jephmat: (Berlin)
[personal profile] jephmat
So Hamburg isn't just all attacking courtesans and sexy shop streets. In fact, when it comes to good ol' European goth, this city has Berlin beat!



Behold! The Hamburg Rathaus! (Rathaus = City hall. It doesn't mean house of rats, silly english speakers!) When I got off of the downtown U-Bahn this was the first thing I saw. This place is huge, and looks like a medieval fortress! It was quite a jaw-droppng site to see.




Rathaus detail, right on the corner of the building.



This place was covered with statues and ornate detail. It was spiffo-plus! Why can't our city halls look like this?!?



An example of the interior, which was just as swank as the outside.



In the courtyard was this kick ass fountain.



Fountain detail.



As if the gigante' Rathaus wasn't getting Goth enough, I was wanderin' the U-Bahn, minding my own business, when I spotted this, stabbing skyward through the Hamburg sky. I leaped off of the U-Bahn, (at a station, not while it was moving,) and made my way to this tower. (Was fairly easy to keep track of while walking through the city.)



This gigantic dark tower is part of the Saint Nikolai Church, a church that was partially destroyed during World War II. It managed to be the tallest building in the world from 1874 to 1876, and is currently the second tallest building in Hamburg. (Thank you Wikipedia!) From what I can tell, it's definitely the tallest Church tower in Hamburg, which has about 5 million church towers!



St Nikolai detail. All of these buildings are covered with statues! I didn't even know about this place before I just happened to see it from the U-Bahn. It's always so much more fascinating to just happen upon these places, rather than read the tourist guides and know about it beforehand. Seriously, unless you're an white bread American trying to navigate the hills of Pakistan, I'd recommend just going to a city first before reading the guides, just so you can have the same experiences. I felt like Frodo finding the Black Gate of Mordor!



For just a few Euros, you can take an elevator up to the very near tippy-top and look down on Hamburg. Here's a bird's eye view of the Rathaus. (Finally was able to get it to fit into my camera's viewfinder!)



Plenty o' Gargoyles on this church. Makes better for the whole Lord of the Rings experience!



They had displays explaining and showing the damage during the war. It's just amazing that Hamburg still has so many old and grand buildings, considering the devastation Hamburg had to endure.



Next Berlin Post

Date: 2008-10-30 09:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] etherealdances.livejournal.com
Wow... Hamburg is beautiful!!!!!!

Date: 2008-10-30 09:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jvmatucha.livejournal.com
Hamburg is Goth on steroids. It's really f*****g cool! check it out if you ever get the chance.

You have to go with me next time to protect me on the Reeperbahn!

Date: 2008-10-30 09:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] etherealdances.livejournal.com
Hahaha... I'll protect you!

(Sis and I are in the process of getting our passports sorted.. although now we have to have the biometric ones... which makes me scared as I'm sure it means I will be one of the 'numbered' and awful things will happen to me when the 'new order' takes over the world!!! LOL!)
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-10-31 01:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jvmatucha.livejournal.com
And I didn't even eat any hamburgers! Okay, I did have a döner...

:)

Date: 2008-10-31 01:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] princegold.livejournal.com
Wonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Date: 2008-10-31 01:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jvmatucha.livejournal.com
My pleasure! This city was a real adventure!

Date: 2008-10-31 01:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] princegold.livejournal.com
Do you have pictures of Hammersmith Odeon? (where Depeche Mode played their most awesome intro performance in 1982)

Date: 2008-10-31 01:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jvmatucha.livejournal.com
I was not in the Hammersmith region I'm afraid. The Beatles old club was as close as I got.

Date: 2009-02-23 09:21 am (UTC)
lordhellebore: (angelina jolie)
From: [personal profile] lordhellebore
Ah, the "Hamburger Rathaus" - so pretty. If you live here, you get used to the architecture pretty quickly and don't find it quite as stunning any more.

Growing up in Celle, a small tourist town with one of the few old, intact city centres made almost exclusively from half-timbered houses in Germany (just like Rothenburg ob der Tauber, only in the north), I found it hilarious to watch the tourist (German and foreign alike) running from one pretty similar house to the other and taking pictures as though they were the eighth wonder of the world.

Date: 2009-02-23 06:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jvmatucha.livejournal.com
There's a lot of old and wonderful archtecture in the SF Bay Area that we stop noticing as well. It's not as ancient as many sites in Hamburg, but it's up there histroical age-wise. We also make fun of tourists, even though we have one of the most recognizable and diverse cities in the US.

We're also home to the most famous prison in US history, (Alcatraz,) and most native Bay Areans have never visited it even once!

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