Hafengeburtstag

This past weekend was Hafengeburtstag (harbor birthday) in Hamburg.  The weather was beautiful both days and 1.5 million people came out to see over 300 ships.  The harbor turned 822 years old.  The birthday stems from the signing of a charter by Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossa claiming a tariff free zone on the Elbe between the North Sea and Hamburg.  This caused a boom of traffic for Hamburg and the harbor flourished.  My boss told me that the original charter was forged and it wasn’t discovered until years later.  I asked him how many years later and he didn’t know.  So now I have to look into that. 

Steffi and I met up with a few friends for Saturday’s tugboat ballet.  We found a nice spot on the hill overlooking the Elbe.  The event started at 5pm and lasted a full hour.  About ten tugs and one fire boat took part in the performance.  The fire ship, I was told, with its water cannons open, was décor, like a tree on, a stage.  The tugs rocked side to side and drove back and forth in sequence and even did a couple of pirouettes to the classical music being played to the crowd.  The audience drank their beer and clapped at the appropriate times. 

With every intention of returning for the fireworks, we left the harbor for a place to eat that wasn’t packed.  When we finished eating at what I had coined as the German Denny’s, because it was a chain and offered all things German, we headed to a favorite cocktail bar called the Blue House.  After a couple of Fancy Mai Tai’s it was decided that we wouldn’t make it back in time to see the fireworks so we stayed put for the remainder of the night.  The girls hounded the DJ at my request to play 80’s which he did.

(Missing humorous drinking anecdote here, due to my mother who said there was too much drinking in my last blog)

And a good time was had by all. 

Sunday afternoon we headed back to the harbor for the ausfahrt (exit) parade.  We saw warships, clipper ships, sailing ships, and cruise ships.  Some of the smaller clipper ships fired off their cannons as they sailed by.  That was actually pretty damn cool in the harbor setting; it was a glimpse of the past.  At the end of the parade was the Queen Mary II which had entered the harbor early on Saturday from Norway.  I have to say, I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how Leo was pretending to feel, when he was looking up, pretending to see the Titanic.  That is an impressively large ship.   It was accompanied by many smaller vessels as it left the harbor.  Your deep reflection here.