A cool bridge on the way into town.
Some weird tall statues in front of a library.
St. Jacobi Church. We didn't go inside.
St. Petri Church. We didn't go in this one either. Both of these churches were on the way to Town Hall.
On our way to Town Hall we passed a large crowd. There was a building with a big bow on it and it said Scientology Kirche Hamburg. Maybe Tom Cruise was there :) hehe.
Everyone had orange umbrellas. Orange must be their color or something.
Hamburg's Chamber of Commerce is where the city Parliament meets. I'm not sure when it was originally built but it was destroyed in a major fire in 1842. They actually blew up the building because they thought it might help stop the progress of the fire. No such luck, about a quarter of the city was destroyed.
The outside of Town Hall.
A really cool coat of arms outside the doors to Town Hall.
Beautiful paintings depicting the stages of a male's life in Hamburg.
This is where Hamburg's Parliament meets.
Everything is decorated really nicely. They have all these fire places but they were never actually used. When the building was rebuilt after the great fire they used electricity for lighting rather than fire.
Really pretty ceiling.
All the rooms had pretty interesting wall paper. This is made of leather.
More ceiling artwork.
I think these doors were made of aluminum. I'm not 100% sure of the metal but it was actually more valuable than gold or bronze at the time because it required electricity to make it.
Another elaborate fire place. The wall paper here is leather with bronze appliques.
A design in a wooden door. This was the best close up I could get but it looked like it must have been difficult to make.
Part of a safe that was damaged when they blew up the building. I guess it wasn't as strong as they thought it was.
More cool wall paper. I think this was felt that was soaked in olive oil to make it harden.
The room where the Senate meets.
The Mayor's "office." This one is just for show, his actual office is on the floor below.
There's a really large ballroom in the building that they use for a variety of things.
Beautiful chandelier.
This is where the musicians play.
Fancy seats for important people.
A little waterway through the city.
Our next stop was the St. Michaelis Church. On our way there it started raining really hard and it got really windy. We actually had to take refuge in a covered area for awhile because our umbrellas were useless. Luckily it only lasted about 10 minutes and we were on our way again. There has been a church at this site since the mid 1600's but it's been destroyed several times and had to be rebuilt. The first time it was destroyed by a lighting strike in 1750. It was rebuilt in the style we see today in 1786. The church was undergoing renovations in 1906 when the tower caught fire due to embers and it burned down. It was again destroyed in WWII. After it was destroyed the second two times it was rebuilt to look the same.
St. Michaelis Church.
The inside of the church. This one is so different from all the other churches we have seen because it's so light.
The pulpit.
The main organ. There were actually three organs in this church. The other two were smaller.
The altar. I think the lightness of the rest of the church makes this even prettier because it stands out.
We were able to go up in the tower to see a panoramic view of the city. It was my idea to climb the stairs to get some extra exercise. Even though we got to see some cool stuff, like this bell, it wasn't the greatest idea. It was a loooooooooong way to the top!
City views. You can see the two churches we passed on the left. The other tall spire in the middle is a memorial to something.
The harbor and Elbe River.
The Crypt. The church started doing burials here to raise money. The graves were really deep so they could stack three or four coffins. I think all the bodies were moved in the early 1900's.
The floor was made of grave markers.
A lot of the coffins had ornamental pieces like this.
After we finished looking around the church we headed to the harbor. We were able to walk along the river and look at all the shops and ships. We also got an apple cinnamon crepe!
The harbor. The sun looks really pretty here.
A cool clock tower at the harbor. I'm not sure if it's also a lighthouse or not.
Daniel and I at the harbor.
We didn't have that much time left on the parking meter and, other than churches, there wasn't that much more to see, so we decided to head home. We took the metro back because it was freezing cold and windy. We didn't want to risk getting stuck in the rain again. Hamburg was a perfect little day trip for us. We still wanted to have something to do that Saturday but didn't want to have get a hotel or drive somewhere far away.
I have one more post to write about Celle before leave on Friday. I've already started getting our stuff together and it's stressing me out a little. We've somehow managed to get spread out all over this tiny apartment.
At this time on Friday we'll back in the same time zone as (most of) you!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment