Sunshine Surprise

Hamburg Rathaus 

Rathaus (City Hall) is Hamburg's seat of government and also the seat of one of Germany's 16 state parliaments.

Sunshine disproved the iPhone's weather forecast. So, we quickly headed downtown Hamburg for a walkabout, Vietnamese curry, and coffee and cake. Since indoor dining is still forbidden, we found a convenient park bench off the main boulevard and ate our curry.

 

The Afrikahaus = A little bit of Africa in Hamburg.

Afrikahaus was built in 1899 as the company headquarters for shipping companies Woermann-Line, and German East-Africa-Line. The building's location was situated conveniently close to the newly built harbor canal warehouse quarter of 1883. In 1894 the shipping company added the route from Hamburg to Durban via the Cape. Then in 1898, to avoid a clash with the British their steamers instead took a new route, Hamburg, via Suez to Dar es Salaam. Woermann became the largest private shipping company in the world and at the same time the largest German West Africa merchant.

Passing through the gateway of the building's facade you see it painted in the colors of the shipping company flag. Continue walking past the bronze statue of an African Wahehe warrior where the entrance opens into the courtyard of Afrikahaus.

There's an elephant in the room. But wait, there are two giant bronze elephant statues greet those entering the offices.

Our coffee and cake break on a table Betsy style.

Because many city streets are narrow and allowing entry to the courtyards, UPS uses these appropriately sized vehicles. No traffic blocking.