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).
We got up at 6:45am to get to National Park Forts Walk trail in the hope of seeing koalas . Prior walkers mark trails with tree branches pointing in the direction of their sighting and we were luck enough to see 3 markers in our first hour of hiking. It is so stinking hot and humid the success we had made it bearable. The koala population on the island started with 20 brought over in 1930, to escape fur hunters. Today, the island boast 800 to 1000, and they are so cute and drowsy. They need 20 hours of sleep a day! The early morning is when they are the most active.
Just off the coast of Townsville, Australia is a special little island (that used to be part of mainland, hundreds of thousands years ago). The island was formed by molten granite that was pushed to the earth's surface with volcanic force.Over time the volcanic overlay weathered away leaving an extraordinary landscape of rounded domes and boulders, many as big as a house and spectcularly perched. Over Seventy Percent of the center of the Island is a National Park. There is lots of wildlife here too - koalas, rock wallabies, snakes & birds.
This is my third time in CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA and I really enjoy how walkable, clean and charming it is. The waterfront esplanade and lagoon area is a nice walk day or night. We had 2 nights here in the waterfront Shangri La Marina Hotel while waiting for the Ship to arrive and then 2 additional days in Port.