Water Water

Just posting some glamor shots of the city. One of our favorite things about Hamburg is how green everything is. This is because it RAINS ALMOST EVERY DAY, and then gets sunny and then RAINS SOME MORE. Not actually that bad. You just always have to have an umbrella. But the payoff is a lot of this:



Hamburg is particularly known for it's waterways and canals. It has two lakes (Binnenalster and Aussenalster...the inner and outer Alsters), as well as a large river (Die Elbe). Because of all the canals connecting these three major bodies of water, Hamburg has more than 2300 bridges (more than Amsterdam or Venice). It's maybe hard to see, but below is a picture of several bridges over the canals in downtown Hamburg.



And here is of one of the (apparently) famous Alster swans. They started coming to the Alster during the summers in the 16th century. In the early 1800's, Hamburg decided they would do what they could to protect them. They appointed a "swan keeper", or Schwanenvater, who looks after them, and transports them to a comfortable place for the winters (weird, eh?). At this point, there are around 120 swans living this life. And they are beautiful. Also a good chance to USE MY ZOOM FUNCTION ON THE CAMERA! ZOOM FUNCTION: ENGAGE!



And of course, water sports. Hasan and I took the sailing class at Northwestern two summers ago, so hopefully we'll be able to put some of that knowledge to good use. There is no shortage of sailing schools and rental places here.




Beautiful city, is it not? I must say, we're enjoying it.