Whistle-stop Tour

So the second day of the Copenhagen fair went well. I spent another night in town, did some more wandering around the historic core, then woke up early the next day and caught a train to Hamburg. As you will see from the map, this train traveled south from Copenhagen and actually was loaded onto a ferry! Then it crossed a bit of the Baltic to Germany. Google Earth actually captured a satellite shot of this ferry preparing to dock. Pretty cool…

So in Hamburg I once again had a tight connection to my school visit, so I hopped in a cab at the train station. I made it right in time to give a lunch-time presentation to a group of interested juniors and seniors. After that I entertained a classroom of sophomores with info on my university’s majors. Never too early to start thinking about it…


The school counselor had booked a nearby hotel for me, this being west of central Hamburg. I was able to hop on a bus that took me right to the doorstep of Hotel Schmitt – a cozy little place right next to a metro stop. So, I put away my things and headed downtown for dinner and a walkabout. From the main station I headed west along the main pedestrian shopping street (can’t remember the name). I bought a wooly head-cap at H&M, and drooled all over the interior of the LEGO store. If I were only 10 again… nevermind, I bought some anyway. I also had a hamburger at the main Hamburg Burger King. Had to. Next I walked through the city hall square, amazing, and over a canal to an very posh shopping and hotel district. After some window-gazing I walked along the bank of the lake for a bit before descending into the underground to return to my hotel. There were some very drunk Hamburgers on my car with me. I decided to get off with them at Altona Station, just to watch them. Then I decided to walk down a random street that looked promising. There were several bars, but nothing that suited me. I just kept saying, “One more block.” Finally, I found what I was looking for – a dive. I sat there, had three Jack & Cokes, and finished Atlas Shrugged. Pics of the place later.


I slept late, then rode back in town to the main station and bought a ticket to Dresden. It was a pretty long ride, with a train switch in Berlin. When I arrived in Dresden it was dark. Oh yeah, and I had no hotel. No problem, I just walked until I found a likely candidate. Check-in. Shower. Go for a walk.


The old center of Dresden is stunning – even if you’ve seen a lot of old stuff, as I have. Really, really beautiful and amazing. Wait ‘til you see the pics. Anyway, I walked through that area, through the pedestrian shopping district, and on to the main station to check on trains to Prague for the next day. I noticed that hardly anyone was downtown. It was dead. So I asked a younger couple coming out of the station what was up. There is no nightlife downtown. Only shopping. Ah. So they told me where to go: back across the river where my hotel is. After dinner, I did that.

Great bar district, scores of places within easy walking distance of one another. There was even a bar devoted to “The Big Lebowski” – the Lebowski Bar. I shit you not. The movie was of course running inside. I should not need to tell you what drink I ordered. I sampled a few other places and then went to bed. Oh yeah, awesome donner kebab on the walk home.

The next morning I woke up and began my trek to the next school visit. I thought that it would be easy. I’d looked up the address at the website, found it on Google Earth, then matched it to a S-train stop. First, there was a trolley wreck. I’d always wanted to see a trolley hit a car, but now was not a good time. So we all had to get off and walk to the next stop, then get on another line. I made it to my stop and looked for a map to refresh my bearings. No map. I thought every transit stop in Europe had a map of the immediate area. Not so. Therefore, I relied on memory, since I’m too cocky to bring my own map. I did find the school after one or two mis-turns. However, I was informed that this location is only the lower school, and its address is used as the main school address. The high school is elsewhere. Ironically, it was two blocks from the trolley wreck. Ugh.

Anyway, I still made my lunch appointment to speak with interested students. Had quite a few. Went back to the hotel, grabbed my things, took another trolley to the main station and got on a train to Prague. Prague, of course, deserves its own entry, so I will stop here, for now.