Tue 14.Jun.2011
Hamburg, Germany
Nothing like waking up to the Neanderthal Baseball Club! That is life in my
little guest loft here in Germany's great old city.
Downtown
Hamburg centers around where the river Alster flows into the Elbe, about
50 km upriver (on the Elbe) from the North Sea. The Alster is the center of
a park-like area.
The plaza outside City Hall
City Hall itself.
Near the beach west of town.
My wonderful local hosts steered me
toward this delightful area that I might not have found on my own.
Twenty or thirty years ago, the Elbe was so polluted that swimming was
forbidden, to say nothing of suicidal. Much of that, though far from all, came
from the former German Democratic Republic.
Today, the GDR is gone, and the Federal Republic did a major cleanup starting
in the 1970's. Fish thrive in the river
again, and this beach is a favorite leisure spot, especially with young folks.
Hamburg is a famously green city, in the sense of lots of woods, parks, etc.
The bee that was the centerpiece of this photo buzzed off before I got it taken.
It is still a neat rose.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf