In the morning Kirsten, Kendra, Hedda, Doris, and I took the ferry into Hamburg. The trip took us past all of the cargo terminals along the River Elbe where the cranes were busy loading and unloading the huge container ships. Apparently it’s one of the biggest harbors in the world and it’s crazy to think of how much goes into shipping like that, everything has to get to its destination correctly and all the ships have to be loaded in a way that they’re balanced with an appropriate center of gravity. I guess that would be industrial engineering? Maybe packaging engineers? Perhaps structural. . . I wonder who does that.
Anyhow we landed at the wharf and walked along to water until we came to the dome of the Alter Elbtunnel. Constructed in 1911 it was the first tunnel under the Elbe and features two tubes that terminate in silos or caissons that are identifiable on the shore by their domed tops. We took the stairs up and down but there are six elevators to take you to the underground level, one for passengers, one for bicyclists, and four for cars. Each of the tubes is only one lane wide with sidewalks on both sides and one tube was out of service this morning so there was a policewoman down at the bottom directing traffic. Fortunately most of the automobile traffic uses the other tunnel and we saw only a few cars come and go from this tunnel.
We didn’t walk through the tunnels but only checked out the big elevators and the portals and all that stuff within the dome before heading back up to street level. This time we headed over to the Hafen City which is an enormous urban building project on land leftover from when the cargo port moved to deeper waters. The land is enormous and consists of several islands where lots of new development is going on. The crown jewel of the area will be the Elbphilharmonie – Hamburg’s answer to the Sydney Opera House. We’ll definitely have to come back to take in a show when it’s completed. The rest of the area had a nice mix of standout architecture and infill structures that mixed well with the existing warehouses that line the canals in the area. We walked around for a good while before sitting down at a small café on a plaza where we had some deli sandwiches. Kirsten and I ended up with these meatloaf sandwiches, I’m not sure what they were called but they were pretty good.
We then parted ways with Kendra, Hedda, and Doris and walked up to the Hamburger Dom (the fair) and went in. It hadn’t quite opened yet so we were able to walk around a bit before our ride on Olympia Looping Bahn. The size of these portable rides and pavilions is staggering. I couldn’t imagine hauling all of this stuff around. They had a spook house with three levels, and a huge log flume ride. The fair also had two other roller coasters but due to time constraints I didn’t ride them.
Olympia Looping Bahn was the main attraction though. It’s the largest portable coaster in the world and can be assembled and disassembled in a few days due to Anton Schwarzkopf’s, the chief engineer, cone plug system of supporting the whole structure and large tanks of water acting as the foundation. It is also still the only coaster in the world with five vertical loops. Other coasters might go upside down more times but they usually rely on quick one-two inversions which in my opinion don’t match the loop for sheer thrill and appearance. The five loops are also laid out and colored in a way as to look like the Olympic rings when viewing the coaster from the side. And because it only stays in Germany and is never in one place for more than a few weeks, it’s a very hard roller coaster for an American to ride so it has achieved a sort of mythical status. So we rode it three times and then headed back to the S Bahn.
Oh you want to hear more about it? Well if you must know I thought it was amazing. Not number one but 95th percentile for me. Kirsten wasn’t feeling it so much for some reason although I think she was a bit alarmed by the filthy Russian carnies operating the ride who when the train returned to the station they greeted you with a gruff, “Get off!” And the shoulder harnesses have a tendency to tighten during the ride. The five loops were amazing and I was pretty apprehensive about the ride since loops tend to make me dizzy. And yes after my three rides I was feeling pretty dizzy and high from the high g-forces. However, the first drop, loop, turn, and then two more loops in a row is one of the best opening combinations I’ve experienced.
By the third ride it began to rain pretty hard so we trudged our way over to the U-Bahn and took the train from St. Pauli to Landungsbrucken then transferred to the S-1 to Othsmarchen where we met up with Roland, Susi, Kendra, and Chrissi to go to the Hamburg soccer match against Chelsea. Now granted it was a preseason exhibition game but still we were pretty excited to go to a fussbal match in Germany. We took the bus from Othsmarchen Station out to the Arena and met up with Volker and his fiancée Christine at a biergarten nearby.
The game itself was a blast, Everyone did a good job explaining all the traditions in cheering on their team and seeing as how we had tickets for the bleachers it was good to be able to participate. It was akin to sitting in the student section of a college football team that has particularly rowdy fans. Lots of noise, lots of singing together and waving flags, lots of camraderie It was a great time. And the bratwursts sold at the stadium were exceptionally good as well. Hamburg defeated Chelsea 2-1 and we all piled into the bus and headed back to the house.
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