Adventures in the North-- Hamburg and Kiel

After Bacharach, we took a long train ride to Hamburg, one of the largest cities in Germany, and the largest port in the country. It is also known for its cleanliness and safety. We stayed for two nights with my friend Lennart (who was an international student at St. Olaf for 2 and a half years) and his parents. He and his parents were so welcoming! Lennart showed us around Hamburg and drove us up to another city, Kiel, on the Baltic Sea. His parents just genuinely love people, and we stayed up late both nights chatting with them. They also took us to a quintessential German restaurant where we had----- just guess------ Wiener Schnitzel and potatoes! It was, however, much better than the Schnitzel they serve at least twice a week in the cafteria here at school.

In Hamburg we also saw a huge U-boat (submarine) factory, which makes such great products that the United States wanted to buy it a few years back. The Germans, however, were not about to give their pride and glory to the Americans and the governement forbid the selling of the company. Pretty interesting!


Lennart's house. He lives in a little village outside of Hamburg called Bad Bremstedt. Apparently Karl Lagerfeld also grew up there and went to Lennart's elementary school. This housing style is typical in Northern Germany, while white houses with red roofs are typical in Southern Germany.


Hamburg. It was a little rainy and gray, but so beautiful! It kind of reminded me of a bigger version of St. Paul. As with virtually all German cities, Hamburg is thriving with life and has a city center that is closed off to cars and is always full of people shopping, having coffee, wandering around, and traveling across the city by foot.


In Hamburg they take their pedestrian crossing lights very seriously; the lights display TWO red men for do not walk because apparently two red lights get people's attention more than just one red light.


This is the beach on the Baltic Sea in Kiel. So gorgeous!


Margit and I took a little rest in one of the beach chairs that are all over the place.

It was hard to capture the excitement and beauty of Hamburg in pictures (especially because of the dingy weather), but if I had to live anywhere in Germany, I think I would live in either Konstanz or Hamburg.