The weather was still pleasantly warm and we had long walks, explored the christmas market (with its numerous food options) and experimented with christmas cookies.

Having my 5y old nephew and 3y old niece around made gift exchange so much more exciting – and a nice excuse for the older kids to “help” with all the Lego constructions

For New Year celebrations we gathered with a few good old friends (and their five children) in a small city in the Ruhr Area (“Ruhrgebiet”).
This massive historic coal mining area was once an important pillar of the German “Wirtschaftswunder” after World War 2 and the population in the area exploded to 5 million, blurring all city lines and creating one big connected urban area.

Staying in Herne and going to a zoo in Gelsenkirchen while planning dinner in Bochum sounded like a crazy lot of travelling but turned out to be just a change of neighborhood.

German coal ultimately lost its competitiveness in the 60’s, but the government decided to subsidize coal mining and allow a gradual phase out of the industry. The second last German coal mine had just been closed a month ago and the last one is scheduled for 2018.
Even though this was a quite expensive endeavor it avoided mass unemployment and ghost towns in the whole area and seemed to have worked out pretty well.
We visited one of the older mines, now Unesco world heritage and large museum plus culture site, and had a great guided tour through the refurbished coal extraction facilities.

We continued north to visit my brother with his family in Hamburg. Within the short train ride the temperature dropped remarkably from +10 to -5 and weather remained very chilly for the next days combined with typical coastal winds.
We limited our city explorations therefore to short trips and spent more time with my nephew and niece.
Hamburg is a wealthy trading town which despite being the second largest city of Germany never feels crowded and has a relaxed pace.
A lot of its history relates to trading and it’s big port, still second biggest in Europe. Many sightseeing highlights are therefore related to the water, from a boat tour of the harbor over Fischbrötchen (fish sandwich) at Hamburg’s fish market to a visit of the Speicherstadt (revibed historic warehouse district) and adjacent modern Hafencity with the infamous new philharmonic hall, Hamburg’s new 800million Euro city symbol.

The warehouse district continues to be used with traditional lift mechanisms:

The area is filled with many other new wannabe attractions of which only the Miniaturland stands out. The model railways has become the biggest in the world (as well as tripadvisor’s number 1) and impresses with incredible level of  details. They had a small exhibition on the history of Germany, which alone kept us two busy for an hour!

If you are at the harbor anyway also have a look at the old Elbe tunnel! Built in 1911 it is accessed by four big lifts. It’s purpose has been taken over by bridges and a new, more convenient tunnel, however it continues to be used by pedestrian, cyclists and even cars. You need to be a good driver though as the single lane road is so narrow it only leaves a few centimeters of space for modern sized cars.