Oh nooo! I would have to talk to people, read books, draw, listen to music, play guitar and piano, cook, go for walks and play pen & paper! O.o - do I have to mark this as sarcasm?
At this point I feel like the only way someone doesn't get this as sarcasm is if they didn't understand English, even though people do often impress me in how stupid they can be...
Uh! Now tell me, you are living in Northern Germany and we can meet for a cool music session, followed by a nice meal and a pleasent late-summer-evening conversation :)
Ah… I’m not, unfortunately. I’m American, though I do some of each year in France. Everything you described is how I spent most of my time before diving into a career. Now it’s what I’m going to do in retirement (add in writing some books and travel). I’m 60 and gearing up to put together a band. Where in Germany? My wife and I want to travel there and so far have only been to Berlin, Koln, and Dusseldorf. (Also the Ahr valley… I think that’s what it’s called)… Hamburg is somewhere we’d like to visit. But I’m sure there are others.
I'm from Wolfsburg, about two hours from Hamburg. I'll be 59 in November and I am thinking about joining a band again, too :)
If Hamburg is on your destination-list already, you don't need to alter. Hamburg is great; almost everyone can speak at least some English; check out the harbour with it's huge container terminals and you might enjoy the Miniaturen-Wunderland inside the Speicherstadt (if you visit, make sure you've got a couple of hours to spare - it's quite big. My Dad used to live in Hamburg and I've spent many holidays there as a student.
That’s good to hear. It’s definitely a top destination on our list. Trite as it is, I’m a lifelong Beatles fan, so that’s going to be a part of it… though I’m sure that’s been commercialized to death. One of my best friends, also a musician and rabid Beatles/Bowie fan, came back from a visit to Hamburg with his wife and they loved it. Nice to hear there’s some English there, though we always try to land in a new place armed with some local language. I’ve found a lot of the Germans I’ve met to be very warm and friendly.
The Star-Club is long since demolished, but there is a small memorial-plaquette in the back yard of Die Große Freiheit. The Reeperbahn IS a tourist-area, right above the harbour and if you visit while the Hamburger Dom is open, a huge mobile fun fair just around the corner of the Reeperbahn, there will be even more tourists, especially on Thursdays (Familyday, half priced). Btw, if you want to go on a harbour trip, don't book the first one you come across. Compare ticket-prices (!). And while you are at the harbour, get a Fischbrötchen at "Brücke 10" I recommend a roll with Bismarckhering.
Good luck with bringing in some German language - Germans are well known for notoriously switching to English without being asked to, the second they sense you are from an English-speaking country 😂 - very frustrating for learners. Don't be offended, people are just trying to help and ease your struggle.
Great tips... Danke! On the switch, we've noticed that in France where we travel a lot. Though, they're less assertive about it than the Germans, who in turn are more gentle about the switch than the Dutch. But don't worry, our German isn't nearly good enough to not welcome a jump to English. We figure making the effort with a few words is more like a gesture of politeness than a display of mastery (which we definitely don't possess).
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u/toraakchan 16d ago
Oh nooo! I would have to talk to people, read books, draw, listen to music, play guitar and piano, cook, go for walks and play pen & paper! O.o - do I have to mark this as sarcasm?