Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Portrait of a Sergeant by Ernest Meissonier)

    The French artist painted this artwork in 1874, towards the end of his career. This appears to be a painting of the French military from the end of the eighteenth century, with the soldiers wearing the chenille helmet from the period. The artist was also notable for his paintings of Napoleon himself, as well as the military during the Napoleonic Wars.

    The Kunsthalle put it much better than I ever could:

    “Meissonier, whose history painting enjoyed great popularity in France, as the early impressionism still met with widespread rejection, presented here six soldiers from the period after the French Revolution. They still wear the uniform of the Ancien Régime, while their helmet already with the badge the Republic is provided. The casual incident on the barracks yard shows a draftsman with a soldier standing in full gear and proud pose model. While the artist and the dog sitting next to him are staring at the sergeant with his saber, four other uniformed men are spellbound in the creation of the sketch. Noteworthy is Meissonier’s finely painted depiction, which impresses with its level of detail and the convincing reproduction of various textures.”

  • Hamburg – Old Elbe Tunnel

    The Old Elbe Tunnel was opened in September 1911 and there are two tunnel tubes, one of which is used by pedestrians and cyclists, with the other used by cars. It’s quite a complex set-up, with car drivers needing to use elevators to transport their cars down to the tunnel, and then lifts to get the car back up on the other side.

    I decided to walk down (it’s 24 metres), even though I slightly regretted that as there’s quite a drop on either side of the steps and I’m not very good with heights.

    The steps used to be escalators, but these were too expensive to keep maintained and so they’re back to steps. I could have just got the elevator down to the bottom of the tunnel, but that felt like cheating.

    I thought I’d just walk through the tunnel as an experience and I didn’t bother coming back out the other side, instead just walking straight back. It’s about a six minute walk each way (it’s 426 metres) and it seemed very well used given the number of people I saw. Although car drivers have to pay to be transported, it’s free of charge for pedestrians and cyclists.

    There are some ceramic reliefs along the tunnel walls, with a variety of different images.

    The plaque at the entrance to the tunnel.

    As an experience, it’s something rather different and it was an engineering marvel at the time that it was constructed. When they were building the tunnel the effects of Caissons Disease, linked to decompression, weren’t fully understood and three men died with hundreds more suffering from the effects.

  • Heathrow – Security Scanners

    From Business Traveller, this will be a significant improvement for travellers. The number of passengers who still seem surprised that they have to remove liquids, even though they’ve passed 22 signs telling them, never ceases to amaze me.

  • Hamburg – St Nicholas’s Church (Museum)

    There isn’t much of St. Nicholas’s Church which is still left standing, but the crypt did survive and there is now a museum located within it. It’s not a large museum, but it tells the story of how and why the bombing of Hamburg took place, which was in reprisal for the German bombing of historic British (and other countries) cities. The museum also explains about how the previous church was lost to fire and how the replacement church was built.

    The previous church had burnt down during the great fire of Hamburg of 1842, so they reused some of the copper to make commemorative coins to help raise funds for the new building.

    This is an invite to the laying of the cornerstone of the new church on 24 September 1846. The church was designed by George Gilbert Scott, responsible for many Gothic churches in the UK and beyond.

    Parts of the shattered altar, which destroyed both the interior and exterior of the church during the Second World War.

    Items found during the demolition of the church.

    Some of the interior of the museum. The ticket includes both the elevator to the top of the tower and this museum, with the staff member at the entrance desk being particularly engaging and conversational. All in all, a fascinating site.

  • Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Capriccio with Roman Ruins by Canaletto)

    I didn’t know what a Capriccio was and I just assumed it was just some place in Italy (although it also sounds like a delicious dish from Prezzo), but it’s actually a collection of buildings or ruins just placed together for the purpose of a artwork. Apparently this was a popular art form during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although I’m surprised people didn’t want something a little more realistic.

    Canaletto painted this in 1740, pretty much in the middle of his career, and it seems that there is a problem throughout many of his works in establishing what was real and what was artificial. This is the only work of this artist that the Kunsthalle hold, other than a series of 31 etchings which I don’t think are on display.

    I think I prefer his paintings of Venice, Rome and London…..

  • Hamburg – Ibis Budget Altona

    Firstly, in fairness to the hotel, I did have a quick lie down before taking this photo, this wasn’t how they presented the room. It’s a typical Ibis Budget room, pretty much the same the world over. The room, including breakfast, was around £50 per night, which seems entirely reasonable to me as Hamburg isn’t necessarily the cheapest of cities to stay in.

    The breakfast selection, which was more generous than some other Ibis Budgets that I’ve stayed in. There isn’t always a great deal of consistency about the breakfasts, certainly compared to the very tight brand standard of what is offered in the rooms. The meat selection wasn’t great, so I went for the rolls, salad items, pastries and jams during the week. The bread selection was marvellous though, with some really nice rolls.

