Another day with big plans, but once again not in Hamburg! I took the train to the semi distant city of Bremerhaven in the State of Bremen, a neat port town on The North Sea. It sits at the mouth of the Weser River which flows through to its matching city of Bremen. While Bremerhaven is in the state of Bremen, it is completely non-contiguous, 34 miles away. Anyways, the main city isn’t terribly spectacular, but it has a very neat Haven/Port district at the water’s edge. There is a large radar tower that pierces high in the sky, though unfortunately the viewing platform was closed. Around the harbor, old and large buoys and anchors dot the land. There are old cranes on display, and boats on raised platforms you can see, and old boats floating in the harbor you can visit, all free of charge, though each with warning signs saying “Betreten auf eigene Gefahr!” (Or, enter at your own peril!) One was an old ship built in 1919 which now has a restaurant on board.

Nearby is the Schiffahrtsmuseum (Maritime Museum) which contains the wreck of a ‘cog’ or ‘Kogge’ in Dutch/German – a medieval cargo ship built around 1380, and discovered at the bottom of the Weser River in 1962. Much of the original ship remains and has been reconstructed, though many of the old planks are still labelled sitting at the side, possibly awaiting further reconstruction. It’s not the prettiest ship anyone’s seen, but it is still surprisingly large! Several relics from the ship exist, and it is believed to have been pulled away from the dock during a storm and sunk while it was still being constructed, but not a huge amount is known about the ship.

A very short walk from this museum is the 251′ German Submarine called “Wilhelm Bauer” named after a Bavarian who invented a couple different types of handpowered submarines in the mid 1800s! It’s a neat museum you can pass through, with the tiniest “doors/hatches” I’ve ever seen. Being so tall I had to put one foot through, bend way down and swing through, then bring my other foot through up and over, and I had to tilt my head and bend forward to get through most of it. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that this submarine was originally built in Hamburg in late 1944, and was called U-2540, in service of the Nazis. It’s the only surving “Type XXI” submarine, though of the approximate 1,250 submarines built for the Kriegsmarine (name for the Nazi Navy) only 4 are still above water and exist as museums, the rest sunk during the war, or were scuttled (intentionally sunk) or dismantled for various purposes, though this one, as well U-534, now on display in Birkenhead, near Liverpool in England were both raised from the seas. U-2540 had a very uneventful past. Despite it being one of the fearsome and and deadly U-boats that caused massive amounts of devasation, it was built and launched so late in the war, even after much of Germany’s navy had been crushed it was put to use for training missions, and didn’t even get to do that as there was a fuel shortage. It was scuttled and then raised in 1957 by West Germany and used mostly as a science and research vessel until it was decommissioned in 1980, at which point it was turned into a museum.

Near the U-Boat is a large neat glass tower hotel shaped like a large sail, with a viewing platform on top which gives you a good view of the city in all directions. By now it was getting very very hot, as it only seemed to get hotter as the day went on. I made my way back to the trainstation which connects to Bremen then back to Hamburg.

Once I got back I debated whether or not I would have time to get to my next goal or not. I figured I would not have time in the morning, so I decided to head out once again, taking the U-Bahn (underground – and often above ground) train to near the city center of Hamburg where a massive, multistory apartment building stands. It is a collossal concrete and steel structure, which originally was a Flakturm – an anti-aircraft tower built during WW2. At the top is a viewing platform (which I couldn’t visit as it was past closing hours, though I was still able to walk up inside myself up a few floors, but I didn’t go too far in. There are large outcroppings where large guns would fire at Allied bombers. Hamburg’s close location to England, and it’s manufacturing/industrial and shipping importance made Hamburg a constant target for bombing, and soooo much of the city was left in total ruins. But of course the giant concrete fortress still stands, and just might even be there longer than the pyramids. It, and many of the other Flakturms are so thick and reinforced, they just can’t be demolished.

Though what really surprised me when I got to the tower, was there there was a huge carnival in town, called the “Hamburger Dom” What’s better a lot of it was a maritime/pirate themed event. It was a huge carnival full of junkfood stands, churros, slushies, fries, sausages, gurkens (pickles) and more. There were arcades, target shooting stands, beer and drink stands, restaurants, and even large roller coasters, slides, log rides, bumper cars and more. This festival fully (with one exception) rivals the grand Oktoberfest. The exception being that Oktoberfest has massive beer halls which hold thousands of people. (It even had many of the same rides, one which I remember painfully from my days at Oktoberfest. They called the ride Fire and Ice… I called it the Kneebreaker. After fully exploring the fairgrounds, and enjoying some amazing carnival fries, and a cherrie slushy I made my way back to the hotel. Now unfortunately about half way through typing this my internet cut out for the rest of the night, so I couldn’t post it. So here I am on a ferry to who knows where the day after all this happened finishing this up where I will post it, with images) at my next stop!