An Evening Walk In Hamburg

It is possible to walk through a watercolour. I had this experience in Hamburg a couple of visits ago. The air was cool but not cool and the colours were unbelievable, muted and lovely yet hidden in the shadows were pockets of vibrancy. Red fungi and yellow fungi with surreal shapes vie with pinecones in this unreal landscape.

Watercolour?  And why are mushrooms so diverting all of a sudden. The answer is that I don't know. I have seen all of these things in other places and they have had no impact at all. Somehow here it all seems to be different. Okay, I am on holiday in one of my favourite places in the world and I am there with my family. That's got to be good but a pinecone is still a pinecone!

Take a look at the watercolour....

See what I mean. This is special. It is natural heathland, the sort that abounds in this part of North Germany and it is subtly tinted with greys and lavenders, wild heather blooms under the birch trees and conifers wait patiently on the hillsides beyond. It is a picture constructed by a master hand, someone who knew what they were doing.

Here is another angle.

And another....

Okay I will admit that I played with this shot, somehow black and white seemed just right. 

It is sort of like time travel to stand in this place. It looks as though it has been here for millennia and there is a good reason for this too. 

The German authorities have sensibly decreed that a certain amount of virgin native land must remain in city areas. This must be one of the most brilliant ideas ever. To this day, evidence of wild boar can be found here and deer. The woodland is managed but what they manage to do is to convince the walker that they are the first to set foot in it.

I don't want to reach for the usual travel writer's cliches here but I have to use the word pristine just once. There. Is. No. Fly. Tipping. Here.  

My cousins try to convince me that the place can get into a bit of a state but by German standards, that means that someone has dropped a cigarette butt. It is clean and trash free and this adds to the effect that there has been no other human than me there.

By now the watery sun was beginning to dip and glow and the watercolour was suffused with a golden light. The watercolour was disappearing in favour of liquid warmth although, confusing to the senses, the air was cooler and cooler.

The twilight birches here bravely hold back the dark conifers, night trying to fall over the heathland. the birches remind me of riot police with linked arms holding a crowd.

I am still hoping for snow in the morning and the air agrees with me.

Let us look at the details before the night time steals the light...

I think that I like the red best. It is so out of character and unexpected.

This looks a lot warmer than it was by now!

Finally, the big finale, the main event. The clouds were different from every angle. A bit of everything and  the sun dipped below the sea, somewhere far in the west, ending the perfect day in a perfect place. I still cannot get my brain to believe that all the time we walked through this lovely landscape, we were a short distance from one of the busiest cities in Europe! Nothing followed us here, no cars, no city smells and no commercialism. We were the only ones.

Hamburg is in the north of Germany and well worth a visit. I will spend a bit more time in future posts showing some more of the city. It is interesting and  old but in the same moment, young and vibrant - a juxtaposition that the Germans do so well.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you have enjoyed this view of Germany. Thank you also to Rob for some of these photos. 

(C) Debbie von Grabler-Crozier 2014