Day Trip to Hamburg

To View all my photos from Hamburg CLICK HERE

Hello all,

Things are going very well in Germany. Saturday our group took our first day trip to Hamburg, Germany, which is a port city in the Northwest Germany. We got our first taste of train travel, and let me just say, we would have spent much more money if we hadn't got help from a nice German lady who showed us how to use the ticket machine :). So far people here are very nice, although I have been a little caught off gaurd by the fact that in the German culture people don't smile as a friendly gesture like we do. So initially you think that, "Wow these people, must have some problem with me..." but it's really just a cultural thing that I have discovered.

So anyways, Hamburg is such a beautiful city, the architecture both modern and old, the canals, bridges, churches, the harbor... there really wasn't anything I didn't like about it. So the train from Celle, which is the train station closest to our base (about a 25 min. drive), to Hamburg was about 1:45 min. Traveling by train is ideal in Europe, the trains are always right on time and you have lots of departure times to choose from. When we went to Hamburg, we didn't really have any plans, we just wanted to explore the city. And that's exactly what we did.

When we arrived at Hamburg Hbf we walked into the city center which was just lined with designer shops and cafes. We arrived around 2pm and we hadn't eaten yet, so we tried out this sandwich shoppe for some authentic German cuisine... Whatever I had, forget what it was called, but it was delicious. It was kind of like thinly sliced meatloaf with ketchup and lettuce on a large bread bun... I took a picture of it, so if you want to see it click the link at the top of this posting.

After we ate, we walked further into the city center and visited St. Petri Kirche (St Peter's Church)... we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but we climbed the church tower and were allowed to take photos. The church tower was 137m high and we had to climb something like 548 steps, but it was well worth it. There was nothing like the 360 view of the city. It is the tallest tower in the city and you could literally see for miles.

Just after descending the tower, we visited the Rathaus (City Hall and government building). It was an impressive building with beautiful architecture inside and out. View photos for a better look. After that we hopped on a bus towards the harbor in search of Miniature Wunderland, which we never found, but our wandering around along the harbor allowed us to see more of the city, which was very nice. While wandering we decided to enter the St. Michael's church which has a bell tower that has the largest clock in Germany. The inside was beautiful and I got a lot of really good photos.

If it weren't for us wandering, we would have never stumbled upon the Duckstein festival! It was a lot of fun, live music, street entertainers and lots of different types of food from lots of different countries. I ate a rib eye steak sandwich from a Spanish tent particularly because of the very attractive Spanish Senorita that was serving food. I enjoyed my Spanish meal while my other Camp A mates enjoyed African and other cuisine.

Shortly after eating and enjoying a glass of beer and wine, we made our way back to the train station to end our lovely day in Hamburg. Life is oh so good!!

Until next time,

Auf Wiedersehen

It's Thursday in Germany.

I have been in Hohne for three days now and I'm starting to get used to the routine. Waking up at 7:00 am and going to breakfast. We eat our meals in the Station Officer's Mess Hall, which is a very nice building, very formal dining. It's interesting experiencing British military culture. I think those us on British Garrisons this summer have a unique experience, because we get to be exposed to both the British and German cultures, which is very interesting.

Wednesday we took a tour of the base and got cell phones. After lunch we visited the beautiful town of Celle. It is a quintessential German town and I loved it! Hope you enjoy the photos!

to see all of them CLICK HERE

Today we woke up early once again in our always flattering Camp A attire and ate breakfast. Straight after breakfast Myself and two other of my fellow staff were sent to the drivers training center on base to take our drivers familiarity test and computer quiz. The first couple hours we watched a film made in the 70's about the German traffic laws and after took a computer test. We all passed the computer test the first time, but the printer wasn't turned on, and we thought they were joking, but they made us take the test over again... And of course we all failed!!! hahahaha I was able to pass on my fourth attempt as well as my fellow staff. The test was deceiving because you could essentially get a 39 out of 40 and fail, because if you missed one of the situational questions you fail...

After the computer test was finally over... we had about an hour to do a quick drive through the town of Bergen. They all drive manual cars in Europe, so I had to learn to drive just last week in order to attempt to get my drivers card here in Germany. But it was a success. It was very simple, because the cars here all run on diesel fuel, so when you release the clutch the car will go on its own. I only stalled it once, and had one horn honk, I was very pleased with myself!!!. Now we are able to drive our vehicles wherever we need to go for work purposes.

