500 Miles Home

Thank goodness for our Navigon GPS system and the Lonely Planet Germany travel guidebook! As we left Kiel, I read about sights to see on the way home. We definitely wanted to stop in Hamburg; we were quite impressed passing through the train station on our way to Kiel days ago. We had a terrible time finding a parking spot in downtown Hamburg. What should you expect in Germany's second largest city? Yes, sometimes we wish it was just the two of us in a Smart car! You can park anywhere in a Smart car. For example, see the grey one we passed by? As we were searching for a parking spot we saw a church that was black and nearly destroyed during WWII; we made sure to walk back to it after eating. We ate the most unique brunch at Cafe Paris, and walked to the Hamburg Christmas market.

St. Nikolai church is now an anti-war memorial. It was mostly destroyed during the fire-bombing of Hamburg in 1943 by British and American forces. The bombing is sometimes referred to as the 'Hiroshima of Germany'. Someone told us 80% of Hamburg was destroyed during the fire-bombing.

"War may be only temporary, but its toll remains permanently." -Agatha Christie



We also stopped at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where an estimated 100,000 lost their lives. Anne and Margot Frank died there, only two weeks before the British troops liberated the camp. All the original buildings were burned down by the British because of health concerns. Standing at the mass graves, watching the historical films, and seeing the faces and documentation there was depressing and haunting. Words cannot describe the feeling there.