….. it is even better, way better, if you can explore it with your brother & wife!

They flew up from Munich yesterday morning to spend our remaining days in Hamburg together. Our highlights of the day were a harbor cruise where we saw many incredible things: worlds biggest container ship, the biggest non- nuclear submarine, etc.

A few Hamburg facts at the end:

1. When it comes to the amount of bridges, Hamburg is on place 2 in the world. Guess who is number 1?

2. Each year 9 million containers are shipped out of Hamburg (Shanghai ships 43 million containers each year, but currently they are under total lockdown)

3. Docking one night at the harbor is very expensive. A big ship like the Queen Mary 2 for example, costs ~Euro 50,000 per night. (That’s why they usually come in very early in the morning and leave late in the afternoon)

4. between high and low tide the water level changes about 3.7 meters! That brings in a lot of sand and mud that needs to be cleared out all the time

5. The answer for #1 is New York! 🧐

Hamburg is very different in many aspects: the people are tall, very tall! Ted and I are 11’8” together, that’s an average of 5’10”, which is tall for a typical American. Now here, in Hamburg, almost everybody we see is as tall or even taller as we are! And they seem to be slimmer. No wonder, many people walk or bike (it’s so refreshing seeing so many bikes everywhere!). And then there is the clothing style, particularly the color choices: Hamburg is built around the delta of 2 rivers, the Alster and the Elbe, which flow into the North Sea. So there is lots of water everywhere, the rivers, canals, everywhere you go you see water. So no wonder that blue is their favorite color. It’s in their blood I guess and most people are dressed in blue. Or navy, or light blue, or indigo, or blue with white stripes, etc. And guess what? I love it!

“In Hamburg you can wear any color – as long as it is navy”

Happy 3rd anniversary! And we did celebrate it with style! Hamburg style, which is exploring Blankenese, an area in Hamburg with no traffic, but stairs on end. 5000 of them. It was wonderful, the old buildings overlooking the Elbe River, great views everywhere you look!

Back home we took an anniversary nap, then got ready for our next adventure: the Elbphilharmonie! This awesome building is a piece of art itself, spectacular and breathtaking! We had tickets to see Naji Hakim, a world famous organ player. And seeing him at the Elbphilharmonie was a special treat: the organ there is as spectacular as the building, the sound is moving through your body like sweet vibrations!

We had the perfect seats: second row and from an angle where we could see the organist playing. Just watching his hands and feet do four different movements simultaneously with such perfection was outstanding! I guess he must have lost 5000 calories during this event!

Today at 7am we arrived in the city of Hamburg. Disembarking was very easy and pleasant, the luggage was already waiting for us; so we’re the taxis right outside the terminal. You think disembarking 2000 would be chaotic, but no! We got a time slot (9.50am) when to leave, so we had plenty of time for a last delicious breakfast. We packed and left and arrived at our Airbnb in the “Speicherstadt” around 11am. Easy cheesy everything!

The Speicherstadt had a major fire that spread all over Hamburg in May 1842. The fire started at a house across the Street where we are at our Airbnb. A plaque on the wall of one of the houses declares that the fire started right there and destroyed almost all of medieval Hamburg including the St. Nikolas church where lots of people fled to in desperation…..

Yes, it does happen and we heard it today when sitting at breakfast. I was wondering if the ship will stop, reverse, slow down, turn around (most unlikely), but so far, we can’t feel any difference. The direction, the speed, everything seems as before…..

We are on our way now between Southampton (“Soton”) and Hamburg (Hamburg) and the waters are very busy! Lots of freight ships, container ships, hundreds of wind turbines along both coasts, north and south of us. I love wind turbines!!! They are the greatest invention and should be all over the place where there is wind. And what else do you have plenty of along a coast, except water? Wind! Lots of wind! So why not take advantage of?!?

When I designed the costumes for Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” in 2019, I researched the three main locations to be accurate with local weather and dress. Two of those locations were familiar to me, one of which is my hometown – Ingolstadt – the other is Geneva in Switzerland, which is very close to my hometown. The third location are the Orkneys, a group of islands north of Scotland, with harsh and challenging conditions. The average temperatures, wind and rainfall, it reminded me of Iceland, the furthest north I’ve ever been!

And here we are, the Orkneys, where Dr. Frankenstein created and destroyed the female version of a creature that he made with the body parts of a young woman that had drowned and was buried at a graveyard…..