In the afternoon we did some prep work for next weeks camp. Tomorrow (Friday) we will have a visit to our facility where we will run the camp in Bergen and start to set up for camp on Monday. I look forward to some days trips this weekend to Hamburg and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. I think Greta (my director) and I will also be attending church on base for a Sunday service, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Until next time

Cheers!

Arrived in Germany Safe and Sound

Well, all is well so far in Germany. I survived the 16 hour trip from San Francisco to Dusseldorf International Airport. We arrived about an hour late because of air traffic at London Heathrow (where we connected flights) and finally got to Dusseldorf, Germany around 5 pm on Monday. I had some serious jet lag after the long flight, because I wasn’t able to get much sleep at all. I maybe got a total of 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Once we arrived in Dusseldorf we were greeted by Camp Adventure Project Director of Europe (Dr. Christopher Kowalski) and Project Coordinator of the British Garrisons (Bobbi Meyer). From the airport we hopped on a bus and drove about 45 minutes to Rheinndahlen Garrison, where we met up with the rest of the Camp Adventure staff (30 in total). I’d also like to mention, that out of those 30 Camp Adventure staff, I am indeed the only male. Why more males choose not to participate in Camp Adventure is beyond me? I mean hey, I’m in Europe for 2 months, for next to nothing, and where are all the guys? They are seriously missing out on a great experience. Sucks for them!! ;-)

So anyways, back to business… When we arrived in Rheindahlen, we were given our accommodations for night; I of course had my own room. We ate dinner in the mess hall and had a quick meeting afterwards to discuss the itinerary for the following morning. We did a quick run through of the Blitz (for those of you who don’t know, we have to learn a lot of songs for Camp Adventure and Blitz is a series of songs that we choose to perform for the kids each morning to start off Camp). Anyways, we were to perform a Blitz in front of some of the important figures of the British military and youth workers on the base on Tuesday morning, so seeing as it was Monday evening we had to do a quick run through to make sure we still remembered the songs and what not. Then it was off to bed.

I slept soundly through the night, which was beneficial because I was able to adjust to the time difference rather quickly (by the way it’s 9 hours ahead). So Tuesday felt just like any other day, except for the fact that I had to wake up at 7:30am for breakfast. After breakfast we went over to Rheindahlen Youth Centre and did our little presentation and orientation until lunch. After lunch, all the staff packed their stuff back up and departed for their respective Garrisons in different areas of Germany, except the staff that were staying at Rheindahlen. We of course had the longest drive to Hohne Garrison (about 4 hours), which is the base I am stationed on this summer. There are 5 other Garrison locations contracted with Camp Adventure: Rheindahlen, Güterslow, Münster, Paderborn, and Garrison Travel Camp. Each location has about 5- 6 Camp A staff.

We traveled by mini-bus to Hohne Garrison which is 3 km from Bergen, Germany in the state of Lower Saxony. It is in North Central Germany about 2 – 2 ½ hours West of Berlin. When we arrived in Hohne, we met our Point of Contact on the base and she gave us our accommodations, which are very nice and spacious; however we are unable to access the internet from our Barracks. That is really the only downside to what has been a tremendous time thus far in Germany! We should be able to get access via the internet café on base, but access may be limited because it is not open 24 hours. Most of my internet time will most likely be on my weekend trips to different cities. Our first weekend the 23^rd- 25^th of July, we are restricted to day trips only, so we plan to visit the town Bergen, the Bergen Belsen concentration camp just 5 km away, the city of Celle and possibly Hannover or Hamburg.

For those of you that are reading this and want to hear from me via facebook or by phone/skype, because of the time difference the only times that I could reach you would either be in the early morning my time which would be around 10 or 11 pm in the US or evening/night my time which would be midday 10-2:30pm in the US. Place comments; ask questions if you’d like; but keep in mind, due to my lack of regular internet access, my answers to your questions may not be as swift as normal. If you would like to set up a skype session (Mom, Corrie, Brent, Dad… etc.) the best times would probably be on the weekend at the above mentioned times. Hope you all enjoy my blog for the rest of the summer, I’ll try and keep them shorter in the future.

Auf Wiedersehen!

I'm working on getting pictures up!

If you would like to learn more about the organization I am working for, CLICK HERE