I hate buying presents for birthdays. Generally if I buy something it’s not quite what the recipient wanted. I know my wife likes going to new places particularly in Europe so I decided to buy us a trip abroad. Neither of us had been to Hamburg. I’d heard it was in Germany but that’s pretty much where my knowledge ended.
Flights booked. We turned up at City Airport, queued for check-in, handed over our passports and the lady rushed off with them looking worried. She returned – with passports – everything OK but the 10-year anniversary of the issue date of my passport was in a week’s time and even though expiry was still nearly a year away I would not be allowed to travel under current regulations. We were booked for another journey just after our return from Hamburg so an urgent passport application was mentally booked for the day after our return. But for now panic over.
It turned out that Hamburg is virtually on the coast on a similar latitude to Manchester and is Germany’s second largest city. Like arriving in any new place we spent time just getting our bearings, checking where might be good to explore, and meanwhile I was taking my usual initial rubbishy shots. But plans made and opportunities tagged.
A walk to the river a little to the west and south of our hotel on a foggy day (featured image, FP4 in PMK) was then followed by another short walk north to Beatles-Platz Square. A distinctly dodgy area though probably much nicer than in the days the Beatles were here (see “The Beatles in Hamburg” on Wikipedia for the sordid details). Feeling uncomfortable – even in the middle of the day – we decided to head back east passing a park also in the fog.
The hotel was only a two minute walk to the lake, the southern section built-up on three sides and half enclosed by extensive road works – and Hamburg rats (the size of cats according to the hotel receptionist). The northern part of the lake is more extensive and attractive. and a sunny day provided an opportunity for some more more minimal compositions.
The built-up part of the city near the canal also provided some interesting reflections on another sunny day. Note that the reflection of the domed building is on a faulty film – look at the reflections of the sky and you can see mottling on the image (more about this and other film faults in a later post).
The St Nicholas Church designed by the English architect George Gilbert Scott was heavily bombed in WWII and only the spire – for two years the tallest building in the world – remains as a monument. At the southern end of the lake is another monument – initially to the 40,000 deceased soldiers from Hamburg in WWI then rebuilt as a monument to the dead in both wars.
Areas near railway lines often provide an interesting contrast to the spic-and-span city buildings.
Images taken on Rolleiflex GX with no, yellow or red filters developed in Rodinal 100:1 stand or Bergger PMK pyro.
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