90 Days in Europe: An Experiment in Culture Clash: October 2010

With a few days left in Amsterdam, I called my first audible of the trip and headed to Hamburg, as opposed to Berlin as originally planned. Erik, my Couchsurfing host from Antwerp, had recommended that I check out Hamburg and when he mentioned that it was home to a Beatles museum, I was sold (more on that in a bit).

Did you know that Hamburg--not Amsterdam--is where Europe's largest Red Light District is located? Neither did I. Naturally, I had to check out the Reeperbahn, as it's called, and see how it compared to the Red Light District in Amsterdam. Now, I've never been to Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but it seems that (if you don't mind a quick analogy) Las Vegas : AC :: Amsterdam : Hamburg. People who have been to Vegas and AC describe the latter as the greasy cousin of the former. And that's how I'd look at the Red Light Districts of A'dam and Hamburg. While the Dutch RLD* is surrounded by picturesque canals and trees, the German RLD is a hodgepodge of tacky neon advertisements and seedy nightclubs. To be fair, though, both have prostitutes. Lots of prostitutes.
*It's still a Red Light District, so don't let the canals and trees fool you.

Reeperbahn at dusk

Reeperbahn at night

Women are not allowed behind this gate on a sidestreet of the 'Bahn. Well, they are, but if they walk through the gate, the prostitutes in the windows that line the street scream at/come out and spit on/report them to their 'bosses' (pimps, if you will). I swear, this is in Western Europe.

I wasn't interested in the Reeperbahn's underbelly, but I was interested in the aforementioned Beatles museum, called "Beatlemania," which is located in that area. Apparently, Hamburg was one of the first places outside of Liverpool where the Beatles were very popular, and many of their earlier shows took place in some of the Reeperbahn's clubs. Ringo wasn't in the band yet--Pete Best was still the drummer--and Stuart Sutcliffe played bass (Paul was playing rhythm guitar at the time). The museum is organized very well: the visitor takes an elevator to the fifth floor, and works his/her way down to the ground level; each floor details a certain era of the group, starting with their days in Liverpool and Hamburg and ending with the production/release of 'Let It Be.'

Inside the Yellow Submarine

The group's popularity skyrocketed once the 5th Beatle--known as "that awkward American"--was ousted

This is the "Get pissed at Phil Spector for ruining 'Let It Be'" interactive--you can listen to the original version (Phil Spector's) and the stripped-down/much better "Let It Be (Naked)" simultaneously

Beatlesplatz

Righto, another museum I got to check out was the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe (the Museum for Arts and Crafts). While there, the museum had an exhibition entitled, "Body and Soul," which presented artifacts related to the human body and human emotion. Pretty cool stuff on display (I'm not sure why there were robots in an exhibit focusing on humans, though).

Bully!

Also of note here was the musical instrument collection and the exhibition focusing on chair design. The chair exhibition had a nice interactive at the end: in the museum lobby was a group of unorthodox-looking chairs and the visitor got to sit in them and then vote for which was the most comfortable.

What's it gonna be? Rebar or shopping cart?

La-Z-Boy on crack

The interactive

The polling station

My choice

All in all, this was a great museum, well worth checking out. Plus, if you have a student ID card on you, you can get in at a discounted rate. Not that I used my UVM ID or anything...

Ok, moving on. Another interesting fact about Hamburg is that it's the third largest port in Europe (behind Rotterdam and Antwerp) and eighth largest in the world. As a result, the cuisine in Hamburg is not what you think of when it comes to 'German cuisine' (schnitzel, wurst, etc.) and instead is more centered around seafood. As a 22 year old, though, I didn't have nearly enough money to eat this food, which was usually 20 or 30 Euros out of my price range. That's not to say I ate no seafood here, though. Luckily, while walking around the Portuguese quarter of the city, I stumbled upon a restaurant that was offering a lunch special on a grilled fish plate, which contained butterfish, salmon, calamari, and (what I'm pretty sure was) seabass. With a side of bread, soup, potatoes and a Sagres (Portuguese beer), this was a much-welcomed meal. And at 10 Euros, you can't beat the price.

And since we're on the subject of water, here are some pictures of the port:

Continuing the tradition of underwater tunnels such as the one we saw in Antwerp, Hamburg has a long tunnel that goes underneath the Elbe River. The tunnel is very eerie and filled with some interesting graffiti and scultpure.

My favorite part of the tunnel was actually the building in which it was housed. With an impressive domed roof, the building had a large spiral-ish staircase and a few elevators that took you down below the water.

Moving from the water to the road, I also checked out the Hamburg Auto Museum, which had some pretty cool prototypes and classic cars. The place was pretty small, but I had to pay an extra 2,50 Euros to take pictures, so I took a lot.

Volkswagen Army vehicle

VW Army vehicle

VW Police vehicle

1950 Polenskly Monopoletta

1947 Delfosse DVD

1950 Porsche 356 coupe

1953 Porsche Jagdwagen (off-road vehicle)

Herbie

VW Express

1999 Audi R8R LMP prototype

If you ever have the chance to come to Hamburg, I highly recommend it. There's a lot going on and some nice sights to take in. And with that plug, I'll leave you with the obligatory photo dump. Happy Sunday all and remember, don't tackle with your helmet!