The Last of Hamburg

I did admit that at the start of the week that I took a lot of photos of Hamburg.  Here are just a few more to take you into the weekend. I've since been told that Hamburg isn't really know for it's magical weather, but the three days we were there is was beautiful; sunny, blue skies, warm afternoons and cooler evenings. I came very close to falling in love with the place and have put it high on the list of places to "revisit"... someday.

Have a lovely weekend. I'm hoping to catch up on all the royal craziness tonight before heading out to enjoy (crossed-fingers) some more sunny weather on Saturday. What about you? Have you got caught up in the wedding-frenzy or are you refusing to join in? For as long as I can remember my Nana's kitchen always had a "Royals Calendar" lying about somewhere and I remember her crying in the carseat next to me when the newsman announced that Lady Diana had been killed in a car accident. I wonder what she'd think about Miss-Commoner-Cate marrying her Prince?

Hamburg Port

When I was little my parents were all about gender-neutral toys.  As well as having a Dolls House we had a Fisher Price Garage (complete with petrol station) and a Seaport.  The Seaport came with a big container ship, a dock where the Ship could harbour and a couple of Cranes for moving things on and off the Ship.  I had completely forgotton about this bit of my childhood until I visited Hamburg Port last weekend. Looking over the enormous Hamburg Hafen, the toy set and all the games I used to play with it came flooding back. Happy memories! I'd love to know if Mum has kept that toy amongst all our childhood treasures; would be nice to get it out again and see if it's as I remember it. Anyway, even over the Easter weekend the port was alive with the comings and goings of container ships. Hamburg's port really is still the heart of the city and we found ourselves coming back to the port repeatedly, thankfully always with five minutes to spare to watch the ships and take just a few more photos of the busy-ness that was all about.

Back behind the port is the old Speicherstadt area. The warehouses were built in the late 1800s to store goods from the free port.  It's a pretty quiet part of town now - there are a few apartment conversions in the pipeline and curious tourists walking through the old lanes, but mostly the old buildings have been left to themselves leaving you to imagine how the place must have looked 200 years ago when bargeships and men and pulleys and horses would have filled the place with the sounds that now echo from the modern-day port.

Weekending

This weekend we took another mini-break and hopped on the train and travelled up to Hamburg. We walked alot, ate yummy food and drank lots of schorle.  I took lots of photos while Matthias fell asleep on park benches. It was pretty much a perfect weekend.

Donna Hay Hot Cross Buns

True to my word, I went home last night and made my Hot Cross Buns. I ate one this morning for breakfast, slightly toasted under the grill with a generous layer of butter, and for a first attempt I think I did an okay job. This batch is probably still a little dense for my liking.  I have a feeling I used the wrong yeast - there are about a dozen different yeast products in Germany and I still haven't quite worked out what the difference is between them all. Next time I might use live yeast, which is really my favourite bread-levening product anyway. 

On Adele's suggestion I also added some salt to the dough and having not tasted the sans-salt version I'm declaring it a successful addition.  I think I might jiggle the spice quantities in the next batch too - this lot had a little too much all spice and not enough cinnamon, although I think that probably had more to do with the respective age of the spices sitting in my cupboard than the recipe. But all in all, a definite success! They'll be more of these made before I declare the Easter holidays over anyway.

Recipe: Donna Hay Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha' penny, two ha' penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha' penny,
Two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

One of the things that I love about Easter is Hot Cross Buns.  Germany has the best bread culture and last year I was sure that this would mean some fairly extraordinary Hot Cross Buns at easter time.  You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered that Hot Cross Buns are not part of the Easter tradition here. Of course it never dawned on me that I might be able to make my own. And then yesterday I read this post on making your own Hot Cross Buns over at Delly and Bells  blog. I'm a sucker for a Donna Hay recipe at the best of times and a quick overview of the ingredients had me thinking I could make them without even visiting the supermarket for supplies. I was all ready to go and already imagining the smell and taste of Hot Cross Buns straight from the oven when the whole plan came unstuck. No milk! No matter, things have just been delayed by a day. There will be milk this afternoon. - and hopefully some Hot Cross Buns too!

 Picture Credit: Donna Hay

Do you have any favourite traditions for this time of the year? I love hearing about what other people do to celebrate something that for me, is as much about celebrating the change in seasons and the cycle of life as anything else. In Austria it's all about eating Spring Lamb and something called "egg-knocking", a game where you knock two egg tips together until one egg breaks. The Easter Bonnet parade was always something that I looked forward to at school and when I visited Japan a few years ago the Cherry Blossom festival was just beginning and I was surprised to see how much of this festival carried many similar themes as Easter in Christian cultures.

What are you doing to celebrate this time of the year? Keeping it traditional, attending religious services, spending time with family or just relaxing at home?

Weekend-ing

The sun did come out and play this weekend! Warm enough to enjoy our first lunch out on the balcony and plenty more time to watch the neighbours carefully preparing their window boxes for the flowering season. I also indulged in my first ice-cream for the season (oh guilty pregnant pleasure!) followed by a walk through Alexanderplatz and Mitte to the Pergamon to see The Tell Halaf Adventure, a fairly incredible exhibition of Aramean sculptures. Most of the sculptures were destroyed in WWII bombings only to be meticulously pieced back together over the last 15 years by a team of archeologists who, by this stage, must all have PhDs in puzzle-wizzardry. 

Walking back home from the museum was really a pretty amazing sensory experience.  Not sure if it was my over-active fertility hormones but it felt like the whole city was alive with Spring-fever.  The air was thick with the smell of blossoms in full bloom, birds were happily chirping as the sun set and thousands of tulips were dancing on nature strips in the faint breeze.  Yep, I definitely think Spring is my favourite season!

These clouds have been hanging over Berlin for most of the week. Dark, menacing clouds that have occasionally opened up and released some fairly heavy rains.  Oh, I know Spring rain is good for the plants and quite possibly good for the soul as well, but when you have things to do and were so happy so finally be wearing cute ballet flats again, after months of boot wearing, it does put you a little out of sorts.  

To encourage the sun to come back again I've been playing around with a few photos I took over the weekend when the sun was out and everything felt very early-summer dreamy. The photo below reminds me a little of what you might see if you'd just opened your eyes after having a quick little cat-nap on your picnic rug. Everything is just a little bit blurry, the sun is warm and your not quite sure whether you should close your eyes again or keep reading your book.  

Wishing you all a lovely weekend which is hopefully full of sleepy picnic rugs and not too many clouds!