Hamburg and surroundings
Photo from Bergedorf
It was a very unusual journey. You can say the first of its kind. Although our travels continue to go on at full speed, but regular readers have already clearly noticed a large pause in the publication of stories. And in fact, writing this story is a great miracle in the good sense of the word. I must say right away that I am writing this story with my own hands, which means that everything is already relatively good.
Complex
We recently lost a trip to Italy. We were supposed to fly, but only I flew, and, unfortunately, not on an airplane, but on a bicycle. I have fallen off my bike many times in my life and even had an accident when I was a teenager. But this time surpassed all cases combined. When I was lying on the paving stones in the park, I saw with horror how my hand was lying at such an angle at which it should not lie. When Dasha and Misha came to save me, one of my first questions was “What is the next trip and when? ”. When Dasha said that Italy was planned for us in a week, I was very surprised and could not understand. Where exactly and with what airlines? Well, wow, Italy... It was a painful shock, in which the memory begins to behave differently for some time. All week I hoped that we would still have time to fly, but the fractures turned out to be quite serious, and on both hands at once. But modern Ukrainian medicine works wonders. And it was not by chance that I wrote the word “Ukrainian” with a capital letter. Many people believe that our country has poor state medicine, and as a person who spent a week in the Emergency Hospital, I want to say that everything is in order with state medicine. But, for example, there are really problems with the Ukrainian company BikeNow. When we reported that the bike's rear brake hadn't worked and what it had led to, we saw the worst of poor service. In short, in the end we received an answer in the format “It’s my own fault that I rented a bike from us. ”
In general, I am very glad that with such a fall I escaped with only a broken arm, and a wave of positive practically did not leave me. I was also very glad that the night before the fall, I managed to send my parents on a trip, and at least they didn’t have a trip because of my hands. When my mother asked me how she could give me moral support, I said that the best thing they can do for me now is to go to Cairo and see the pyramids, a photo against the backdrop of the pyramids will be a great inspiration for me that the travel continues. So the parents did. Also, I didn't need a costume for Halloween)))
After the operation, I did not have time to recover to the minimum acceptable physical condition in order to fly and I had to miss the flight. I wrote a request to Wizz and they gladly agreed, refunding me the cost of my round-trip ticket, drawing my attention to the fact that it is good to take a flex fare in order to avoid such situations.
Luckily, Italy wasn't the only trip ahead. By the time I left for Hamburg, I had already learned how to do a lot of things with my own hands, but still the main heroine of the trip is Dasha. Since most of the things she had to do twice - for herself and for me. And in general, how important it is to have a reliable soul mate. In fact, one of my problems is to live the time before the operation, then go through the rehabilitation of the hands. But a real test fell on Dasha's shoulders. Do absolutely everything around the house and take full care of me, resolve all issues with insurance and the hospital. As it turned out without hands - as without hands! I am also, as always, very lucky with my favorite job. From the German manager in the first days I received a message in the format “Andrey, I understand how hard it is for you now, please don’t think about work, but fully concentrate on your health, return only when you are completely ready”, and all sick leave is fully paid. I also received a message of support from my Kiev colleagues with a note that it is not necessary to answer, as they understand that it is unrealistic to do this with broken hands. At such moments, sentimentality made my way to tears.
It was funny when on the first evening my mother wrote to me “Son, write us something good”. And then, eight minutes later, “I understood, I don’t need to write”)))) But fortunately, modern technologies can recognize text from the voice and I mastered the phone quickly enough. That's just it was necessary to learn how to unlock the phone. By the way, the phone is the best tool for rehabilitation, if you want to surf the Internet, learn to work with your fingers)))) And what tricks I learned to do with my feet! When your nose starts to itch in the middle of the night and you won't learn that. At least take it now and enter the acrobatic circle. Another funny thing was when the nurse accidentally closed the door behind her when she left the room, and then told me during the day that I was so modest that I didn’t even ask for help at night. And one night I needed the help of a nurse, but this time a nurse was on duty with a very gloomy face. For some reason, her face gave me a feeling of fear and danger. And I couldn't find her, so I had to wake up the nurse. The girl said, so there she is behind that door and pointed to a very dark part of the corridor, where there was a very gloomy door. I seriously asked the nurse if she was scared herself. She laughed, but judging by her nervous laughter, she was also afraid of the nurse))) An interesting fact is that for the first few days after anesthesia, I had dreams consisting of one frame. For example, a still picture with Dasha appears and in her head a voice says some phrase on her behalf. End of sleep. But back to the journey.
The first surprise was waiting for us at the airport on the frame. Either my four plates squeaked, or the frame decided to squeal just in case. But I had to pass an additional check. By the way, on the return flight, when the employee saw my hands, they took me outside the framework and simply felt my clothes. The next important step was the plane. The traumatologist allowed me to fly, but warned that my hands might swell. But, fortunately, the hands also missed flying and behaved well. By the way, the folding table is ideal for storing broken hands during the entire flight))))) How I rejoiced at the fact that we were flying by plane. This means only one thing - the journey continues!
