In which the Hamburgers get a sprinkle from the summer shaker.

Talk of summer in Hamburg always reminds me of an old menopause joke my madre told once in which the punchline was, "Ooh, yes, I think it happened on a Wednesday!" Or it makes me think of driving through the "downtown" of the place where I grew up: the town office, baptist church, and general store all nestled around a fork in the road, guarded by a stop sign and flanked by a big field where we used to fly kites and the dogs were allowed to run free once we'd crossed the street from our house. Don't blink or you'll miss it. (And I do miss it. Hence the splashing of nostalgia.) In reality, I think Hamburg gets a pretty decent dose of summer, although the many days of wet and gray inzwischen end up watering it down perhaps more than is kind. Not being in Germany for most of August meant that I forfeit the majority of my own Hamburgian summer experience, though I did manage to capture a day or two here and there in the surrounding months. --What's that you say? --Pictures or it didn't happen! Well, fine. Have it your way.

Summertime in Hamburg means wrangling some homies into a paddle boat and braving hissing swans and tour boat sneak attacks just for the simple pleasure of ice cream slurping on the far side of the Binnenalster.

Summertime in Hamburg means always bringing an umbrella with you regardless of whether or not the sun is shining the moment you walk out the door, and being able to find sunlight in places other than the sky.

And as with so many of these silly seasons, summertime in Hamburg means partytime in Hamburg! Such as at the Hamburger Sommerdom: a truly Germerican place. Full of germs, full of Germans, and chockfulla'merica. My favorite shoutouts to the latter include the Amerikanische SUPER-ZUCKERWATTE and the "Amerik. Popcorn", which is, of course, coated in sugar rather than the traditional American "Buttah, Salt 'n' Heart Attack" variety. Ah, yes, the Dom. Promoting healthy German-American cultural exchange since the 11th century.

 

And finally for tonight, die liebe blaue graue Nacht (Wolfgang Borchert's dearest of blue gray nights) settling upon the Hamburger Hafen from way up where the air is clear and all sounds are blanketed in dusk.



Another sprinkling of summer to come in the chilly days ahead.