Weekend in Hamburg

Jon had a work trip to Hamburg and I decided to come along for the weekend. I took the train down, and like Jon, was surprised to find that half way through the trip, the train literally pulls onto a ferry. You exit the train and walk up to the upper levels of the ferry for a 45 minute ride to Germany.

Pulling onto the ferry in the train.

The dock behind us, bye Denmark

Pulling away from the dock in Denmark

Wind turbines in Germany 

Wandering through Hamburg looking for Jon's office building - it was great to leave the rain and come into Hamburg in the sunshine

Streets of Hamburg

Church near Jon's office - Hauptkirche St. Trinitatis Altona

Finally found my way to the Adobe office. It looks out onto the harbor. 

Sunset in the harbor

Panorama from the office balcony

Dinner near the harbor at Fischerhaus - the area is known for its fish market, so decided to try a fish restaurant - very tasty. 

Walking around the city we came upon this statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Usually we would read the plaque, but it was in German. 

We found a Christmas market and decided to have some glühwein (spiced hot wine, similar to glögg) - no one seemed to care it was around 10:30am.

Found a place selling Danish hot dogs

Huge Christmas market

We wandered into the nearby mall looking for shoes and found this. It seemed to be a dedication to Jews in Hamburg. There were lists of names and some numbers next to them.. eventually we will have to translate the German. 

It was a little odd considering it was in the middle of a really busy mall

Back to the Christmas market for lunch - currywurst and krakauer (spiced version of bratwurst)

Glühwein with 'drunken' raisins and almonds and Glühbier, the beer version of glühwein, which basically makes it hot sweet beer. We love beer, but we did not love Glühbier.

Marzipantaschen! I love marzipan and now it's in a taschen

Bike and kiosk from the Hamburg bike sharing program

St. Pauli Christmas market (it was a more adult Christmas market, since it was in the red light district). More glühwein, tons of people and a disco ball

The next morning we went to the famous Hamburg fischmarkt. It was/is a fish auction, but has evolved into something much bigger. Outside there are open air stands with fruit, vegetables, fish, breads, etc. Inside there is a live band and stands selling glühwein, beer and coffee. Did I mention it runs from 5am-9am? We had some drink followed by eggs and potatoes from another stand. 

Others sold sandwiches with different kinds of fish

The auction hall is beautiful

There was a huge crowd, which surprised us considering it was early in the morning on a Sunday and raining

Guy actually selling fish

Outdoor market

Upper level of the market

I saw there was a Jewish cemetery on the map and we decided to visit. Unfortunately it was closed when we went, only open from 2-5pm. If we end up in Hamburg again, we'll try to take a tour

Our last stop was at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg. They had a really interesting fashion and multimedia exhibit. We saw video of someone where the black dress... sort of amazing she could move considering it's made from some kind of plastic.

Wood dress? looked like pieces of my desk from high school. 

mit schuss!

Elektro Department Christmas Lunch

Last Friday was the Electrical Engineering (Elektro) Department Christmas lunch. It was at a hotel a little north of the campus. They were kind enough to bus us from the campus and had a second bus from the campus in Risø.

Welcome drink in the lobby of the hotel - sparkling wine

Greetings from the department chair. He made a few comments about the coming year having 'forward bias' and other electrical jokes. Oh engineers 

Delicious Christmas buffet - salmon and meat (raw), fried duck balls, squash, white fish, stuffed turkey, roast veggies, Christmas potatoes, bread, and...

Sushi! It's so expensive here - it was a great surprise. 

Presents for the winning teams (games followed dinner)

The crowd: professors, administrators, staff, PhD students (considered employees at DTU)

My first plate, yum

Cheese and dessert course: cheese, more cheese, orange soaked in something good, little almond cakes, risalamande (rice pudding), and another duck ball (just because)

Then we played games! The first was called something like nanosound and was (of course) proposed as a paper we could all write together on acoustics in relation to intoxication. They played snippets of songs and teams of two had to name the artist and song title. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly at this point), most of the songs were from American artists. I was able to get a few, but luckily the folks at my table were much better. 

The second game was a civil engineering game. Each table received a bag of marshmallows and toothpicks and our objective was to build the tallest tower we could. 

Everyone had opinions about how to build, and we settled on many interconnected triangles. I suggested cutting the marshmallows into smaller prices so we would have more material. The build begins!

It was looking really good until... it wasn't. We didn't put enough support in the center and it toppled over before the judges measured it. wa wa Then we had more beer.

Timber! 

The team that cheated/changed the rules to their advantage. They used the candles on the table to melt the toothpicks together. Worked great... but they were disqualified. 

I think they won. Spires! 

We were disappointed that it fell over so we built it again. Bigger and better than before, I think we would have won. We added more supports in the center. Towards the end we perfected the design, but alas, it fell over again. Should have built a stronger base.. next time.

Another great Christmas party! Thanks DTU Elektro.