Travel – Page 16 – Willem's Planet

September 30, 2019

Monday morning/ last stop: Oslo

The flight to Oslo on Norwegian Airlines is almost due north, and 1 hr 25 mins.

The S-bahn (regional) train at Jungfernstieg station. It pays to read the overhead sign: it says the first three cars go to the airport, and the others to Poppenbuttel.

Der Spiegel cover at the newsstand: ‘One Deal Too Many: Why The Ukraine Affair Could Cost Trump The Presidency’.

I am at Hamburg airport, on my way to Oslo for a few days. It will be my final stop before going home.

September 29, 2019September 29, 2019

Sunday/ the Deichtorhallen

There was a persistent rain today, that made walking around without an umbrella, and not getting really wet, impossible. So I checked into the Deichtorhallen (“the levee gate halls”) art & photography museum.
These halls were built from 1911 to 1914 as market halls, on the grounds of the former Berliner Bahnhof railway station (Hamburg’s counterpart to Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof). Wikipedia says they ‘constitute one of the few surviving examples of industrial architecture from the transitional period between Art Nouveau and 20th century styles’.

This is a side view of the Deichtorhalle (‘levee gate hall’) that houses the art collection ..

.. and a view of the Deichtorhalle that houses the photography collection.

The ceiling of the art collection hall is in itself a work of art (as it should be, right?).

**‘Freundinnen (Friends)’ (1965/1966)** by Sigmar Polke, large oil on canvas made with raster scan dots. The artist used a paint pistol and a template to create the overlapping dots in different colors. This results in moiré patterns: large-scale interference patterns produced when an opaque ruled pattern with transparent gaps is overlaid on another similar pattern.

This giant work of mixed media on paper covers an entire wall in a small room. It is also by **Sigmar Polke (1968-1971)** with the strange title **‘Die Fahrt Auf Die Undendlichkeits-acht (Der Motorfahrrader)’ Eng. The Ride On the Eight of Infinity (The Motorcyclist)**‘.

I thought the photography hall’s pictures were weird. (Should they be?). It had a lot of interesting/ ugly human face photos, and new-born babies, and other strange, strange pictures. I liked this scary hare staring down the camera, though. The artist was not noted, only that it is a gelatin print on paper, of a hare, made in 2000.

September 28, 2019September 28, 2019

Saturday/ the Elbbrücken station

Well, I did run out to the Elbbrücken station on the U4 line today.
It opened in Dec 2018.
I also went up to the viewing platform of the St. Nikolai Memorial.
The city’s 1968 Heinrich Hertz Tower (280 m/ 918 ft) has long been closed to visitors, but it might reopen in a few years.

Here’s the new end of the U4 line: the **Elbbrücken station**. It’s right by two steel truss bridges that go over the Elbe river: one for road traffic and one for rail.

There’s the U4 station in the distance on the left, then the steel bridge for cars*, and on the right edge, the train bridge. These are the **Freihafenelbbrücke**, constructed in 1926. (The Elbe river has a north and a south branch, with at least a dozen bridges). *And what are these go-carts doing on the road? Best I could tell, is that it is a group that did a jolly ride circuit around Hafencity. Shortly afterwards, all of them headed back from where they came from.

Here is a collage of images taken at different intervals, of the LED light boxes at the **HafenCity Universität U-bahn station** one stop down from the Elbbrücken station.

Here is the neo-Gothic **St. Nikolai Memorial**. At its completion in 1874 as *St. Nikolai Kirche* with a 147 m/ 482 ft spire, it was the tallest building in the world. Central Hamburg and its surroundings suffered terrible damage during WWII, though. In 1943 the church building was destroyed during Operation Gomorrah, but the spire escaped relatively unscathed. Today there is a plaza where the church building used to be, and a museum in the basement of the tower.

A gargoyle from St Nikolai looking over the **Rathaus** (city hall) from the spire’s viewing platform at 76 m/ 250 ft ..

.. and another view, revealing the rooftop of the **Elbphilharmonie concert hall**.

September 27, 2019September 28, 2019

Friday/ U-bahn stations

Here are my favorite U-bahn station photos, so far.
There is a brand new station at the end of the U4 line that I will go and check out tomorrow.

The entrance hall at **Rathaus station** on the U3 line.

**Jungfernstieg station** on the U2 and U4 lines.

**Hauptbahnhof Süd** station on the U3 line.

**Berliner Tor** station on the U2, U3 & U4 lines.

**Niendorf Markt** station on the U2 line, northeast of the city.

**Emilien Strasse** station on the U2 line.

**Schlump station** on the U2 and U3 lines.

**Sierich Strasse** station on the U3 line. The train cars are model DT5’s, made by Alstom & Bombardier. The DT5’s were put in service in 2012 and were the first cars to have air conditioning and gangways between cars. And yes: there is a DT6 in the works, that will be able to be operated without a driver.

