Summer Holidays 2023 Part 1: Sylt and Hamburg

Sylt is the largest North Frisian Island and part of the German State of Schleswig-Holstein. It is a popular tourist location. Since 1927 connects the Hindenburgdamm the island and the mainland. Germany's northern most point is located on the island as well as Germany's northern most municipality, List. 

Westerland is the largest resort on the island, the local transportation hub and the centre of Sylt's tourist industry.

The Westerland (Sylt) Station is the main train station on Sylt and the terminus of the Marsh Railway. It was constructed in the 1920s when the Marsh Railway was extended to Sylt via the Hindenburgdamm. Today it is the northern most train station in Germany.

Keitum is another village on Sylt. It is known for its many traditional buildings. 

The Sylt Museum is located in an old captain's house in Keitum. It shows various artifacts from Sylt's history.

The Old Frisian House is another branch of the Sylt Museum. It shows the collection of the teacher and chronicler Christian Peter Hansen, who lived in the house in the 19th century. 

Located in Keitum is also the Harhoog, one of the many megalithic tombs on the island.

The Denhoog is a another megalithic tomb in Wenningstedt. It is administered by the Sylt Museum and it can be gone into. 

Close by the Denhoog is the Chapel of Wenningstedt.

List is located on the northermost tip of Sylt. There I visited the Forces of Nature Experience Centre, a natural history museum with a focus on the Wadden Sea. 

The Nature Path Duck Decoy Kampen is the fourth branch of the Sylt Museum.

These are some more cards I bought on Sylt.

On my way back home I made a small stop in Hamburg to visit the Museum of Art and Design, a museum of fine, applied and decorative arts opened in 1874. At the time of my visit they were showing a special exhibition about the 50th anniversary of the production of German Sesame Street episodes. 

In Hamburg I also bought these two cards with old city views.

7th March 2023: Elbphilharmonie, Germany

11th February 2023: Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg, Germany

20th July 2022: Rickmer Rickmers in Hamburg, Germany

Rickmer Rickmers is a three masted barque permanently moored as a museum ship in Hamburg since 1983. Originally built in 1896 by the Rickmers shipyard in Bremerhaven, she was first used on the Hong Kong route carrying rice and bamboo.

Thank You very much Marcel!

Germany: Überseequartier Station

On 19th March I got two postcards from Germany.

One of them shows the Überseequartier Station of the Hamburg U-Bahn. The Hamburg U-Bahn is a rapid transit system with stations both above and under the ground. The Überseequartier Station was opened in 2012 and was designed to recall an underwater view.

I bought this card on a trip to Hamburg and sent it with two stamps from Germany's Underground Station series, left is the Überseequartier Station and right is a station in Berlin.

My Trip to Hamburg

On 3rd November I was in Hamburg.

The first duty of the day was checking the shops at the train station for postcards and I really found a very good one for my new collection of train stations. This card however does not show the Hamburg Hauptbahnhauf, which I already have, but the former Hamburg-Altona Station. This train station was built between 1893 and 1898 by Hermann Eggert, who had already designed the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. It should be noted that at this time Altona was not yet a district of Hamburg, but an independent city in Prussia. During World War II the train station was badly damaged and rebuilt in a simplified form. In 1974 however it was demolished. 

After buying enough cards I went for a walk to the Museum am Rothenbaum, one of the largest museums of ethnology in Europa. Its full name is Museum am Rothenbaum - Cultures and Arts of the World, which leads to the German abbreviation MARKK. Known as Museum of Ethnology until 2018, it was renamed, as the old name evoked negative associations and emotions in a cosmopolitan and multicultural society. Together with the renaming the museum also underwent a content-related reorientation. This for example includes a constructive dealing with a restitution of objects to their original countries and societies. I had already visited the museum in 2020, but as I enjoyed it very much, I came for this second visit. When I was there two interesting special exhibitions were shown. The first deals with Duala king Rudolf Manga Bell and second showed artifacts from the Silk Road. These first three cards show exhibits from these two exhibitions and the third card shows a Benin Bronze from an upcoming exhibition. The other two cards are about the Día de los Muertos.