Hamburg

Saturday was a continuation of the adventure of the language challenged! Burke and I had purchased tickets to go to Hamburg the day before and had our plan all set. We would take the train from Elijah’s house to the Hautbanhoff, get on the train to Hamburg, do a boat tour of the world’s third largest port city, see St. Michel’s Church and the Rathause and come home to try and get to bed at a decent hour. When the sun woke us up at 11:30, we knew our plans for the day were already in jeopardy. Next, we boarded the train from Elijah’s house. Three stops later, the train stopped, but did not start again after the customary one minute on the platform. A voice came over the speaker (in German of course) of which we could not comprehend a single word. 20 mins later, the train began again, but traveled BACK the way we had come. We were a quite baffled and decided to try again. When we returned to the same stop, we noticed this time when the voice came on that all of the passengers began to unload. A young man turned to us and asked us a question in German to which we had to apologize, “No sprechen ze Deutch.” He just laughed and switched to English, explaining there was a problem with the train tracks and leading us to the buses that would take us into the city. His name was Niels and he had spent a year as an exchange student in Oregon. He not only helped us get to the station, but filled us in on all the crazy singing and excitement in the city. Apparently Saturday was the German Cup game for soccer – football! – and Bremen’s city team was competing for the title against Munich. There were people with green scarves and jerseys toting alcohol everywhere!


Finally, we got to the station and were able to board just in time for the next train to Hamburg. The train ride was beautiful as we got outside the city and passed countless patches of forests, farmland of brilliant green and fields of golden flowers which we came to learn are used to make Canola Oil. It was FREEZING in the city with the wind whipping around the corners of cold stone building and picking up sharp bursts from the waters edge. With the butt-cold weather (as Burke calls it), our late start and delays from the train, we decided to bag the boat tour and instead navigated our way around the city taking in the beautiful bridges and historic buildings, namely the Rathause (town hall).

I don't think we got a real feel for the city since we were only there for 5 hours, but we enjoyed our brief excursion and the small section of the city we were able to visit. We hope to go back some day to see the intricate shipyards and port system.
When we got home to Bremen in the late evening, we were suprised that the train tracks had still not been fixed and that we would need to take another unfamiliar route home. It was a bit stressful as we had forgotten Rin's cell phone and didn't know what we would do if we got lost, but we were guided in the right direction and were so grateful when we finally arrived safely at Windmille Strause! The next morning, just to be safe, we got up earlier than planned to meet Steffi at the Hauptbanhof and then go together to church. We were so impressed by the ward here, who just had this beautiful chapel built last year and who all feel very grateful for their new gathering place. The sacrament meeting was filled with talks by the young men of the ward, reflecting on the roles of priesthood. Steffi, our eternal life saver, translated for us and I was pleasantly suprised to understand my brothers name as it was said several times. He is the young mens president of the ward and clearly he and his darling family have had a positive influence in the ward. Despite our language barriers, it was wonderful to feel the spirit at the ward and to benefit from their generosity and kindness. The church is growing slowly, but surely and it brought us so much joy to worship with the members in Germany!