Thursday, August 27, 2009

Hamburg

My Hamburg experience was brought about by a more somber circumstance: the funeral of a family friend (heir to what would be the Prussian thrown, actually....) I understand the services went well - everyone came back quite at peace, thank goodness.

The next day, I did some sight seeing - this time, I spent half the day with the family. Hooray!

Melanie had heard of this railroad exhibit, and none of us knew what to expect when we got there. It turns out, it was a HUGE (1.5 floors!) model of European and American railroads! I wished Nephi were there to see it - it was incredible!

The lights dimmed and brightened to indicate day and night. Here, we are at the Hamburg train station at night. This is a model. mind you. AMAZING!


This is more of Hamburg at dusk - and Fritz and Marietta.

With daylight came...ARIZONA!!! I can't tell you how surprized and how happy I was to see home - even at a 1/144-ish scale! Here is the German view of the 'Wild Wild West'.


And apparently we like to crash planes into the redrock...WHAT?



We split after the museum. I went on another city bus tour. I hopped off for an hour or so at the Rathaus (something like the capitol building, pronounced rat house...heh). Please bear with me through the pics! I just can't get over the architectural detail! Incredible!




Outside in the courtyard of the Rathaus.






On my walk around the same area.



And the train station - this time the genuine article.



We stayed the weekend with Felix's father. The house is about 30 min outside of Hamburg in a lovely, tiny rural town.

House.




FLOWERS! Mama, look at the dahlias! Großpapi (I never got his name, and that's how we referred to him with the kids...) had a lovely garden.

This was my favorite part. hey trained a pear tree along a wall. So lovely. Again - note taking. Disregard at will. :-)


6 comments:

  1. Lovin' the dahlias Emily, even though I'm not Mom. And clever pear training. Thanks for posting!

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  2. Hi Em! Thanks for the link to your blog. This is like reading Kenna's blog -- surfin' through Germany! We saw pear trees like that at some spectacular gardens in Scotland. It's called espalier. Hugs from our fam!

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  3. I love how the wild wild west is a conglomeration of southern AZ (adobe bldgs), northern AZ(grand canyon/Indian ruins), southern Utah (Zions/Bryce Canyon looking peaks), and Mt.Rushmore in the background!

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  4. "And apparently we like to crash planes into the redrock..." Well, it IS the wild wild west after all!!

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  5. I love their house - it's so cute! Maybe it's the greenery and pine trees that make it so cute. I bet it smells so wonderful and fresh there. aaahhhhhhh Take a whiff for me! :-D (Note that I said FOR me, not OF me.)

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  6. Ok, I'm ready to come visit now. :-D Awesome pictures! Love the railroad mini's!

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