Today dawned overcast and the forecast was for that, possible rain, and chilly all day. The forecast for tomorrow was better. We had planned to do an Earl (Day Trips in Germany) walk around the main sights of Hamburg, but thought instead to just do some of the lesser items from David's list of things one might do in Hamburg, and save the Earl walk for tomorrow when the pictures might be better.
This worked out very well owing to several serendipitous events.
First up was something we did not do: Miniatur Wonderland, billed as the world's largest model railway layout. It's Saturday (duh!) and by the time we got there, they had a 90-minute wait to go in. "Eh, don't care that much," was the consensus.
The positive serendipity here was that Miniatur Wonderland is on the waterfront. Partly owing to that, and partly to a shutdown of part of the U-bahn line 3 which forced us to go a station too far and walk back, we ended up walking along a good piece of the waterfront. This was interesting despite it being a raw misty day.
A harbor cruise is, Earl says, a must-do activity and we will take one, probably tomorrow.
Altona
Next up was to explore the now suburb of Altona. Altona was once an independent city and, in the middle ages, a major commercial and industrial rival to Hamburg. Hitler decreed they should merge in 1937. Our Rough Guide writeup said some nice things about it and its city museum. So off we went, four stops up the S-bahn.
Next serendipity was that almost as soon as we started walking we found a nice park and in it, an immense and rather wild fountain sculpture.
Gimme that fish!
According to the German wikipedia entry, this was funded by G.L. Stuhlmann and symbolizes the historic rivalry of Altona and Hamburg for the fishing industry.
While we were admiring this really quite amazing piece we heard a chorus singing. Eh? And a group of singers came trooping into the park, formed up in front of the statue, and rendered several numbers.
They were quite good, clearly experienced and well-rehearsed.
A helpful German man who had some English told us this was an "art project" designed (and here we interpolate from his limited English) to comment on aging and the capacity for activity and self-renewal for the elderly.
The singers (who were not elderly) each had a rolling walker with various items in the basket that (we interpret) symbolized some life activity for them: pets, gardening, etc.
Still singing, they formed up and departed.
OK, this is going well... Our German acquaintance who'd helped interpret the singers also recommended the Altona museum, which was just down the block, so in we went.
The banner says, roughly, closing it costs more.
Here it turned out we'd stepped into a controversy: the Hamburg Senat (city council?) has decided to close this museum as a budget-cutting measure. The museum was full of banners imploring community support. We wish them luck; it's a nice place with some unique things.
One thing we'd never seen anywhere else was a series of model dioramas on commercial fishing techniques, showing the different kinds of nets used for different types of fish, and making crystal clear how they are deployed by the boats.
One kind of long net deployed from two boats.
Eel fishing.
Another room was a collection of ship figureheads.
Including one who could be a 50s sitcom heroine,
And your classic bimbo of the waves.
Fancy Fish Lunch
When we left the Altona museum it was half-past lunch-time at least and we started looking for a restaurant, vowing to stop at the first decent one that turned up. Unfortunately the streets seemed bare of restaurants until after several blocks we reached the waterfront again and smelled fish cooking on the chill winds. There was Fischereihafen (fishery harbor) Restaurant Hamburg, it looked fine on the outside and people were helping their aged parents in so in we went.
This turned out to be a very upscale place, with waiters in tuxedos who escorted us to a table (the usual German custom is you just come in and sit down where you like), and the food came under a silver dome to be unveiled before you with a flourish. It was good, too, and not more than 50% higher than we are used to paying for a lunch entree.
Finding this restaurant was a good serendipitous thing, but also a bit of a forehead-slapper because as we resumed our walk along the waterfront we realized that it had been only the first of about 50 fish restaurants in that stretch, most much cheaper and less formal. But heck, we'd said "first decent one" and that was it.
Kunst unt Gewerbe
The Rough Guide raves about the Museum vor Kunst unt Gewerbe (Arts and Crafts) and it is just a block from our hotel so, we went there next. One of the gems of this museum is a room of what we now call Art Nouveau pieces.
The 1900 Room - click through to admire details.
An exquisite vanity.
Tiffany(?) lamp on Morris(?) wallpaper.
The then-director of the museum attended the Paris Exposition of 1900 where he saw the new trend in art and decoration, and commissioned this room to demonstrate what was then the latest in contemporary design.
Antique Head Collection
The museum's other pride is its collection of historic keyboard instruments. This is a so-called "giraffe piano", an upright grand piano.
Very popular in the early 1800's.
Any latin scholars among our masses of readers? Google's new Latin to English translator makes a hash of this slogan.
Music magnifies the solace of sweet labor?
Tomorrow: more Hamburg, and a home visit with natives!
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