What is Life (Hamburg, Germany, part 1)

And a happy Easter Sunday to you, dear reader. Yes, our days are not aligned.

The apartment is lovely. It is one bedroom with separate living area, kitchen and bathroom and has views over the Elbe River. It is comfortable, well appointed and it feels like home. Hafencity is an area of Hamburg that is still undergoing redevelopment. It is part of the port area that is being turned into a community. There are walks along the river and canal, parks, museums, galleries, restaurants, shops and the Elphi. It's the sort of thing we could have done in Sydney if the $ wasn't the prime motivation for doing everything. They are building a community, not just apartments to sell off to those who can afford them.

The canal over from us looking back to the Elphi.

The weather hasn't improved a lot, dear reader. It is still grey and drizzly. The air quality is like Sydney post the fire works. One of our hosts has told us the smoke and haze is due to bonfires, a German tradition over the Easter break.

Love the old architecture.

We sat in our picture window on the first floor and watched our host, Chrissy distribute Easter eggs liberally throughout the park area below. It is Easter Sunday and the hunting ground was being prepared. The children were soon there running and squealing, searching for the bounty. We chatted briefly with Chrissy and Stefan before we set out into the unknown, our first full day in Hamburg. There was no guarantee of what would be open on a public holiday. Although we did find a place that served coffee within a couple of hundred metres of the apartment.

Spring is trying to break through.

Since the whole day's plan was a hypothetical, we decided to see if the tourist information centre was open. The location is not far from our apartment but, on approach, it seemed just as we had expected - the building was all in dark. We went to the notice on the door to try to translate the opening hours over the Easter weekend.

While we were busily Googling, the door suddenly opened a young lady, a tourist officer, came out to see if we needed assistance. We expressed our surprise at the place being open on Easter Sunday but she simply said it was normal hours today but would be closed tomorrow, as it is every Monday.

A model of Hafencity focused on our area.

She provided us with a walking map of our Hafencity/Speicherstadt zone and also suggested we join a free guided tour of the area at 3pm. As a new employee, she would also be joining the tour to learn the ropes from an experienced guide. The only catch was the tour was in German, not English.

The tour would not include the Elphi so we decided to visit this local landmark ourselves while we waited for the tour to begin. The Elphi is the shortened version of Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall that has been developed utilising an old warehouse as its base. It rises above the warehouse, resembling a sail or the waves on the Elbe River. It has three concert venues, the Westin Hotel and some luxury apartments.

Looking down our street to the Elphie.

The glass panels of the exterior of the building reflect the surroundings. It looks different depending on what time of day it is and this is obviously influenced by the sun, or in our case, lack thereof. I'm not sure a drab, grey day is showing her in her best light.

Looking from the Elphie down our street.

Entry to observation deck is free, although you need a ticket to scan, and it is accessed by an 82 metre curved escalator, the longest in Europe. Allegedly this is like a golden staircase. Maybe the gold lights were overshadowed by the cloud the day we were there. Despite the inclement weather, the crowd never dissipated and there was a constant stream up the escalator and through the foyer and out around the observation deck. Again the view would have been so much more impressive had the sun deigned to shine.

It's a long way to the top.

Regardless, we walked the viewing deck and took photos from all major compass points before descending to reality. We walked the few minutes back home to wait for the walking tour to commence. It was a 10 minute walk in the other direction.

A city of church spires.

We met Kendra, the tourism officer and walked down to where the tour was to commence. The guide was clearly not thrilled that he would have two people on the tour who could not speak German and made it clear our time would be better spent elsewhere. So we took ourselves off to wander the streets, checking out the juxtaposition of the massive old port warehouses with the modern apartment precinct that is being created as a sustainable community. 

The tourist brochures describe the area as a work in progress, yet to develop its own soul or the  character of the old city. There is construction a plenty, all incorporating open spaces and facilities to sustain the development of the community. The Tourist Office in fact provides a video presentation on this veery topic to highlight the ethos and strategy that are steering the creation of this newest part of Hamburg; its future, as they term it.

Canals are the lifeblood of Hamburg.

Despite it being outside the peak season, or perhaps because of it, we have not been able to book a guided tour. Our experience of Germany thus far, compared to Scandinavia, is that there is far less accommodation for English speakers. We have never been travellers who just assume that every other country should automatically provide all communication, written and oral, in English. But we have found it much harder to get by here than in any of the Nordic countries we have visited on this trip.

In preparation for our Easter Monday excursion to the old town, Aldstadt, we went back to the Tourist Centre to procure a map of the broader city to plan what sights we would seek out, supported by a walking tour app we had downloaded. On the way, we also located an ATM to obtain some Euros as, curiously, Germany for some reason loves cash over cards. Again a stark contrast to Scandinavia. More often than not, we have been able to use a credit card here but we have been told to check and not assume businesses have card readers.

Street art "walls can dance".

The area is clearly a work-in-progress. There are road closures, building sites, a Westfield under construction, but it still has a community feel. There is street art where you would least expect it and bridges criss cross the canal like a bizarre game of cat's cradle. 

The tide is out.

Rainfall became heavier as the day wore on and eventually drove us inside to the warmth of the apartment to plan our next day's attack. Originally Easter Monday was supposed to be dry, but the forecast has changed again, it's like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, "You never know what you're going to get." I'll know what the weather is when I look out of the window tomorrow morning.

Oh well, our new motto will apply regardless: There is no bad weather, just bad clothing. We will dress accordingly, whatever the view from the window.

What is Life is a rather esoteric title, the reason dear reader is that nothing came instantly to mind. When the universe gives you nothing return to what you love. In this case it's George Harrison (the splitter) post Beatles with a great song from 1970. Enjoy. I do everytime I hear it.

Until next time.