Weekend of Castles and Weihnachts Markts

Friday night after school Anja and I went into Hamburg proper, where we met up with Lorenz (the father). We went to the Weihnachts markt at the Rathaus, and drank Apfel punsch together. We wandered around for a while, buying Schokokussen at the market and walking along the edge of the Elm, admiring the lights. We also ate some dinner - kartoffelpuffer - which are mashed up potato pancakes deep fried and eaten with sugar and apple sauce. Lorenz called it an all-you-can-eat-buffet, going from stall to stall eating everything I hadn't tried before, but I got full pretty fast. Before we went home we detoured to another out-of-the-way market that was supposed to be really good, more modern, aber it wasn't quite what we expected. The walk was nice though, through a different part of Hamburg, and my interest got peaked for the Hamburg dungeon. To get back to the Hauptbahnhof from the other market was cool, because the closest train station was under the river, and was really new. It was massive and echo-y, with blue tiles everywhere that made it feel like you were underwater. There was even a ship encased in glass in the centre of the platform. We didn't get home too late, but I'm always tired over here so I went to bed pretty early.  

Anja and I across the river from the Rathaus Weihnachts Market

Rathaus Weihnachts Market

The next day was Saturday (obviously) and Lorenz and I went to visit Ahrensburg Schloss, a beautiful castle in a nearby town. We took the car for once, probably because there was no train station nearby. The castle itself is in the centre of town, on a big block. The castle sits in the middle of a small moat, and is surrounded by a large park area. While is is relatively small for a castle, it is a startling white in colour, with decorative ridges and towers, and all of the furniture inside is period and was the real furniture used by the inhabitants over the years. Ahrensburg Schloss was built in 1586, by an envoy of the King of Denmark, but the next owner was Heinrich Schimmelmann in 1759, who fixed it up after years of disuse, renovating many parts. You have to put on special slippers before entering the rooms, to protect the tiles and floorboards. Mine didn't really fit though, so I had to walk strangely so that they wouldn't fall off. I got the audio tour - in English - and loved walking through and listening to all of the interesting history and tid-bits, learning the back stories of various paintings and statues. The artworks in the rooms were particularly cool, including the room with paintings depicting various foreign scenes (including a monkey feeding colourful birds nuts), and the various paintings brought back as souvenirs from different parts of Europe. It was a bit of unfortunate timing though, because the rooms that were closed for renovations were opening the day after, so we didn't get to see the library, or the highest floor. At the gift shop I bought a cool period headband, then we left the castle and circled it from the grounds, seeing all of the decorative architecture and the sundial. Lorenz and I then went into town for a little bit, stopping by the Weihnachts market for a lunch of sausages.
We went out as a family soon after we got back, and went to another castle. We didn't do a tour of this one though, because the main attraction was the markets that were held in some buildings off to the side. Like normal Weihnachts markets, this one had the sweets and stalls, but inside there were boutique stalls selling bags, clothes, and various home wares. I didn't buy anything, but looking was still enjoyable. On the way home we stopped for dinner. The restaurant was cute, and I assume it sells strawberries while in season, because outside was a large strawberry shaped stall (closed), and a strawberry shaped play equipment (in used by many children). It was nice inside, and I ordered roast beef, which I didn't expect to come out cold... apparently that's how it is served in Deutschland. After dinner we went into another room where there was a large Christmas shop, and spent some time looking around in there before heading home. (to bed)

View of grounds from Ahrensburg Schloss

Fashion at it's finest - the slippers

Sunday, after going to a different church close to Ahrensburg Schloss, Ute and Lorenz took me to the Museum of Hamburg. We caught the train in to Hamburg proper, getting off at a stop next to the Hamburg Dom. It was only a short walk to the museum, and soon we were there. The exhibitions were really interesting, all about the growth of Hamburg over time and Germany's history. There were even a bunch of old canons and model ships. All of the history was really interesting, except for the room just filled with model trains. I learnt a lot about the history of Hamburg, but eventually we had to go back home, school day the next day and all.

View of Dom from museum