Here is an inside view from my seat in a DT5 car. **Hamburger Hochbahn AG**, founded in 1911, operates most of the underground train lines in Hamburg.

The entrance hall to **Saarland Strasse** station on the U3 line features squares and rectangles.

I love the blue glass panes at **Hamburger Strasse** station. (Yes, people living in Hamburg are Hamburgers! – but not the kind that we eat!).

I had just stepped off the train at **Gänsemarkt** station on the U2 line, and there it went, sucked in by the end of the tunnel.

Aw. Live a dream – a career in the Hamburg police force, says this recruitment poster for the Hamburg police force.

Shades of blue and gray at the **Überseequartier** station on the U4 line.

And here is the platform of **Überseequartier** station on the U4 line.

This is **HafenCity Universität** station. The color of the boxes of overhead lights changes all the time.

September 26, 2019September 27, 2019

Thursday/ more Hamburg

I walked around Altstadt (Old City) and Hafencity today.
There is still a lot of new construction going on in Hafencity.

Trains and platforms inside the cavernous **Hamburg Hauptbahnhof** (main train station).

The hotel’s fire alarm roused all of us just before midnight, and soon the Feuerwehr (fire brigade) arrived as well. There was no fire, though .. and we got to go back in after 15 minutes. We were not told why the fire alarm went off.

Here is the neo-Renaissance **Hamburg Rathaus** (city hall), completed in 1897. The white globes are part of a display for Hamburger Klimawoche (climate week), promoting Klimaschutz (climate security) and sustainable policies for Earth’s resources.

Poster in the subway: ‘What We Eat Must Not Cost The World’.

Beautiful Baroque entrance to a police station in a building constructed in 1907. This is near the Chilehaus from yesterday.

Beautiful brickwork and decorations on the **Sprinkenhof office building**. It is right across the Chilehaus in Hamburg’s Kontorhausviertel. It was built in three phases from 1927 to 1943.

Here’s the spectacular and landmark **Elbphilharmonie Hamburg**: one of the world’s largest and most acoustically advanced concert halls. It opened in January 2017.

And here is the LEGO model of the Elbphilharmonie, at a LEGO store.

There is a lot of old and beautiful brickwork to be seen in the old restored warehouses in the Hafencity ..

.. and I like the outline of the old smokestack that was put in, as a nod to the building’s past, I assume.

September 25, 2019September 25, 2019

Wednesday/ Chilehaus

The highlight of my day was to walk around the Chilehaus (Chile House) building, inside and out, and admire it.

From Wikipedia: The building was designed by the architect Fritz Höger and built between 1922 and 1924. It was commissioned by the shipping magnate Henry B. Sloman, who made his fortune trading saltpeter from Chile, hence the name Chile House.

It is an exceptional example of the 1920s Brick Expressionism style of architecture. The Chilehaus building is famed for its top, which is reminiscent of a ship’s prow, and the facades, which meet at a very sharp angle at the corner of the Pumpen- and Niedernstrasse.

September 24, 2019September 24, 2019

Tuesday/ arrival in Hamburg

It was a long night & day of travel, but I made it into Hamburg early Tuesday evening without too much trouble.
The 5 hr train ride proved to be little long after that 11 hr red-eye flight into Amsterdam, but hey – now I will know better next time.

Here’s the Boeing 777-200ER from KLM, named ‘Litomyšl Castle’ at the gate at Cape Town International Airport just before we started boarding. Litomyšl Castle is a large Renaissance castle in the Czech Republic.

Here’s the ‘backside’ of Amsterdam Centraal Station: the side that faces Lake Ijssel (IJsselmeer). I created an optical illusion by using the glass panes on the left as a mirror.

Here’s a panorama shot. The upper deck (for buses) and the roof structure is a straight line, bent into a curve by panning the camera.

Here’s my train route from Schiphol Airport to Hamburg Central Station. 5 h 37 mins in all; three segments, so two transfers to other trains. A little bit of a pain if you have as much luggage as I have!

This is Hamburg’s Hafen City district, the sun just setting as our train arrived into Hamburg Central Station.

September 23, 2019September 24, 2019

Monday/ back to Amsterdam

It’s Monday night, and I’m about to go to Cape Town airport to make my way back to Amsterdam. I plan to take the Inter City Express train from there, to make it into Hamburg by Tuesday night.

