Hamburg Day 3: Sightseeing and Beaders Best Opening

     We had planned to visit another museum, but I decided that we should do some exploring instead.  We started to walk to St. Michael's Church (Michaeliskirche) but got turned around and ended up going through part of the Reeperbahn, the famous red light district.  Believe me, you do not want to bother with the Reeperbahn in the daytime; everyone is asleep and nothing is going on.  It's like going to a carnival on their day off, kind of quiet and dreary.
     We finally found St. Michael's Church.  This splendid, baroque church was completed in 1786 but destroyed by fire in 1906.  Luckily, the Senate immediately decided to rebuild the church on the same site from the original plans.  We neglected to climb the 452 steps of the tower for a view of the city but enjoyed the view of the interior.

The tower at St. Michael's Church

 

Part of the interior

The organ or at least part of it


After that, we wandered over the bridges  and past the 19-century, brick warehouses in the Speicherstadt (warehouse district ), the largest warehouse district in the world.  Many of the buildings have now been turned into housing.

Hamburg really is a city of water

One of the many bridges to the warehouse district

An example of the beautiful 19-century warehouses

This imposing building turned out to be the firehouse.

We ate a lunch of sandwiches and iced coffee at a small bakery in the warehouse district and got our first introduction to German Eiskaffee.  Here in the U.S., iced coffee is cold coffee poured over ice but that's not the German way.  There Eiskaffee is a glass of half coffee and half whipped cream.  One version we had even added a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

I borrowed this photo of Eiskaffee from a recipe because I was in such awe that I forgot to take a photo of our glasses.

After lunch, Don continued his sightseeing with a visit to the Internationales Maritimes Museum, where he toured model ships, oil paintings, uniforms, and figureheads.

Model ship from the Internationales Maritimes Museum


I, however, headed back to the venue because the shopping at Beaders Best opened at 4 pm.  I HAD to be there because I was meeting a student....really....I did.  Okay, I looked around after my meeting.

One of the beads that caught my eye on the Perlen Poesie website was a lovely lampwork bead by Barbara Wiemers.  Not only did I get to buy one of her lovely beads, but I got to meet Barbara herself.

Hydrangea bead by Barbara Wiemers

Here are Barbara and I holding some of her glass beads.

To see more of Barbara's beads, visit Weserperlen.

My one other purchase was more lampwork beads from Christiane Imkamp of Smauggs.  I now think I should have bought more but she does have an Etsy shop.

One ring with a froggie and 2 mushrooms to make earrings-I really was good.

Here are a few more shots of the shopping taken by Freddie Ott, the creative director of Perlen Poesie.  I was too busy to take photos (I know, I know-I have to remember to take photos).

 Shopping (photo by Freddie Ott)
 

Some of the artisans (photo by Freddie Ott)
 

More shopping (photo by Freddie Ott)
 

More (photo by Freddie Ott)

 

Kerry Slade and members of the Preciosa team (photographer unknown).

I was so excited to finally meet Kerrie Slade and her husband Simon in person.  I have been friends with Kerrie in cyberspace for ages and I am so glad that we finally got to meet her and some of the people from Preciosa.

After the shopping, it was time for the barbeque.  As an American with family in Texas, I wouldn't describe it as a barbeque, but it was a nice selection of grilled chicken, beef, and sausage with a variety of salads on the side.  Plus alcohol.

Here we are enjoying dinner.  From the left: me, Simon Slade, Kerrie Slade, Andrea Janeckova, Jaroslava Ruzickova, and Helena.

Simon was kind enough to take another photo so that Don could be included.

The party outside.  Since the revelers are masked, I shall not name them.

So, after a lot of food, wine, and fun, we headed back to the hotel.