Adventures With Harvey

Bunkers, Breweries and (thankfully) no Breakdowns!

Good morning one and all, this exciting edition of ‘Adventures with Harvey’ comes to you from Hamburg, Germany’s second biggest city. It’s been a busy week with plenty to report so grab your cuppa and buckle in for the ride 😊

I imagine that only a few of you will have heard of Afsluitdijk however it is certainly a marvel of man’s ingenuity and engineering. Constructed in the 1920’s and 30’s and measuring 32km long, this dyke connects the western and northern provinces of The Netherlands, turning 1100km² of ocean into a freshwater lake in the process. Why am I telling you all of this? Firstly, because we drove across it (seeing a huge windmill farm on the water through the mist) but also because we spent a night in the town of Hoorn. For those who haven’t visited, this sleepy little town might remind you a little of Russell. Cute, quaint, on the waterfront and a fun little place to visit. Prior to the construction of Afsluitdijk it was a bustling port town and an important trade link with other areas of the country however these days the waterfront is entirely recreational with plenty of water-based activities and hospitality offerings to be enjoyed.

The next day was a long haul of around 350km ending in another little town called Elsfleth, also on the waterfront but this time on the banks of the river Weser rather than a lake. A short bicycle ride away (including a car ferry over the river) is the most massive monument to the futility of war that you will ever see. Yes, we’re talking about the Valentin Submarine Bunker, built by the Nazis over 2 years from the start of 1943.

One of the biggest problems faced by the German war machine was having their factories bombed by the allies. To counter this inconvenience, they moved as much industry as possible to underground caves etc, and also started a programme of bunker construction. The manufacture of submarines was considered the top priority by the German Navy so over the following 2 years around 10000 half-starved forced labourers were made to work in 12-hour shifts around the clock to construct this bunker for a supposedly bomb-proof submarine production line. With walls more than 4m thick and a roof up to 7m thick in places, it measures approximately 400m x 100m and walking inside left your author's mouth hanging open! When the facility was mere weeks from completion at the end of March 1945, the allies conducted a bombing raid with specially designed munitions, 2 of which actually succeeded in penetrating the roof and depositing around 1000 tonnes of rubble inside the bunker, rendering it inoperable and leading to its almost immediate abandonment. No-one knows exactly how many of the forced labourers died in the construction because the keeping of such records was felt to be unimportant by the Nazis at the time, however estimates vary from 1600 to around 6000. These days Valentin is a sobering memorial to those who perished and a permanent reminder that war is a very bad idea!

For the second time in as many days, your author and his lovely wife split tacks to explore different aspects of our next town. Within Bremen, the inner-city suburb of Schnoor is full of little alleyways with interesting architecture, shops, eateries and all things good. The Alstadt (old town) also has a maze of winding streets peppered with fascinating sculptures, art, churches and the occasional cake shop. Sadly most museums are closed on a Monday, and it was a cold and blustery day but the lovely Anita was able to amuse herself in such an environment for as long as was necessary… for your author to complete a tour of the Becks Brewery 😊. And I have to say, they’ve found themselves a new fan! At €13 for a visit which consists of a 90-minute tour of the brewery, followed by a further 90 minutes tasting in their in-house bar, that represents GREAT value for money! Your author is now onto one of his favourite topics, however most of you will be happier if we don’t indulge in further pontification about beer - so let’s conclude this story with one fun fact. Did you know that Vegemite and Marmite originated as the waste dregs at the bottom of a brewer’s barrel and were used for swine fodder until someone thought there might be better plan. Who knew?!

Nowadays the weather is often chilly and rainy making evenings outside a rarity however the good folk at Little Mary’s Irish pub in Bremen have a heated park bench… which provided a lovely venue for a debrief following the afternoon’s respective activities.

Because this adventure is largely being planned on the hoof, time needs to be spent every few days in some serious planning. This is usually done over a cuppa when we first wake up and is by no means a chore – if you see the bed strewn with lonely planet guides and a laptop/tablet/phone or 2, you’ll know what the Woodies are up to. Although we’d like to be travelling and/or adventuring every day, there is still a good deal of life admin required; correspondence from home, blog writing, ferry booking and generally making sure we’re a well organised adventure. Our second day in Bremen started thus, following some travel planning, your author cycled off down the road with full paniers, the contents of which required the services of a laundromat. Then it was underway for the 130km drive to Hamburg with a pit-stop en-route for much needed grocery supplies. Unfortunately the Stellplatz we chose was already full, meaning a rush-hour trip through town where thankfully Plan B still had spaces available. At junctures such as this, although one would like to rug up and head out for an evening exploring the town, one feels a much greater need to sit on the couch, take a deep breath and watch some Netflix!

