May 10th, 2010

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Monday May 10 Hamburg

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Regina and Matthias outdid themselves as great hosts. Does’nt that Paella look fabulous? It tasted even better. They live about a 1 hour train ride from my brother´s home. They were all packed to leave early this morning for Singapore to sail from Batam island to Phuket via Langkawi. Their friend Gero, the owner of the boat, joined the feast as well. So did his wife Bettina who will fly later to Thailand. Matthias and Regina will fly back in June and then we will see each other again. They moved their boat from the Schinkel to Monnickendam last fall and I will be going to the same marina in June.

Jan and I took bikes on the train to Hamburg today. This weekend  were the annual harbor day festivities and a number of the visiting tall ships were still in port or just leaving. My nephew Carl has his work shop on the Elbe River near the Fish Harbor and he took us to a small fish restaurant adjoining the fish market.

The large structure under construction in the left upper corner of below picture is the new ”Elbe Philharmonie”, a structure meant to equal the visial aspect of arriving by cruise ship as the Sydney Playhouse. From the water, at it´s narrow angle, it will appear as a tall ship under sail.