Little Dubai

I had interrupted my earlier entry about our visit to Bremerhaven as I wanted to add some pictures Schatz took with one of his various cameras. Unfortunately, that very camera had a faulty light baffle, as he found out - some rubbery thingie in that old camera let light into the camera body where and when it wasn't supposed to come inside and ruin the picture.

Anyway, I ended the first part of the Christmas 2008 Bremerhaven story with a picture of Schatz leaning against the side of the house, taking pictures of the 'new harbour' in the late afternoon. He photographed something like this:

more Christmas trees

Walking further south along the River, I caught sight of yet another illuminated object, the so-called radar tower.

radar tower

It's much like the tower for air traffic controllers, only in this case it is for sea traffic controllers... looking after ships on the River Weser north of Bremen to the island of Wangerooge. It also houses all sorts of equipment and facilities for maritime radio.

Like the globe at the Auswandererhaus, the radar tower is illuminated. And it changes colours. And it will continue to do so!

They started the light show a few years ago but as something rather temporary. It was continued year after year, but the city council thought the cost was too high, and so they only renewd the budget post year after year. Mind you, we are talking about the mindblowing sum of €15,000 a year! Most of this actually has not been for electricity expenses but for buying new light bulbs...

It seems they have now decided to make the illumination a more permanent feature and so maybe they will look for a more long-term and less bulb-consuming solution.

Looking the other way, you see this fancy new development:

not changing lights at night.

And looking great in the daytime too.

The Bremerhaven Burj al Arab

No, this hotel was not built by Atkins, a British design company, and it is not located on Jumeirah Beach. The 'Fischtowners', however, do call it Little Dubai.

hotel, conference center and offices

To be honest, the 'sail' looks better in this location than a 15 floor square highrise would but one wonders about the conferences that will take place in this small town. Not that I would mind working there, of course.

But back to Christmas Day late afternoon. We had by now walked past the Fischtown Burj, on to the terrain of the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum where Schatz enjoyed some more special photographic moments.

Schatz adoring a whaleboat

Rau IX, a former whaleboat, as adored by Schatz

In the meantime, I took another shot over Schatz' back.

former lightship from the Elbe 3 position

And looking in the opposite direction, I spotted yet another Christmas tree high up in a mast.

tug boat Stier at night...

...and the next day.

And, especially for Kees, here's a picture of the Wilhelm Bauer, also moored in the museum harbour:

Wilhelm Bauer - closed to visitors until end of March

That's basically all from Bremerhaven this time, although maybe I should mention that Schatz talked me into playing some snooker. Oh my...

Labskaus and Emigration

On Christmas Eve, Schatz and I went to Bremerhaven to spend the holidays with his Dad. When we arrived, it was already dark (no big feat this time of year), but there were so many lights on in the city that I snapped my little Canon anyway, like outside the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum where the lines and masts of the museum ships were covered with lights.

passing ships in the night

It was Christmas everywhere:

In the hallway

...and on the other side of the hallway.

Schatz' Dad conveniently lives in a highrise built on top of a parking garage and shopping mall, which comes in very handy when the weather is bad. It is also great because it is only yards from the River Weser and offers a superb view over the waterway.

On Christmas Day, we had Labskaus for lunch. I have loved this dish ever since Karin made it for me more than 30 years ago. Her recipe - from 30 km south of Bremen - was slightly different from the one Schatz makes - from 50 km north of Bremen - but the dish is traditional Northern German although it can also be found in parts of Scandinavia.

Labskaus (Schatz style)

Labskaus is considered a typical dish for long sea voyages, and though it doesn't look like much to some, the combination of salted beef (or corned beef), potatoes, onions, red beets, gurkins, sour herrings, fried egg, salt and pepper is not only savoury but also refreshing in its own way. Onions, potatoes, and beets also are good against scurvy.

After lunch, we went for a walk. First down into the shopping mall. Where it was Christmas.

Christmas in the central plaza - or:
"Süßer die Kassen nie klingeln..." (caption by Schatz)

But the shops were closed, including this coffee house which tries to benefit from some loopholes in the anti-smoking law for pubs and restaurants. This owner thinks he can solve the problem by having customers smoke locally...

from Babel Fish with love

Eventually, we walked along the dyke of the River Weser. It was cold and grey but quite a few people were out for a stroll.

reconstruction of old semaphore

The original semaphore was located about 30 km downriver from here on the quay of a lighthouse, and used from 1893 to 1973 to indicate to mariners both wind direction and speed for the islands of Borkum and Heligoland. In the above setup, winds are Eastern for both locations and 3 beaufort for Borkum and 6 beaufort for Heligoland respectively.

