialties so that we could give them a try.  I have now checked three items off the list - pickled herring, Labskaus, and Kabeljau.

Labskaus - Blokbräu Brauerei

Labskaus is a Northern Germany specialty that looks like beef tartar with an over-easy egg on top.  It‘s actually a combination of mashed potatoes, “corned beef”, onion and assorted spices.  Served warm along with mini-gherkins and herring, it was delicious.

Just down the street from us is Ristorante Italiano da Elena.  A small 30-ish seat restaurant serving pizza and really awesome pasta.  Deciphering the Italian menu was a bit difficult and somehow we both ended up with different pastas with shaved truffles.  Yum!  Paul‘s ravioli were probably 2x2 inches and filled with a cheese mixture.  My linguine had a very light sauce topped with Trüffel shavings and it was sooooo good.

Königsberger Klopse

The small city of Schwerin had a fairly large number of restaurants in the city center.  Saturday rather than Friday seems to be the night to go out because the restaurants were full on Saturday evening.  We ended up downstairs from our hotel at the Weinhaus Wöhler for some traditional German food.  I tried the Königsberger Klopes with Kabeljau, primarily because it‘s one of the foods I had read about in my German cooking magazine.    I‘m not sure what was in it other than cod, but it was very tasty.  I‘ll have to find a recipe and try to reproduce it at home.

Schwerin

It‘s a lovely Saturday and we‘re spending the weekend in Schwerin, about an hour west of Hamburg. It‘s a small city, famous for the Schwerin castle and the numerous lakes throughout the area.  We are staying at a Winehouse/Restaurant/Hotel in the heart of downtown, the Weinhaus Wöhler.  This morning for breakfast there was a wonderful array of breads, cheeses and meats, salmon, eggs, etc. etc.

Weinhaus Wöhler

 The hotel is within walking distance of both the main city square and the castle.  There are numerous restaurants and shops, and last night we had dinner at a Croatian restaurant, just to try something new.  Never having been to Croatia, I‘d say it‘s a combination of Croatian, Italian, and German food.  Just guessing!

Of course the highlight of coming to Schwerin is visiting the castle.  Following German reunification, the district of Mecklenberg government converted part of the castle into their parliament building.  The remaining areas of the building house renovated rooms of the original castle which are open to the public.  We had to try out our German in the castle because none of the staff seemed to speak English.  Of course, that‘s how we‘re learning to converse!

Schwerin Castle

The castle sits on one of the lakes and the public has access to an expansive garden.  Legend has it that the castle is haunted by a goblin, Peter Männchen or Little Peter, who rewards the food and honest, and punishes the bad.  Seems like a good guy to have around!

Peter Männchen

Hamburg Harbor

Classes were over for the week and we had a lovely, sunny afternoon to spend outside.  Where better to head than the harbor ferry over to the Strandperle Restaurant at Övelgönne Beach. along the Elbe.  The ferry is included in our monthly transportation passes and it’s a wonderful way to view the harbor up close.

There are a myriad of cargo cranes, tug boats, and even an ice breaker along the ferry route.  Övelgönne beach is at the base of a steep hill full of old houses which survived WWII.  The beach itself has many restaurants and is a mooring area for wooden sailing ships.  I probably saw 20 of them in just one area.  It‘s a fun area for sitting outside on a sunny day and enjoying the view.

Our classes continue to be challenging.  We have had two instructors - Sylvia and Lisa.  We prefer Lisa because she NEVER speaks English to us, while Sylvia will immediately slip into English when we can‘t figure something out.  Sylvia is also clueless when it comes to operating a computer, so we usually listen to the practice dialogs at home.  There are still four of us in the class, Paul and I, a New Zealander who has lived here for four years, and a woman from Switzerland who speaks both French and English.  It‘s a good group.

The Reeperbahn

Hamburg‘s Reeperbahn is a “colorful” area of Hamburg located near the port.  It’s typical of the red light district in most port cities, full of seedy restaurants, sex shops and whatever else you might want or need.  It’s also a cultural hotspot for Hamburg with many live music venues and theaters.  The Beatles played here for several years before hitting it big.  The Beatles statue is underwhelming to say the least.

The Beatles - Hamburg

We went to the Reeperbahn because there was a food festival advertised.  It turned out to be a few food trucks and a band warming up on stage.  Again, underwhelming.  We probably won’t go back again until the Christmas market opens in November.  Got to get those really fun gifts for all of our friends!

The Reeperbahn

We have noticed a number of similar statues around town and upon doing some research found that they are of Hans Hummel, the last water carrier in Hamburg.  Back in the day when homes were not hooked up to a water line, water carriers delivered buckets of water to homes.  The Hans Hummel statues are an art project of 100 identical statues painted by various local artists.  We have seen similar projects in Berlin (bears), and in Washington, DC (donkeys and elephants).

Hans Hummel - water carrier

By the way - today is German Reunification Day.  28 years ago, the Berlin Wall came down and the city was reunited.  There didn’t seem to be any celebrating anywhere other than in Berlin, but it’s a national holiday so no school today.  German grammar is a bear, so it was nice to have a day off to review.

Two different views of Hamburg

Since most of our afternoons are free, we try to get out and see some of the local sights.  The Hamburg Botanical Gardens is just a 20 minute S-Bahn ride from downtown.  It’s a beautiful and quiet place to walk around and enjoy the plants and trees from around the world.  They are currently hosting an interesting exhibition on North American Indians and the crops that they grew.

Adam eating the apple

It‘s amazing how many varieties we saw while walking around and how good it all smelled.  I did notice that there were no pine trees like we would see on the west coast, by maybe they don‘t grow here well.  Considering how late it is in the growing season, there were still many blooms.

This weekend the gardens are hosting an Indian Summer festival as they close out their season.  Hopefully that doesn‘t mean we‘ll be having cold weather soon, but we‘re ready when it does.  In the meantime we‘re enjoying nice fall weather and (keep your fingers crossed) no rain!

Japanese garden

Quite a different side of Hamburg is the Sternschanze quarter, an area touted as an alternative to the touristy Reeperbahn.  It‘s colorful, gritty, and a slightly seamier side of the city.  There is a lot of graffiti all over the city, but much more predominant in the working class neighborhoods.

School Days

Day 3 of school and there‘s no hiding in class.  As suspected, Paul and I are the only students in our level and our teacher, Sylvia now knows what she‘s dealing with.  We‘re getting lots of personalized correction and Sylvia says that in a month our ability to converse will be much better.  I sure hope so!

The view from the train stop near the school is pretty spectacular.  Right across the road is a harbor for tour boats and small craft.  One stop down you can see the main harbor where large ships are loaded.  The entire area is being revitalized with many shops and apartments as well as the Elbphilharmonie.

We hope to have some free time in the next few days to visit the Immigration Museum at the harbor where many German immigrants to the US made their initial journey.  Paul was able to track some of his ancestors here through Ancestry.com and now we want to see what records are available. Tomorrow afternoon we will head to the Hamburg Botanic Garden (Sylvia said we had to go while the weather is good).  With an expected high of 69 we‘re experiencing a real heatwave!

Remember that it‘s Oktoberfest and we‘re doing our part to celebrate.