It’s mid October on a sunny Friday as I’m walking down the streets of Hamburg.
[Repost from October 2018]
The delightful stories it enfolds through the lenses make this weather perfect for a ferryboat ride down the river Elbe. The white grandiose Cap San Diego ship was there to greet us on this beautiful day.
MS Cap San Diego, is the last of a series of six ships known as the White Swans of the South Atlantic. Situated as a museum ship in Hamburg, Germany, it is notable for its elegant silhouette.
First we passed by Rickmer Rickmers, this outstanding three masted sailing ship build in 1896, sparkling emerald permanently moored as a museum ship, near MS Cap San Diego.
The Opera House shines bright, with its architecture imitating waves that hit the shore. So dramatic you can not but stare at it sparkle, surrounding the moored ship museums.
The first step, on the stairs leading to this spectacle on water, felt just as dramatic. The sun shining so content towards us, as we embark this journey, it was as if it’s showing the way. I stepped next to the peers, inhaling the breeze filling up my lungs. I turn and look back, at the city. It did not disappoint. I see a modern architecture and classical buildings painting in front of me, reminder of the beauty of this city.
With seagulls flying above, so freely that it compelled me to just let go of everything and be in the moment, just breathe and enjoy the sound of the waves splashing on the shores. Looking back at the water, there was this cranes made figurine engulfing the waters, awaiting for those massive international containers, a display of man-made working with nature. Ferryboats and trains in a one day trip on the river Elbe.
An hours across the river, with the ferryboat crushing waves in its way as it gave us the tour of the city, telling us the other side of the story, the city side that sparkles under the sun. Greeting people aboard, station after station, people of all ages, happily planting themselves in the “crow’s nest”, the front-most place, where you could just feel like “the king of the world” as Jack well said on the Titanic, on that very same spot of the ship.
Wind splashing through your hair, feeling free as a bird in the sky, with the water surrounding you and overwhelm you with how big this city actually is. Could see places such as the Fish Market station, which now only carries the name of a story long gone but nevertheless poetical.
Can just imagine there were fishermen bringing up their fresh captures, proudly exposing it, telling stories among themselves as gourmands pass by. Sure the smell would repulse you, not the greatest place to walk, but that fresh dinner infused with herbs and savors, gathering the family around the table, makes it all worth.
What I love about trips on the water, is looking at the horizon, at how there, in that farthest point, the water and the sky are united and can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins. That’s how this Elbe trip reached back to the place it started and it was now time to take the train home.
I sat next to the window, watching as the buildings would enfold in front of my eyes, the Elbe on my right and buildings on my left, the train would go around complimenting them, each unique and beautiful in its architectural style. The moment just before boarding the train was captured, overlooking the places that now became my Elbe story.
All the love,
Dani