Schatz and his dad waiting patiently while I do my semaphore thing

We walked on and finally reached our destination, the "Deutsches Auswandererhaus" (German Emigration Center).

Deutsches Auswandererhaus

Its main focus is on Bremerhaven as the major port for emigration from (or via) Germany from 183o to 1974 for Germans but also Eastern and South-Eastern Europeans. From these quays, more than 7 million people left Europe for a new life.

Even before actually entering the exhibition, the museum tries to create the right kind of atmosphere with transparent boxes of what things people might have taken aboard throughout the decades of emigration, from the late 19th century right up to the 1970's. You then enter a room that takes you a step further, with images and sounds, and then releases you up some stairs onto the quay.

Emigrants waiting at the gangway

Once you have climbed the gangway yourself, you pass holds filled with luggage on your way to the various cabins and berths.

berths around 1850 on a sailing vessel

simple steamship berths around 1890

tourist class berth early 20th century

By now, people were actually not just going one way into a hopefully better life but were traveling back and forth between the US and Europe, for example, for business and for holidays.

Throughout the exhibition, you are accompanied by visual and audio effects - great when you are ablebodied but somewhat of a nuisance when you have some hearing problems. But there are also plenty of items from the respective eras to take you right back in time, as well as some models occasionally.

models of the bark 'Bremen' and 'SS Columbus', both prominent migration vessels

Also well done is the room of the 5 million - drawer upon drawer, images, names, audio sources about famous and not so famous emigrants. Actually, your entrance ticket carries the name of an emigrant and you can follow their tales throughout the exhibition, not just in this room.

drawers upon drawers

Whereas in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, the majority of emigrants left Germany for the New World - mainly the Americas - things were a bit different in 2006:

favourite emigration target 2006: Switzerland

But people not only left Europe via Bremerhaven, some also arrived here, like this young man on October 1st, 1958:

The King and his Court

By the time we left the museum, Elvis had left the building, too.

Outside, it was dark by now - which meant that we got to see the changing lights on the globe on the upper floor of the museum in a variety of colours (see the full image for a better view).

the world is-a-changing

There are more pictures to come, notably from the various cameras of Schatz. Here is one of the man himself:

Schatz catching a light in the dark

PS: Just to pre-empt any such comment - Labskaus never was the cause of emigration, but only of re-migration!

Supermarket Daze

Have you ever felt dazzled by a sign? I mean really overwhelmed by the powerful, mind-boggling concept it conveyed? Well, it happened to Schatz and me last Saturday, as we were about to do our weekend shopping.

Seeds for Children just € 2.49 a bucket!

Seeds for Children. And they are even available in two varieties, as flowers or as sprouts! Sometimes you wonder about the geniuses behind such scientific achievements!

One bucket just left of the sign even says it quite unambiguously , this is 'Kindersaatgut' or 'children seeds'. Like carrot seeds or parsley seeds or sunflower seeds. Only for children.

Unfortunately, the buckets are not see-through and so, short of buying one, I can only resort to guesswork about the nature of these seeds. Are they small like koriander seeds or rather more like beans? Or maybe they're even bigger, like winegum bears, just maybe shaped like babies? Or maybe they're sorted into little bags, one for boys, one for girls?

We put various such theories to some friends at a brunch on Sunday but so far noone else has seen these mysterious buckets, let alone opened one and sown some children, and most certainly noone has ever harvested this produce.

So quite a few questions remain open: are these perennial children or for one season only? Do they come in different sizes, i.e. from bonzai to gigantic, like trees? What exactly is the difference between kids grown in bulbs or as sprouts? Do they prefer direct sun or shade, and can you grow them inside on your window sill?

Still rolling all these thoughts around in our minds, we entered a neighbouring discounter, where we suddenly faced a long row of red and green cartons.

Do they know it's still almost 4 months till Christmas?

We really wanted to scream and shout and throw bags of flour through the aisles but we decided to behave and just mutter words of unbelief. And return for a photograph...

Once upon a time, people started baking cookies and Christmas puddings and making Christmas confectionary as late as December. Then in November. About 10 years ago they started selling the stuff in October.

And now, for a couple of years, they have been trying to flog it as early as September. By the time it's Christmas, there will be hardly anything left and customers will long for strawberries...

Not us. None of that for us before the 4th Sunday before Christmas (1st Advent Sunday in Germany) or December 1st, whichever comes first.

But even that is still two and a half months away. Eleven long weeks to look at high-calory, high-sugar, low-fibre Christmas munchies when you really want to see broccoli, zucchini, bell peppers, cucumbers, mushrooms, fish - and maybe some pasta, cheese and wine....

But maybe the good news is that in a few years time they will start selling Christmas sweets on Easter Tuesday, and noone will get fat at Christmas anymore...