The Hamburg portside Sunday market today, more than 100 stalls selling vegetables, fruit, fast food, clothes, souvenirs, and much else, was almost over when we got there; but the music was still booming in the cavernous brick building nearby.
As we walked in, the band at one end was finishing "Knocking on Heaven's Door," as Guns 'n' Roses would sing this Bob Dylan song. Then they blistered through the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" for an encore.
A few minutes later, an energetic trio at the other end of this building launched into older rock and roll, including "Peggy Sue," a Buddy Holly song. People, including children and elders, danced around. Adults drank beer, ate sausages, or waffles, and this last band of the day rocked through its encore as we left the building.
The blocks-long cardboard and food container mess of the street market faced us outside, but a clutch of garbage trucks and band of cleaners had the area clean within an hour. Seagulls flew in for the food scraps.
After we walked along the Elbe River, we had pizza in a Portugese place a few blocks away, in the place we had had great pizzas two Sundays before. This time we split a pizza, having discovered the previous time that a pizza each put us to sleep on the green space in front of a nearby church, among others sleeping off a pizza, or their Saturday night revels in the rock and roll brick cavern.
Soon, we took to the sea, or at least to the river, plied by a handful of ferry boats on fixed routes of several stops along 2-3 km of the river. Each ferry holds a couple hundred, some below, some on the uncovered deck above. Some ferries were packed; some had more room, especially toward the other end of the line, away from downtown.
One ferry stopped near a U-Boat, circa World War Two, now a museum; may war itself one day be a museum piece. We wondered if our dad chased this exact submarine during his war service with the Royal Canadian Navy in the North Atlantic Ocean. I declined to buy a hat that said U-Boat 234, although the hat fit my fat head. Wearing it in Canada might get me a fat lip.
Sun, rain, sometimes pouring rain, us happily finding shelter from it, and a train and bus ride back to the suburbs helped make a full, fascinating day in this city with the biggest port I ever saw, and I lived in Montreal and I know Vancouver.
Where go the ships? To the whole world. I hope the sailors get time for Hamburg music and pizza.
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