Hamburg
Dasha and I stood spellbound and watched the unusual double-decker Lufthansa aircraft, which began a leisurely taxi. The plane was moving confidently to the departure runway. Is he still going to fly? The plane, in turn, left the runway and began to pick up speed. Many people followed the event. At some point, the plane lifted off the ground and flew away. The display showed the information that the flight had departed. After departure, another plane landed on the runway and began taxiing towards the airport. A blue cleaning machine drove around and washed the airport grounds. We stood as if struck by lightning, the whole trick was that all the departing and arriving planes were smaller than me!! ! At the same moment, a volcanic eruption began, and the lava rushed lower and lower towards Pompeii. The lights began to go out in the hall, and the cities began to turn on night lights - now the ten-minute night will begin, we need to hurry to the mountains, there will now be a strong thunderstorm.
Immediately, somewhere in the mountains, a flying saucer rose and soared up. No matter how indifferent I am to museums, the Hamburg Museum of Miniatures knows how to surprise. I described only a few events so as not to spoil, but we spent three and a half hours here until the forces were not exactly over, but the reserves of tomorrow were also exhausted in advance. There were a lot of wow effects. There are so many miniature elements here that I am sure that not a single tourist will physically be able to see everything and pay attention to everything. And this is not an exaggeration. Entire cities with streets are designed here, and everywhere there is interactive and something is happening. There are 15 real kilometers of railway tracks here.
And a lot of hidden secrets. For example, at the bottom of the ocean with real water, we found two cows grazing in scuba gear. Or you can find a gap in the mountain parody, looking into which you can see elves mining crystals. In general, life in miniature cities is in full swing, even car accidents happen... The museum is open from early morning until one in the morning. Judging by the schedule on the website, the entrance queue can be up to 220 minutes.
With us, it turned out that we had been walking around Hamburg all day and were thinking of turning to the hotel, and here on the way there was a museum and without a queue! I had to take all my strength into my hands, that is, into my legs and leave for another three and a half hours))) For everyone who thinks it’s worth it to fly to this expensive part of Germany, the answer is this, you need to fly here at least for the sake of this museum. By the way, the entrance to the museum is quite loyal - 20 euros per person.
I still could not at first understand why they sell subscriptions here. But now I understand that this is a paradise for perfectionists who will try to inspect all the elements, but as I wrote earlier, it won’t work, there are only 269.000 miniature people here. And the museum is expanding all the time.
There are rooms in which workers create new locations, people, equipment, and you can also watch this. By the way, while checking information about the museum on the Internet, I found out that in addition to the change of day and night, there were also ebb and flow in the ocean. . .
If before entering the museum we were just tired, then at the exit we felt tired only comparable to our first trips, when we still physically didn’t know how to be on our feet so much) On the way to the hotel, we also got to the shooting of some German film, Luckily for us, it was a decent movie. There was an uncomfortable lock in front of the entrance to the building with our hotel, and a deep grate under your feet, one clumsy movement and the keys would fall into the abyss, and the complexity of the trip would increase significantly. Therefore, getting the keys out of the backpack and then opening the door each time was carefully planned to the smallest detail.
Bergedorf
We started the morning with the most beautiful shawarma, we bought it at the metro station. In previous stories about Germany, I have already sung the greatness of shawarma, but this time was special. It was so tasty to me that I was afraid that something had been added to me there. I still remember this crispy taste of meat... I could not help but capture the moment about shawarma in this story, but today's goal is a small nearby town.
It takes about 40 minutes to get there if I'm not mistaken. According to an unspoken tradition, I begin my acquaintance with German cities with sweet pastries. I don't know why, but this is not the first time, and even yesterday's acquaintance with Hamburg began in the same way. Probably because at metro stations it is sold so appetizingly that every time I can’t pass by. I would mark Bergedorf as a small pearl in the suburbs of hefty Hamburg. There are beautiful streets, well-groomed dachas, a picturesque lake and lovely parks.
In different places of the parks, we found decorated small pebbles, in which on the back there was a link to Facebook and a short instruction on how to mark the visit. In any case, this is how we understood it, since it was written in German. This small town has its own atmosphere, radically different from Hamburg. We highly recommend visiting. And now we still have half a day ahead, so let's go back to the big city.
Hamburg Again
Hamburg has one problem, it literally catches the eye. The city has very poor lighting. When darkness falls, the lights do not cope at all, apparently some kind of strange approach to saving electricity. Given the short daylight hours, the problem was quite acute. However, during daylight hours, Hamburg can surprise not only with a miniature museum. One of the central streets here, apparently, is an analogue of the Red Light District of Amsterdam. We did not know this, but we began to notice that everything around us became concentrated on 18+ entertainment.
