Dec 28 – Hamburg and Neuengamme: I slept in a little while today because my destination, Neuengamme concentration camp, didn't open until noon. I are breakfast at the hotel because I knew I wouldn't get much food at the camp (not many cafes at those camps). I hopped a subway car to Bergedorf and then waited 20 minutes at the Bergedorf station for a bus. Hopped the bus and I was on my way.
The roads on the way to the camp were really narrow. And on top of that, people just parked in the street in front of their houses. Which are right on the street. They are all brick and maybe 2 feet off the street. Strange to see these houses so close to the street. And the bus drivers are super friendly and helped a stupid American out when I wanted to if my subway ticket would get me to the camp. I know less German than I thought. I can't carry on any sort of conversation. I can ask a question but as soon as the other person starts talking, I am lost.
The bus driver started trying to talk to me since I was the last guy on the bus as we got close to the camp. But I couldn't understand the Greek bus driver taking German. But he took me where I needed to go and was helpful enough to say in German that I had to buy another ticket on the way back to Hamburg.
The camp
This camp was used as a labor camp. It was a smaller camp than the other two I have seen (Dachau, Terezin). Here’s a panoramic shot of the main part of the camp. The rectangles filled with brick and stone are the footprints of the old barracks. 100s of people used to live in each one of these buildings.
And it had a huge building for brickworks, that was their labor. They would dig clay out of a clay pit on site, put them in rail cars, and push them down tracks to the factory. The scale of this factory is hard to believe. These pictures don't do it justice, it’s hard to tell how big it is and my poor picture taking skills aren’t helping. This place is HUGE. Here’s a picture of the brickworks building.
And there is no fence around the camp. It is basically wide open to the public. No entry fee. It just blends into the neighborhood. Anyone can walk onto the site whenever they want.
After probably 3.5 hours, I headed for the bus stop adjacent to the entrance. I waited maybe 15 minutes and the bus showed up. The friendly bus driver helped me pay the €3 for the bus and train ticket back to hamburg. Very easy to get back. As I was walking back to the hotel, I walked upon another Christmas market. I wish this would work in the US! There must be 20 of these pockets of markets around the city. And they are all packed – people drinking glauwein, shopping for trinkets, eating bratwurst or sweets. Here's the market!
I went back to the hotel, ate some dinner, planned my trip to Bremen for that night, and headed back out with my bag in tow. It was on to the train station where some dude tried to scam me by selling me a ticket that was from 6 days earlier. I'm not falling for that, buddy! So on to the train....
Took the one hour train ride to Bremen. The walk to my ibis hotel was about 15-20 minutes from the train station. And as has been a common theme this week, the town was dead. Weird because this was a Saturday night. There were a few groups of people walking to what I assume were bars and some cars here and there on the street but it was pretty dead. Got to my hotel and the check in was easy enough. Up to my room on the second floor (that would be the third floor for us back in the states. Wacky!) and whaddya know -- it's a room w a single bed and a huge open bathroom. I got the handicap room. Magnificent. The shower and bathroom are just one big open room. Luckily the shower had a curtain. A lot of these euro hotels have open showers that just splash all over the floor like this one.
After spending some time researching my trip to Amsterdam the next evening, a four plus hour train ride and expensive hotels. I then got ready of for the next day and hit the sack. But I didn't sleep well. Damn!
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