While I was visiting Sun Engineering in Hamburg, I
stayed at the Hotel Hafen Hamburg at the port. My room was
in the older part of the hotel with a view of the pier of St. Pauli
and the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship. There was great excitement
about the ship being in town: at least 3 people told me about it.
I am not a fan of cruise ships, having been SCUBA diving
and seen their effect on the underwater environment. Looking out my
window at the Queen Mary 2 brought to mind our most recent dive vacation.
On the last day, John and I went diving at Eden Rock right off the main
shopping area of Georgetown in the Grand Caymans (south of Cuba).
To get to Eden Rock from Sunset House, our little dive boat scooted
under the stern of the Disney cruise ship with its huge cartoon character
figures hanging under the rail. I think Goofy was bigger than our boat.
In almost an hour under water we saw a scorpion fish, a huge spiny
lobster, a baby green turtle, a baracuda almost as long as I am who
guarded the bottom of the boat ladder for quite a while, a black
sea cucumber, trumpetfish and many other wonders.
On the other side of the Atlantic and the North Sea, the Hotel Hafen
Hamburg has a nautical theme. Everywhere you look are pictures and
artifacts from ships. I ate dinner one night in the Port restaurant
under a huge wooden ship’s steering wheel. The food was tasty,
interesting, and well prepared.
Breakfast in the Port restaurant was also very good.
There were many choices of sausages, cheeses, liverwursts, jams,
honeys, breads, and yogurts for breakfast. I had no idea what the
differences were between some of the preserved meats. My one complaint
was very little fruit was available and what was there was poor.
Californians are picky about their produce.
I used the nearby subway to get from the hotel to Sun. Figuring out the
ticket machine was tricky because the directions were only in German.
I was in meetings most of my time in Hamburg but I saw some of the city
by night with my friends who were in town from Stockholm. Even in the
drizzle of a cool evening, it was delightful watching the boats zipping
up and down the Elba river. Before dinner, we walked around the
waterfront and watched the ferries dock sideways.
KatysBlog 