‘Everything you need to support the (Spring)bokke’ (the national rugby team competing in the 2019 Rugby World Cup), says this print advertisement. Tuesday is National Heritage Day in South Africa, also known as Braai Day (Barbecue Day) – hence the sausage and meats for the grill. I should have postponed my journey back with a day or two!

September 11, 2019September 11, 2019

Wednesday/ arrival in Cape Town

I made it into Cape Town International airport at 10 pm local time (14°C / 57° F), got my rental car, and checked into the little road lodge hotel by the airport (think Motel 6).

I did not want my AirBnB landlady to wait up for me until late .. and it’s not a good idea to step off a plane, jet lagged, and drive late at night, anyway.

A tulip flower & bulb stand at Schiphol airport. Lovely to look at, but I’m sure it’s better suited for arriving passengers. Outbound international passengers would have to stop and declare these at customs.

This giant and playful kitty cat was in the terminal near my departure gate.

Here is our flight path across Africa from AMS to CPT, skirting the southwestern coastline of the continent. Travel time was about 11 hrs.

And here is our **Boeing 777** ‘Nationaal Park Gunung Mulu’ at the gate at Cape Town International Airport. The airplane is still new, started service in 2016. Gunung Mulu National Park is a protected rainforest in Malaysian Borneo.

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019

Tuesday/ arrival in Amsterdam

My flight arrived on time at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, at about 1 pm local time.

The main arrivals/ departure hall of Schiphol airport with its industrial look of exposed beams and ducting.

I had to call the hotel to find out where the hotel shuttle bus stops. (The little black bus in the middle of the picture). And then there is a little bit of waiting time, but hey, it’s free. Cannot beat free. A taxi would have been €25, said the shuttle driver, and UberX about €15.

There is no question as to what the best part of a long flight is: when that little bell goes ding! and one gets to jump up from one’s seat, grab everything and march off the plane!

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019

Monday/ at the airport

I made it to the airport. Both escalators at the light rail’s airport stop were out of service, so we all had to use the elevator to get downstairs – a little bit of a delay.

Delta flies out of South Terminal, which is still undergoing renovations.

Here is the view from my gate at South Terminal. Delta’s Boeing 767 bird in the front has an extended range and is shortly flying out to Beijing (11 hrs). My airplane looks similar, and is the one with the tail on the far left of the picture.

A billboard from Cathay Pacific at South Terminal. They now fly non-stop from Seattle to Hong Kong, and back, four times a week. It’s a 13 hr flight.

September 8, 2019September 8, 2019

Sunday/ Amsterdam bound

My bags are packed for my trip to Amsterdam on Monday from Seattle.
I will stay in Amsterdam overnight on Tuesday night on my way to Cape Town, South Africa.
The flight to AMS is on a Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300.

It will be 10 hrs to AMS on Monday night, and then 11 hrs on Wednesday to CPT.

July 18, 2019July 19, 2019

Thursday/ ten years of light rail in Seattle

Today marks ten years since the opening of the Seattle light rail transit system. I was one of the 45,000 riders that boarded the light rail train for the first time, on July 18, 2009.

The initial line ran from downtown to Tukwila International Boulevard (close to Seattle-Tacoma airport). Four more stops have opened since then (Seattle-Tacoma airport & Angle Lake to the south, Capitol Hill and University of Washington to the north). The next extension of three more stops to the north, will open in 2021.

I made a run to the downtown station today, to buy this 10-year anniversary transit card. There’s the train in the background. There are currently 62 train cars in the system. They are made by a train car manufacturer called Kinkisharyo, in Osaka, Japan.

May 27, 2019May 27, 2019

Monday/ Port Hudson & Port Townsend

That red spot on the route back to Hansville from the Olympic Peninsula, shows that there were lots of traffic crossing the Hood Canal Bridge.

We drove out to Port Townsend and Port Hudson on the Olympic Peninsula today.

It was Memorial Day, which means there were lots of weekend visitors making their way back to the ferries to Seattle.

We are staying over in Hansville and will go back to the city tomorrow morning.

This is Cupola House in Port Hudson, dedicated to all the men and women in Jefferson County who served in the Korean War (1950-53), and especially to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Here is the Jefferson Museum of Art & History, located in the old Port Townsend City Hall building, constructed in 1892.

This viewpoint is to the north of Port Townsend, and we are are looking at the pier and the beach by Fort Worden State Park. There is a giant yellow rubber duck in the water, and the lighthouse in the distance is on Point Wilson.

Beautiful bearded irises at the same viewpoint.

The end of the Hood Canal Bridge as we crossed it just before sunset. It links the Olympic Peninsula with the Kitsap Peninsula.

