Kennedy's European Experience: Hamburg

29 May - 1 Jun - We travelled to Hamburg to visit a young lady that was an exchange student in Fairfax last year. We did alot of activities with her while in DC. She planned a wonderful tour of Hamburg for us and we had a PERFECT visit with her and her family - great touring and yes - FOOD!! Hamburg has 1.8 million people. It is one of the 16 city-states in Germany. The port is the 2nd largest port in Europe after Rotterdam. Hamburg is also the largest media center in German with TV, radio and newpaper headquarters. Emperor Charlemagne built the first fort in 808AD and the city has been here since. 29 May - We drove to Hamburg - it took 8 hours because of traffic and construction on the roads. It is 635 KM to her home. When we arrived, we went to Janika's home where her Mom served an excellent Rolladen, red cabbage, noodles, potatos. It was very very good and the dessert called Roete Gruetze which is red berries, crushed, strained and then gellatin added - SNAP - served with ice cream makes you want to slap your grandma!!!!!! 30 May - We picked up Janika and went to Hamburg. We took a city bus tour and saw the oldest parts of town and the HUGE homes around the lake in the middle of town. We stopped and took a tour of the harbor (hafen). After lunch, we visited the Minature Wonderland. This is an attraction that shows many areas of Europe in minature with train models, landscape and mini-people. This included one section on America. http://www.minatur-wuonderland.com/

Model of the Hamburg Harbor Station. After this, we went to dinner. Janika, James and Jamie went to dinner at Dinner in the dark. This was an adventure. You enter a dark room where the waiters seat you and bring your dinner. You only know you are eating a dinner dish like fish, lamb, or chicken or vegetarian. You enter the room in a line with hands on the sholders of the person in front of you. IT IS COMPLETELY DARK!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy crap was it DARK!!!! The waiters are blind so it is no issue for them. They bring you your drink then the food - soup, salad, main dish and dessert. You either get soup or dessert so we got DESSERT!! It was definately a different experience. The waiter could tell when we were done eating by listening for us to stop using the knife and fork!! They don't serve things like spaghetti or peas but the food was fairly easy to eat - some with hands :) but not bad. It was no problem finding your mouth with the fork but the food presented a bit more of a challenge. The food was good. http://www.unsicht-bar-hamburg.de/. The dinner lasted about 1.5 hours!!! Kim went to dinner with Janika's Mom - they saw their food!!!

Photo of the resturant and food - WONDERFUL!!! Like the flowers?? 31 May - We met Janika at 6am and went to the famous Fish Market at the harbor. It was really interesting and HUGE!!!! It started as a fishmarket many years ago and has expanded to fruits, veggies, clothes, chocolate from Holland, jewelry, flowers and live chickens....It was very nice. After the market, we went to the famous St Michael's Church. The church if undergoing remodeling and is called the "Most beautiful construction site in Germany." It is the largest church remodelling since WWII. The Sunday service was outside. We went to the top of the tower (turm). It was a beautiful day in Hamburg and we could see for miles arond the city!!! After the tower, we visited a park and played putt-putt and then had ice cream and Jamie played in the park. We then met Janika's Dad and Brother at the Harbor for dinner. Janika and I had Laubkaus - a traditional Hamburg dish. It is similiar to Corned Beef Hash and very good. We ended the evening sharing photos.

Hamburg fish Market

Labskaus 1 June - we met Janika for breakfast and then departed at 9am. It took 6.5 hours to get home and no traffic jams!!!! It was a wonderful trip and we are VERY thankful for Janika and her family for taking their time to show us a great time in HAMBURG!!!