If the museum of miniatures was a pleasant surprise, now we were at a loss why so many brothel-like establishments are concentrated in one place and why they are needed in such quantity. We kept itinerary for a cultural visit to the Elbe Philharmonic, and instead got something the opposite of "culture shock. " By the way, we eventually got to the Philharmonic. But against the background of what I saw, there is nothing to tell about it) I, frankly, would not single out Hamburg as a city that is obligatory for tourism, but the presence of the Museum of Miniatures, Bergedorf and Bremen significantly increases the profitability of this trip.
Bremen
We got to the city in a very original way for us, it was the Flikstrain train, before this trip we did not even know about such. Train tickets cost 3 euros one way in advance, and since the train was 12 minutes late, we received 5 euro vouchers as an apology. They also remained in the black)))) But the train has a problem with logistics. The tickets have the number of the car, but on the train it is very small and inconspicuous, but there are many other unnecessary inscriptions, in particular, that some seats are on the left and some are on the right. Why did they write this on the outside of the car at all? ! When the train arrived, many were confused, no one could figure out which car to go to. And a group of tourists going into the car just decided to stand there to talk.
The Germans, people are very tactful, lined up for communicating tourists. The queue was so long that it continued outside. I understand that the train will now start to leave and I'm trying to find out why the queue formed. Dasha got into the car earlier and found that this queue was actually standing just like that. Dasha dispersed everyone, I squeezed into the car, we sat down. The queue stood for some time, until the train began to close the doors. The guys who were talking themselves stood still, talking in the center of the car all the way to Bremen. Also half of the route we observed the great migration of people looking for their car. In general, it was not boring. We arrived in sunny Bremen. On this trip, I had two important missions - to eat a hamburger in Hamburg, and also to eat a “dietary egg” against the backdrop of the Bremen Town Musicians (c).
Moreover, in Hamburg the task was quite difficult, since the condition for getting to McDonald's for a hamburger was a mandatory check-in in the covid application via the Internet, which, of course, was not at McDonald's. But what can you do for a hamburger. We also had a discussion about whether a McDonald's hamburger is suitable for this purpose, or we need to look for a more pretentious institution. But the dilemma was dispelled, since there were no empty seats in the other burger place, and in the third, the kitchen would not start working until an hour later.
But that is already in the past, now I am enjoying the boiled egg that we brought to Bremen. By the way, on the way to the famous monument we saw a street musician, and since he played in Bremen, we can say that we saw a real Bremen musician. That's it! But back to the city, it was suspiciously empty and sparsely populated.
Where does everything go? The answer turned out to be in the legendary Bremen courtyards. It was there that the bulk of tourists and working shops were concentrated. Yards turned out to be really worthwhile. If you are tired of courtyards, you can go for a walk in long parks or along the embankment, which will eventually lead you back to the houses. For lunch we decided to drop by a pizzeria where we were the only customers. True, this did not affect the speed of cooking at all, as a result, we waited the same amount of pizza if we first stood in line at the Michelin restaurant, and then just made an order))))
Most likely they went for us to collect fresh ingredients directly from the garden. But the size turned out to be so large that we were also provided with dinner. After an evening walk around Bremen, we got to the evening show, interesting images were projected onto the buildings to the playing music. Bremen turned out to be a great place to travel, but in fact you need to allocate about half a day for it, since the town is cute, but small.
In the meantime, we are returning to the night Hamburg. An interesting discovery awaited us here - we went to the Nivea store. I always thought it was just a little blue jar of cream, but it turns out there is a whole big store with their products. Who would have thought that they have so many products besides that blue cream. What will happen next? A supermarket dedicated to the "Star", probably)))
Hamburg Cemetery
Dasha planned the last half day of the trip in a rather original way, we went to the cemetery. I have never been fans of such places, but there were very laudatory reviews about it. I myself was already wondering what should be there for everyone to admire so much. Oddly enough, this place in Hamburg turned out to be really worth a visit. This is a huge park with many landscape design solutions, tombstones were also architectural masterpieces and blended perfectly with nature. And now I recommend this place to visit. It's really beautiful here. Even the rain didn't stop us. The second advantage of visiting the cemetery is the proximity to the airport, just one metro station and you are at the airport. The Germans have such a classic joke, I would say even a prank - they like to build bifurcated subway lines in the direction of the airport. This means that you can take a train towards the airport and arrive in a completely different city. Such a chip was exactly on the airport branch in Munich, where we almost missed the plane, and now our professional eye immediately saw this chip on the Hamburg airport branch. So, from the cemetery, the train just goes in the right direction.
Epilogue
Rehabilitating hands successfully coped with the first journey, Dasha is a real heroine, as she did a lot for the two of us. It is definitely worth going to Hamburg for the museum of miniatures and neighboring cities. Just before buying tickets, make sure that there is an acceptable cost of housing for your dates, since in pre-Covid times, hotel rooms started from 100 euros per night. Now the situation has changed significantly in favor of tourism. Our next goal is to catch up. Someday, Italy will finally break loose...
Travel Information
Date of travel: 5.11. 2021 – 8.11. 2021
Excursions: All by yourself
Trip difficulty: 2/10 (easy)
