June 16, 2024
Iconic Hamburg
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Tom and his boyfriend Stephan gave me the Iconic Hamburg tour on Saturday. Hamburg is known as an important port city, but it is not right on the North Sea, it is accessed via the Elbe River. The above are taken from steeple overlook of the landmark ,18th Century, St. Michael's Church. It was super windy, es ist windig, at the top, but the views were worth it. The church was originally built in 1648 but destroyed by lighting, in 1750. It was rebuilt in 1751 to 1762 and destroyed a second time by fire in 1906! This third church was rebuilt from 1907 to 1912 and has a building restoration going on now with the campaign for "heavenly helpers" and golden hardhats on their statues that fade in and out of vision, depending on the angle you look at them. Clever!
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How many letters are in the German alphabet?
There are 30. The four extra are a, o & u with the double dots over them ( and are pronounced eh, ouh, & uuh) and the funky B ( which is prounounced as ss).
Easter turned out to be a travel day for Bosco and I as we were extremely limited in when we could be seen by the Australian Border Control to disembark from the Ship, for a scuba diving adventure in Raja Ampat that I have had reserved, for over 18 months! We flew from Perth to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Easter afternoon.
I have been really excited to get to Fremantle / Perth for my first time. I have had a few friends live here over the years and I have a second cousin, James Murphy, who I have only ever spoken too briefly, over the last 35 years and that I would love to meet in person. Jim is the older brother of Paul who I met up with in Melbourne a few weeks ago.
Greetings from FREMANTLE or FREO as the locals call it! Getting here took a long week at Sea, as we hid out and dodged wave surges from two cyclone systems. Our departure from Adelaide was timed to carefully avoid the path of Cyclone Narelle and we hugged the southern coastline of Australia, in the shallow waters of the Great Australian Bight . Later in the week we sheltered near Point Culver, before taking the turn and heading North along the western coastline.