May 25, 2019May 26, 2019

Saturday/ the Kingston Fast Ferry

We took the Kingston Fast Ferry out to Kitsap county today to go to Paul’s for a day or two.
It’s a new ferry service, in place since November 2018.

The smaller ‘fast ferries’ go under the umbrella term King County Water Taxi but there are different names for the ferries servicing the different routes. There are ferries from/ to Kingston, West Seattle and to Vashon Island. The Kingston Fast Ferry takes 40 minutes, and goes at about 30 knots.

We are about to board the 7.55 pm departure from Seattle. This dock is a temporary location close to the main ferry dock called Colman Dock (also called Pier 52). Colman Dock is undergoing a major renovation.

Inside the ferry, with orange life jackets in the upper rack. Washington State had bought the ferry from New York State last year, and then refurbished the inside. The ferry used to provide service between Manhattan and New Jersey, starting in 1996. The name of the ferry is Marine Vessel Finest, a reference to the police men and women of New York City.

Looking back after we had arrived at the dock in Kingston, and disembarked.

April 23, 2019April 24, 2019

Tuesday/ on the No 48 bus today

Stock photo of the No 48 bus, southbound. [Picture from www.seattle.gov].

I was on the No 48 bus today, southbound and returning home from the University District. We were about to depart from a bus stop, when a blind man walked up at that moment, tapping with his white cane to find his way. (The bus stop serves several bus lines).

Oh man! I thought – is this your bus? How would you know this is your bus? .. and we’re going to leave you behind, if it is!

Just then, he produced a big rolodex out of his jacket that showed the digits 0 4 8 — a sign to arriving No 48 bus drivers, I’m sure. They would know to look for blind passengers, spot him, and assist him to get onto the bus. Luckily today, an alert bystander on the sidewalk saw what was happening, and knocked on the door to get the driver’s attention. Another person helped the him to get onto the bus. We were on our way, leaving no one behind. It made me very happy. It made my day.

March 11, 2019March 13, 2019

Monday/ on Boeing 737 Max 8 watch

A second Boeing 737 Max 8 was involved in an Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday by Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board. And the causes of the Oct 2018 Indonesian crash are still under investigation .. but that tragedy revealed that Boeing and the FAA had not felt it necessary to tell pilots about updates to the 737 Max 8’s flight control system.

So I wondered today, what I would have done, if I had a flight scheduled on a Boeing 737 Max 8. I would probably have tried not to think about it too much, and fly anyway. I did the same shortly after 9/11, since I needed to fly for work. And is that not what we do every time we fly, anyway?

Tue 3/12: On Tuesday, news came that the European Union’s aviation regulator had grounded all MAXes in the EU, and prohibited them from even entering the airspace of 28 nations. This airspace stretches from the Azores Islands in the Atlantic, to the Russian border. At this point I would definitely have changed my travel plans, if I were to board a Boeing 737 Max 8.

Wed 3/13: Even Canada grounded its Max 8 planes. The FAA finally issued an emergency order that grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8’s, worldwide. Who knows what exactly, transpired behind the scenes, yesterday & today between the Boeing CEO, Trump, and the acting FAA administrator. They don’t inspire confidence.

Graphic from the New York Times. Max 8 planes flew more than 8,500 flights worldwide in the week beginning Feb. 25, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking service. In the USA, ***American Airlines*** and **Southwest Airlines** have the most Max 8 airplanes. They have not grounded any of their Max 8’s, but many airlines around the world have.

March 1, 2019March 1, 2019

Friday night/ home

It was a long day of traveling, but I made it home. I took the Sprinter train from Rotterdam Centraal station to Schiphol airport (24 mins), an Icelandair Boeing 757 from Schiphol to Keflavik (3 hrs), and another Icelandair Boeing 757 from Keflavik to Seattle airport (7 hrs). Oh, and then the Seattle Light Rail & No 10 bus to get home!

Boarding the airplane named the **Dyngjufjöll**, the Icelandair Boeing 757 that took off from Keflavik airport for Seattle.

Here’s a depiction of **Dyngjufjöll** by the aircraft door. The Askja caldera is a large volcanic crater, a popular tourist destination in Iceland.

February 28, 2019March 1, 2019

Friday morning/ homeward bound

It’s time to go home!
It’s Friday morning and I am taking the train back to Schiphol airport to catch the flight to Reykjavik, and then on to Seattle.

**Rotterdam’s Centraal Station** on Thursday night. There was a blustery wind and a little rain.

February 28, 2019April 6, 2019

Thursday/ Delft & Den Haag (The Hague)

I took the short train ride out to Delft and The Hague today. The sun and the balmy weather of Wednesday were gone, and it was foggy and cold until early afternoon.