Hamburg and Stade

I had a comfortable and interesting plane trip from Adelaide to Munich with a longish stopover in Singapore. Indeed this was one of the better flights that I have had I must say.   I was fortunate to have had interesting and pleasant companions both on the two plane flights, and the people I met, and chatted to, at Changi airport itself. 

Flying into Munich airport, over small villages, the early morning sun was spotlighting the tall buildings such as the Churches and bigger buildings, maybe the town halls and so on. In the fields surrounding the villages there was a lot of white – snow!  Not heavy snow, but enough to colour the paddocks, or rather, make them colourless.  Leaving the plane we were hit by the chill air, our breath suddenly visible in clouds.  A bit of a shock.

After the train trip from Munich I had a wonderful nights sleep in Hamburg.  My first port of call though, on my arrival, was a  sports store to purchase some gloves! 

I wandered around the city in the morning, stopping for breakfast in a cafe, chatting to a policeman while I was getting directions, and taking the occasional photos.  Hamburg is an interesting and vibrant city.  The harbour is interesting and its concert hall, the Elbphilhamonie - built at a cost of $789 million + (I have seen one figure of $860), rivals our opera house in its imposing style.  Its dominates the skyline, and no doubt the harbour if you were out on it, looking to me like the prow of a boat - appropriate given that it is on the harbour.  

The Elbphilharmonie.  Like I said - just like a ship, but a ship stuck on top of a box I might add.

 

I have met with nothing but kindness and helpfulness since my arrival, beginning with the lady who helped me with obtaining  my train ticket in Munich and continued at the Hamburg train station with the man who gave me instructions on where to buy my ticket, showing me what the screens would like, and then telling me exactly where to go to board the train to Stade. 

The Hamburg Rathaus

Apartments built on the canals in Hamburg

STADE

The train trip to Stade allowed me to get some idea of what the countryside I would be traversing would be like.  It is wet!  From the elevation of the train I had a good view of the land.  I could see drains, dead straight, at very regular intervals, running parallel to each other heading to what would be the Elbe (I think).  At ground level these would probably not have been visible, bit it was an obvious sign of how wet the area was.  There was evidence too of the storms that have wreaked havoc in this part of the world.  Many trees had been blown over, and I learnt later that this was cause of havoc with the transport due to trees across train lines, power lines down - which also meant trains could not travel, being electric.

After checking into the hotel, which I discovered later was only a few hundred meters from the start of the Via Romea, I made my way to meet Christina, my contact for the route.  I was so privileged as she is an archivist, had Abbott Albert's book out for me to see ( had to use gloves o handle it).  It is in Latin, but she explained that although it told of his journey to Rome, it was in the form of a dialogue, with him telling someone else what to see and where to go etc. 

After coffee and cake Christina then became my own personal guide for the town.  We went past many sights with her regaling me with the stories of the buildings and such like.  Stade is a town with a varied history.  It has been, at various times part of Denmark and Sweden.  Many buildings remain with a Swedish background.  It was a town that suffered two bouts of the plague in the  mid1300's and in the early 1700's.  Added to that most of the old town (about 60 %) was destroyed by a fire that ripped through the town in 1659.  A number of buildings have been rebuilt using some materials reclaimed from the earlier buildings.  Interestingly though, despite being ravaged by numerous wars over the centuries, it was completely untouched by allied bombings during the 2nd World War.  

The old crane next to the harbour in Stade.

Stade.  Christina and I had coffee and cake in the brown building next to the orange one

 
Christina not only showed me the town, but made sure that I knew where the path went (signs are hard to find!) for the following day, made sure that she showed me how to find the monastery were Abbott Albert left from, and then took me to visit Tina, a friend of hers, who is responsible for maintaining the marking of the Via Baltica, a comparatively new Jakobsweg.  Both Christina and Tina, between them, made sure that the next two nights accommodation were set up for me. 

The Church of Saints Cosmos & Damian, Stade

A good beginning to the journey ahead.  Thank you Christina and Tina.