    A breakfast on one of my five mornings in the hotel. I particularly liked that the breakfast room never got too busy, it can be mildly frustrating trying to get breakfast and all of the tables are full. So, all in all, better than I had expected from the breakfasts.

    The staff were all friendly and helpful, all speaking perfect English and the atmosphere in the hotel was always relaxed and informal. It didn’t feel very busy during the early part of the week, but it felt slightly busier towards the end of my stay.

    There was no noise disturbance either internally or externally during my stay, with the room always being at a reasonable temperature. There isn’t a great deal of control over the temperature as it seems to be centrally set, but there was cold air circulating throughout.

    This is the Altona location from the chain, as Ibis do have other hotels in the city, and it’s around a sixty-minute walk to the city centre. I did that a few times, but other times I just got the subway, which is around a five-minute walk from the hotel. That gets into the city centre in around ten minutes, so the hotel is as central as I needed it to be.

    All told, I’d stay here again, there were no problems and the service was always friendly. It’s also one of those hotels which is keyless, with entry to the room being via a six-digit code number.

  • Hamburg – Hamburg Airport Lounge

    Located towards the top of the airport terminal, this lounge was one of the airiest and open that I’ve been in, all very comfortable.

    That’s Haribo in the middle, unlimited Haribo. Inwardly I was beyond delighted, but externally I hope no-one else noticed just how wonderful I consider unlimited sweets to be.

    Unlimited bananas. Can’t say I was particularly excited about these.

    A soup machine, and next to this was a cooker which had hot dogs in, which isn’t unusual in lounges in Germany and Poland. Perhaps it should be more common in lounges in the UK, but I’d rather they introduced unlimited Haribo first.

    A selection of rolls, cold meats, olives and pastries, and they were all fresh and tasted of a decent quality.

    I liked these tables, although there was a choice of different seating types. These tables had power available and comfortable chairs, being at the perfect height to use a computer.

    My first plate of snacks, very moreish, so I had several more plates.

    As airport lounges go, this was towards the better end of the scale. The lounge wasn’t particularly busy, it was comfortable and it seemed organised. As for cleanliness, it would have been hard for the staff to have made it any cleaner. They were busy vacuuming the floors, cleaning tables and collecting plates for the entire time that I was there. Indeed, I’d say this was the cleanest lounge that I’ve been to.

    There are toilets within the lounge complex and a selection of magazines and newspapers (I don’t mean these are in the toilets, the magazines and newspapers were in the main part of the lounge). I didn’t partake in the alcohol options, but there was a suitable range of beers, wines and spirits. There were juices and also a self pour soda machine which I took a particular liking to. By this I mean I liked the soda that came out of it, I wasn’t that interested in the machine itself.

    I had access to the lounge through Oneworld status, although it’s also part of lounge schemes such as Priority Pass. The signage isn’t brilliant to get there, but it’s on the top floor, it’s probably easier to get there by lift, but there are also two sets of escalators which got up there. All in all, entirely satisfactory.

  • Hamburg – Hamburg Airport (Button on Screen)

    I get excited by the most ridiculous of things, but this information board was very useful because of that button at the bottom of the screen. It can be a little frustrating to stand in front of these when it’s on screen 4 of 4 and I want the information that will be on screen 3 of 4. The Germans have solved this issue by putting a button onto the screen to allow passengers to skip screens, quite marvellous.

  • Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Three Women in Church by Wilhelm Leibl)

    I’m not going to pretend that I’ve ever heard of Wilhelm Leibl, but I thought this painting had a bit of depth to it. He is apparently one of the most important German realist painters and he lived from 1844 until 1900, with this artwork being painted in around 1878 to 1882. The aim of the artist was to portray three different generations in a state of prayer and contemplation.

    I have no knowledge of this other than having read it on-line, but this is also the most important work which was painted by Leibl. The Kunsthalle obtained the painting in 1906 and it’s apparently a forerunner of the ‘neue sachlichkeit’ generation, or the ‘new objectivity’ movement.

  • Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Sturzacker by Caspar David Friedrich)

     

    This is part of my “paintings which look interesting to Julian” series, which is based on absolutely no artistic ability on my behalf. This painting is by Caspar David Friedrich, who according to Wikipedia (and of course therefore this must be entirely true) is “generally considered the most important German artist of his generation”. The German Post Office used his work on one of his stamps, an honour he’d have no doubt been thrilled with if he had been alive to see it.

    Friedrich lived from 1774 until 1840, with this artwork of a ploughed field having been painted in around 1830. Unfortunately, I can’t find out anything more interesting about this particular painting, other than the Kunsthalle obtained it in 1905.