Hamburg, Day 5: Luminous Tweed class, sightseeing, and Chinese food

I meant to write this post sooner but fell into the black hole known as Ancestry.com when they offered a free 2-week trial.  I have torn myself away long enough to write the next post in our travel adventure.

Sunday, I spent the day at Beaders Best teaching my Luminous Tweed class to a fun group of enthusiastic beaders.

Sunday's Luminous Tweed class at Beaders Best

 

My intrepid beaders included Yvonne from England,  a cheerful lady who made great progress on her bracelet; Cornelia and Andreina from Switzerland, who led us in an interesting discussion of the differences between German and Swiss German;  Anita, the speedy beader who finished everything but  gluing her clasp to the finished bracelet, Susanne, who was brave enough to try Right Angle Weave as her second bead class ever; and my talented translator Marianne.

 

What a nice surprise to find Zoya Gutina was sharing the room with me on Sunday!  Here she is teaching her Saturday class (for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting her).

 

After class was over, I went back to the shopping floor for a last look around.  I forgot to post this sooner, but here is an example of how busy the Preciosa Ornela booth was all weekend.

 

Preciosa booth.  Photo by Freddie Ott.

 

Kerrie Slade and part of the Preciosa team.  Photo by Freddie Ott.

 

The best part was that I got back to the show floor in time for the fashion show of the finalist jewelry.  It was a lot of fun to see the volunteer models walk the runway and a loop through the show floor.

 

Some of the models wearing winning entries.  Photo by Freddie Ott. 

 

The best necklace of the weekend had to be Dreams of Japan by Nadya Gerber.

 

Front view of Dreams of Japan

 

Back view of Dreams of Japan.

 

While I was having fun teaching, Don explored more of Hamburg.  First stop was the Elbephilharmonie, the new symphony hall built on an existing warehouse that is reported to be 10 times over the budget and years behind in opening time.  The latest estimate is a final cost of 789 million euros and an opening date of January 11, 2017-10 years after construction began.  For the ins and outs of this project, take a look at Elbephilharmonie.

 

The big, swoopy building is the Elbephilharmonie building.

 

Then it was a stop at the Speicherstadmuseum, a space devoted to the story of the workings of the warehouses.

 

The coffee section of the Speicherstadmuseum.

 

Then some wandering around the water front.

 

 

 

After that, Don visited the Altonaer Museum to see barges, old fish cutters, models, period rooms, and lots of carved figureheads.  This museum has a number of dedicated supporters because  when this museum was about to close in 2010 due to lack of funds, a local action group occupied the rooms and organized sit-ins

 

 

 

 

A neat dress made out of work gloves; I have no idea why.

 

The impressive fountain outside the Altonaer Museum.

 

Don met me back at Beaders Best just as the show was closing and took me over to see the protected nature area that he had discovered on Saturday.  After that, not wanting to face the hotel restaurant again, we walked around to find the rumored Chinese restaurant.  Even though most of the shops in the little commercial area were closed, we did find the Chinese restaurant and had a nice dinner (complete with a fortune cookie made in the U.S.)

 

Then it was back to the hotel to pack because we were off to London early the next morning, but that's a story for the next post.