All of which left us with a single day to explore a rather large city – the travel guides suggested at least 3 days however sometimes there just isn’t time for everything, even on an adventure of this duration. On the drive into Hamburg the place felt very industrial and utilitarian however this proved to be far from the truth. Public transport throughout Europe is just brilliant, typically you can buy a day-pass which covers buses, trains, subway and ferries, it’s all very efficient and can easily be planned using google maps. Our day started with a walking tour commencing at the Rathaus (town hall) and covering many of the central city highlights. Although 110km from the open ocean, Hamburg has a huge port not much smaller than Rotterdam – the many canals in town are tidal so are technically known as fleets and there are 2500 bridges in the city (second only to New York and surprisingly, even more bridges than Venice). Hamburg was largely destroyed twice in its history, firstly with the great fire of 1842 and secondly by the allied bombings during WWII. Amazingly many of the buildings actually survived one or both of these events, e.g. the Rathaus was rebuilt after the fire but survived the bombings. You can also visit the site of St Nikolai which was rebuilt after the fire however mostly destroyed by the WWII bombing. The tower is still there and it's hard to believe that, in 1874 when the first rebuild was completed, this was actually the tallest building in the world! You can tell which structures pre-date WWII because many of their rooves are copper which takes around 100 years to oxidise and turn green – therefore green roof equals old building!

The most famous attraction in Hamburg is the Miniatur Wunderland which several people had recommended we visit. You’ll have to check out the videos etc because your humble correspondent cannot presently think of any superlatives that are even close to satisfactory. Spread over 3 floors and containing the world’s largest model train set (something like 16km of track with more than 10000 engines/carriages) everything works and runs just like it would in real life. You have a working airport complete with aircraft taking off and landing (with sound effects to match) and everything else you could think of in miniature. Every few minutes day turns into night and everything lights up, as well as trains, little cars and trucks drive the streets and wait at working traffic lights with their indicators on. You have faithful reproductions of many famous areas including Rome, Copacabana Beach, Venice, the Las Vegas Strip, Hamburg, and the list goes on. There are festivals, full football stadiums, railway stations & ports, mines etc etc etc. A little like the brewery tour, this publication lacks sufficient column inches for a thorough dissertation, so the videos below best tell the story of this amazing place.

After a quick stop to rest tired feet (which may have also included a liquid refreshment), we headed for the evening to the night market at St Pauli. We try and find a market each week if possible to stock up on certain important supplies – these places always have a cheese vendor or 2 selling the most delicious stinky blue, brie and other such delights. Usually we also find a butcher, greengrocer and if we’re lucky (as we were last night) someone selling delicious fresh pasta. Our larder is now chocka full of everything needed for at least the next week of our travels.

Random question. In this part of the world ought one refer to a particular breed of dog as just a Shepherd? 😊

Finally (and our thanks as always to those who have stayed with us until the end), we have decided to include a section at the end of each edition outlining our plans for the coming week or so. After each blog is published, our readers often ask whether we’ve visited this place or that attraction while in a particular town… which of course by the time they’re giving the feedback, we’ve generally already left. So for the next week, here are the plans. Today we drive north to Scandinavia with an overnight stop in the town with my new favourite name (but I’ll keep you in suspense until the next edition for that), before arriving in Copenhagen. After that we’ll drive across into Malmo (paying an eye-watering bridge toll) for a very quick taste of what Sweden has to offer. Then it gets interesting – we discovered there is a ferry from Trelleborg, which sails overnight to a port I guarantee almost none of you will have heard of: that’s right, we’ll disembark in the town of Klaipeda in Lithuania!

Until next time and with much love as always from the travelling Woodies, this is AWH signing off for another day.

Hoorn canal including several house-boats on the right

Hoorn Marina

No Nita, you're supposed to copy the statue, not try and join the ensemble

we loved Hoorn!

Anita found a friend

huge windmill farm appearing out of the mist

Valentin Submarine Bunker from the outside

that's how you blow a hole in a 4m thick concrete roof!

nice work Neptunia!

the Town Musicians of Bremen commemorating the famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm

a warm park bench is a happy place!

In 1874 Becks Brewery was awarded a gold medal by Crown Prince Frederick - this is the goblet from which he partook

something like 4.5 million hectoliters of beer are brewed here every year

while one tastes beer, the other indulges in (on this particular occasion) gooseberry meringue cake

waiting for the ferry en-route to the laundromat

pondering life in Hamburg

Hamburg waterways

St Nikolai was once the tallest building in the world!

the fire of 1842 started on this very street. you can see the near buildings are older and made of brick, the others were downwind and were destroyed. the fire started in a cigar shop and spread to the neighbours which were rum, paper and tobacco merchants respectively.