Hamburg canals (Part 2)

[martin schulz]

I have posted about a little trip on Hamburg canals with a Faltboot a while ago, so this will be the 2nd Hamburg-on the water post.

This weekend my girlfriend and I decided to make use of the good weather and do another paddeling-tour on Hamburg's waterways. I came up with the idea to paddle where I spend most of my youth, which was in the allotment of my grandparents in Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about Wilhelmsburg.
Wilhelmsbourg is a little island in the Elbe-river, divided by Süderelbe (south Elbe) and Norderelbe (north Elbe). This part of Hamburg is widely regarded as problematic neighbourhood...lety face it it is actually the Hamburg Slum. Surrounded by the Elbe, large industry plants, the busy harbour and container terminals and isolated from the city by the Freihafen (the fenced free port) the place has always been the part of Hamburg immigrants were told to look for a flat. Back in the 50/60 it was the place where all of those, who lost their home in WWII moved, in the 70/80 guest workers (italian, greecs, turks) started their living there and nowadays it is a place of large poverty with only turks, russian immigrants and old people living there.

Nevertheless growing up there was fun ;). By the age of 11 I already was part of a gang robbing construction sites. When I first was summoned to the police with 13 my parents decided to move.

We got the Faltboot unpacked and build up and I had the chance (after 30 years) to see that nothing had changed.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/pd04c2607ca635830e6dc9a14b822ee72/ececb76b.jpg
...she will kill me when she finds out about this pic

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/pa6b44bbcfe0101160e59a7698458524d/ececb765.jpg
Mind you, this is not somewhere in the wilderness. It is in the middle of Hamburg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/pe8235edb64c7860def9eef1e79960e4c/ececb75e.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/p29fa0ab04c2421e9153da4ace4615fba/ececb754.jpg



http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/p7074b39dbffac9803666e5bf1bc4ac25/ececb74c.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/pe2a70d05fccd01ce6f90649a756b0872/ececb669.jpg

...but at some places it looked even lovely

[martin schulz]

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/p70d586c9917923c5799bfe3a9c716d42/ececb65d.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/pc87456c5682213b2228d66c94de1cb96/ececb657.jpg
...but then the Ghetto is just lurking behind the next corner

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/p4b4b8f83d603c492b7c41c630633f8fb/ececb651.jpg
Where my grandparents used to have their allotment

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/p475a242c3d5fa865849b407304313d24/ececb645.jpg
I was quite surprized to find this little "getaway" there

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/paa863608bcb5703aeffcb087e6ee512a/ececb5a2.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/pfefca04e7318a51b3d796dfc6183b03e/ececb59a.jpg
...but "reality" was not far away

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/p42822ca3ff10f0eaafcae8746c52f052/ececb597.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/p210637da435bf6adcf8eafc13ea4b304/ececb596.jpg


http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid215/p00e1d6a8fd521a8835222522d1f2c6a7/ececb58b.jpg
After a nice tour we dried the boat, packed and went back to nicer places ;)

[seafox]

thankyou for your photos. a chance this utahan to see places he likely would nover other wise see. may your friend not kill you tell her your lucky that she is around you
jeff

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

Lieber Martin,
Your tour of the Elbe was very nice but those of us who paddle folding boats would like to know about your "Faltboot". If you are wealthy enough to own a Klepper we may have to address you as "Herr" or "Sie" . But if it is only a Nautraid or a Pouch we will be able to revert to "du".

Charlie

[martin schulz]

Lieber Martin,
Your tour of the Elbe was very nice but those of us who paddle folding boats would like to know about your "Faltboot". If you are wealthy enough to own a Klepper we may have to address you as "Herr" or "Sie" . But if it is only a Nautraid or a Pouch we will be able to revert to "du".

Charlie

Neither one.
When I thought about how I could survive in Hamburg at my girlfriends place without being able to sail I came up with the idea of buying a Faltboot so we could at least get on the water. After closely watching ebay for a while I decided on a East German Kolibri. Its the smallest steerable 2 seater and I could get it pretty cheap (200,-EUR) although its in very good shape. If anyone is looking for a cheap, clever designed 2nd Hand 2-seater Faltboot the Kolibri is my tip.

http://www.faltbootbasteln.de/kolipouc.jpg

Don't get fooled by the text where it says it is a Pouch boat. It is not. This was an adverstisement in a West German magazine and they thought it would sound better if the boat was marketed as a Pouch boat.

[Jay Greer]

Sehr Gehrte Herr Schulz,
Vielen Dank fur das Auskunft auf deine Wasser Reise und auch der nett Bilden!
Gruss,
Jay
P.S. There is a delightful book, written back in the 1920's, entitled
"By Sail Across Europe". A search on line might find it.

[pcford]

Guy told me his brother paid $5000 for a Klepper for a trip to Alaska. And that was 10 years ago....could my memory be correct?

Used it once; gave it to him on the way back through Seattle.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

Lieber Martin
Another Hamburger did some very adventurous things in a Klepper. His name was Hannes Lindemann. I hope you do not have similar intentions. We need your European reportage.

Charlie

[martin schulz]

Charlie!
My expertise in autogenic training is certainly not up to paddeling across the big pond. 2 hrs on Hamburg canals already brought me sore muscles and as you can probably guess we did take a short rest at this peculiar pub (pic 10) for a beer. If you guarantee that paddeling across the atlantic I will have the chance to sit down to have a beer every 2 hrs I am your man.

pcford!
All I ever had was 2 Klepper 2 seater, which belonged to our family from 1965-1978 and now we (girlfriend and I) own this MTW Kolibri.

But I can well imagine that a high-tech Klepper will cost a lot.

Your german is quite good! The best I have ever seen by an american. There are still some mistakes, but nothing serious. Some here write even worse although they post in their native-tongue. :)

[Jay Greer]

Liebe Martin,
My neighbor has a Klepper and uses it under sail quite often. He is thinking of rigging it with an out rigger to increase stability. I find the boat to be intriquing as I understand that one once crossed the Atlantic mit ein Deutshlander at the helm. His main stores consisted of a large amount of bottled beer. He arrived in port with just one beer left!
Ich verstehe meine Deutsche Sprache ein kleine schlecht ist. Aber Ich kannst es immerhin versuchen!

My family is of German descent but my father never taught me to speak. I take German language courses via my computor.
Grüss
Jay

[John B]

So did your Girlfriend kill you yet, Martin?:D

Sounds like a neat trip.
We did 6 weeks on the grand union and Warwickshire ring in a narrow boat back in 1990. It was similar in a lot respects.. we'd be out in the country with fisherman and then take some side trips into industrial areas attached to Coventry and then through some really marginal slum sort of areas up into Birmingham ( as I recall the worst).
Even going into London from Uxbridge was pretty bad in spots. I gather a lot of that has been improved now.