May 2014

Yes, the hamburgers are named after the second largest city in Germany, Hamburg(population: 1.8 million). To be technical, what was invented in Hamburg was the hamburger patties, and the current sandwich form was started in the U.S. So it will be safe to say a hamburger is as American as an apple pie or baseball.

We were in Hamburg on three different occasions mainly to visit my cousin and his family. Each time, we spent a couple of days in the city. Hamburg is a major port, but this city does not sit by an ocean. Elbe River runs through the city, and it connects the North Sea to Hamburg. The river and the lakes and the canals make the city look more attractive, and it retains the old charm even though most of the city was rebuilt after the WWII.

My cousin’s house is in the wooded residential area Southwest of downtown, and, we used the train(S-Bahn) to get to the center. From the main train station, the City Hall is an under 1km walk. Around the City Hall and the lake, it is very pleasant to walk around and see charming buildings and streets, like the one below.

From here, the UNESCO World Heritage site Speicherstadt is another 1km south. This waterside old warehouse district is next to the ultra-modern Hafen-City, and the whole area has lots of cafes, restaurants, and shops.

On another day, we took the ferry from the southwest bank of Elbe River and went across the river to reach the area a bit west of the downtown. There were lots of seafood restaurants in this area, and St. Michael’s Church was close by.

During the summer months, a water garden concert is performed daily at Planten un Blomen Park. We were lucky to catch this one summer.

The Beatles honed their skills at nightclubs in Hamburg between 1960 and 1962, and there is a monument to that in Reeperbahn Night Life District. We visited this area one morning, and nothing was open. We could see very clearly, though, what might have happened the night before: there were plenty of remnants of a big street party.

One nice surprise was that the best Korean restaurant in Europe, in our opinion, was in Hamburg: Hanmi Restaurant.

More to do & eat: click!   another click!

May 2014

Eisenach(population:42,000) has other things, but our focus when my cousin drove us there was Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the New Testament of the Bible into German. This castle is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Wartburg was built in the second half of the 12th century, and there are many impressive artistic details throughout the architectures. We paid 4 euros each more to do the guided tour, which, we thought, was worthwhile. To see the interior of the Palas, the main building, one has to take this tour.

The 14th-century Castle Chapel features three Romantic-era fresco cycles by Mortiz von Schwind illustrating the life of St. Elisabeth and the history of the castle.

Martin Luther was hiding here after he was condemned to death by the emperor. He translated the New Testament from ancient Greek into German during his stay.

More information: click!

May 2014       Itinerary Link

Hard rain. That was our introduction to Copenhagen. I remember this very clearly even though it was over 4 years ago. We paid almost 40 euros(now it’s even more than that) to drive on Oresund Bridge from Malmo, Sweden, to Copenhagen to witness the supposedly one of the most magical, sweeping views from any bridge around the world. It rained so hard that we barely saw the railings of the bridge, and we just hoped that the 8km would end soon.

And, in this rain, we had to wait in the car for our Airbnb host to show up. He was 1.5 hours late. The first and the biggest challenge in a house sharing experience tends to be getting the key, and this was a perfect example of it.

Luckily, the rain let up enough in time for returning the rental car and we could walk around a little. Our Airbnb apartment was in Norreboro,  an area a bit northwest of the center, but it was quite easy to get around using the public transportation. We each bought a 48 hour City Pass and got a good use out of it. This pass is worthwhile if you plan to use it more than 3 times/day. We were quite interested in using bikes, but the weather was not cooperating. Copenhagen was one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world with well-marked bike lanes all over the city. Over 70% of the citizens commute on bikes daily, we were told.

We found a decent restaurant in our neighborhood for dinner, and we went to bed early. It had been a long day!

The city center is not all that big and easily walkable. We took the bus to Amalienborg Palace, took a look, then checked out the Frederik’s Church(Marble Church) nearby. Then we took a tram to Copenhagen Citadel and walked to see the most famous attraction in the city: the Little Mermaid!

We had lunch in Nyhavn(New Harbour) area. “New” here meant it was built between 1670-1673. We had a light rain all morning off and on, but the sky cleared up by the time we arrived in this area. A leisurely walk was called for! There were plenty of churches nearby, and we went into a couple of them.

The Little Mermaid was, actually, really little. At 1.25 meters(4.1 feet), it certainly was shorter than me although its weight of 175kg(385 lbs) was way heavier than me. It’s been there since 1913, so it is older than me! I did not know, though, it was commissioned by the Carlsberg brewery founder. and a littler version of it sits at the Brewery.

Frederik’s Church

We spent the afternoon at the Tivoli Gardens, the mother of all the amusement parks, in operation since 1843(second oldest: the oldest is in Denmark also). We paid 120 DKK($18) to get into the park but did not get on any of the rides which cost extra. It was like walking into an old movie set, and beautifully decorated rides were fun to look at. We liked the fact that it was not overwhelming or too noisy or scary, and a slow walk was enjoyable. We had a decent but not too expensive dinner at Groften Restaurant inside the park.

We went to the open air museum north of the city. We were debating whether to visit the Hamlet’s Castle or this place, but we had seen enough castles by the time we got to Copenhagen. We took the S-train line E to Sorgenfri, which was easy. Then we were not too sure which way to walk since our smartphone was not working well. We kept asking whenever we ran into a person(not many of them around), and, good 20-25 minutes later, we found it.

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It was quite huge at 86 acres, and our feet got tired after a while. We were glad we went there, but we were exhausted.  There was not much else in and around the park area, and we were forced to eat at the museum restaurant, which was ok but not cheap.

When we got back into the city, we got off the train at Norreport and visited the astronomical observatory Round Tower. The view from the top was fantastic as expected. The streets around there had street musicians and lots of shops. We took a break at a cafe.

Next morning we flew out of Copenhagen Airport. With 3 of us traveling together, a cab ride was not too unreasonable(250 DKK or about $38) to the airport.

Copenhagen in 2017: link