Berowra Photos Revisited: Handsome Hamburg

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (specially for Tom)

I'm writing this in Paris, or Disneyland, as I am coming to call it. I know it sounds snobbish, but trippers are on the increase thanks to cheap European flights, and they fly out for the weekend for a lot of football chanting, drinking, and for some weird reason, hen parties in Amsterdam. To our countries' shame, the later in the evening it gets, the more the language becomes English. It's not a good look, or maybe I should say it's not a good sound. Of course, it is not just the English speakers who have taken over this alcotourism. I'm sure that it's the same in London. (Buckingham Palace (tick) Trafalgar Square (tick)) Paris (Eiffel Tower (tick) Arc de Triomphe (tick)). and so on, until it is now impossible to view any art gallery of note. I paid my 17 euros and waited for half an hour to go round the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I couldn't manage it. I walked out of the place without seeing a single van Gogh. I never even attempted the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. There were just too many people. I doubt if I shall even try to go to the Musee d'Orsay while I'm in Paris, let alone the Louvre. Sometimes I wonder if I'm looking at the Eiffel Tower or Blackpool Tower, such is the huge increase in trippers that I have noticed over the last five years. Many people suggested that I would see vast changes with increases in refugees. In fact, I didn't see any of that, and there appeared to be no increase in down and outs, who have always been pests; and cheap con men that you'd like to swat.

But there are towns, even cities, that have escaped the trippers. One such place is Hamburg in Northern Germany. (But why am I telling you this?) For complicated reasons, I had an informal exchange with a German student and stayed for four weeks. Happy times! Although it was 54 years ago, as soon as I got off the train from Berlin, I knew I was home. I could live in that beautiful city in a heartbeat. It is still a working city, a colossal trading giant, (who hasn't seen Hapag Lloyd shipping containers?) but cultural in the Arts and Music as well, the home of Brahms, Telemann, and even Bach for a short time, and it should not be forgotten that the Beatles first made it in Hamburg and it is situated amongst smaller picturesque towns in the area like Kiel and Lubeck.

If you can, go to Hamburg before the trippers do their worst. I think you'll like it!