Rambling: Street

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Summer Holidays - Germany August 2008
Part 4 Hamburg

On the Wednesday on the second week we went to Hamburg by bus; It was a well organized tour. We were picked up in Dahme at 7.30 and were in Hamburg by 10.30. Hamburg is such a beautiful and busy city - they say it has more bridges than Venice and I can believe it. There is water everywhere and the harbour is enormous, second only to Rotterdam in Europe.

Cosco Pacific
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Largest Container Ship
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Hamburg Harbour
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Eckhardt, Harbour Tour
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First we went on a harbour tour. It was really amazing to go around part of the enourmous port of Hamburg. The boats and the views and the fresh air was great. The largest container ship in the world was in town and we got right under the bow on the tour. After the harbour tour myself and Eckhardt went down to see the Elbe Tunnel.

Elbe Tunnel Hamburg
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This was first opened in the 19th century. What is unusual is that the cars (or horse drawn carraiges) travel vertically down in a huge elevator and then drive out and through the tunnel. The elevators had beautiful wodden doors and an elevator operator in uniform!

Kleine St. Michel, Hamburg
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Then we had a city tour - which was a little more difficult as it was in German. We saw some fantastic house around the Outer Alster lake - a real millionaires row! We also got to pay a quick visit to the famous St Michel church which is so symbolic of Hamburg. We finished up at the town hall or Ratskeller, where we were set loose in the city for three and a half hours. There was a wine and food festival on in the main square. First we ate lunch and had a glass of wine from Baden Wurtenberg. Then we split up to meet back at the bus in 3 hours. Mags and Katy headed for the shops. Senan and I mooched around the Inner Alster and Ingrid and Eckhardt mainly sat and drank coffee!

Just as we were getting ready to take the bus home Ingrid had the sad news of about her mother.

Town Hall Hamburg, Uploaded by M+MD.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Street Performance World Championship

Katinka - Swan Lake, Uploaded by M+MD.

This week-end the Busker World Championship is on in Merrion Square, Dublin. There are some great acts. We especially liked Mario - Queen of the Circus. and Katinka the Russian (?) former superstar of an obscure Soviet circus troupe! She is now alone in Dublin with only her wit, dentures and a pair of traffic cones to rely on. The photos tell the story. She arrives out first as a little old bag lady with dentures. She picks on Cormac from the audience and she christens him Vladimir. She then gets our attention with some serous acrobatics - the glass trick is pretty impresive. She then does Swan Lake - on traffic cones.

Bad Teeth Day
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Katinka
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Mario Crowd Surfs
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To Queen's "Bicycle"
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Mario and Assistants, Uploaded by M+MD.

Then we had Mario from the USA with a strong Portuguese accent which he says "is very hard - to do". He is a juggler who is also a Queen and Freddie Mercury fanatic. He juggles in time to Queen music. (Watch out for another one bits the dust in the YouTube clip below). Mario picked 2 assistants from the audience. The first was Martha from Portugal ("where my accent came from"). He plans to carry her on his shoulders while he rides a Unicycle. He reassures us that "in all the times of done this trick - I've only made a mess of it once. By the way, this is only my second time to attempt this" She was understandable nervous as he tried to get on the Unicycle. I think we were nervous too.

Mario, Uploaded by M+MD.

To put us at ease he did a virtuoso performance on the unicycle to Queen's "I want to ride my Bicycle". Not only does he use the pedals and one pedal, but he also propels the unicycle with his foot pushing the tyre rather than the pedals. He then juggles to Love of my life - where upon Martha's boyfriend challenges him to a duel. They fight it out with bananas. Then th eboyfriend has to sing Bohemion Rhapsody. Finally he crowd surks to "We are the Champions"

The YouTube clip gives some idea of a great performance.