der ketchup koenig: 04/27/16 day 25: Hamburg, DE

Out of the hotel at 11, ditched our luggage with the hotel and walked south to the water and east along the docks to Hafencity. It's clear that Hamburg has been investing heavily in this area. All of the old factory buildings along the water are now high end condos, offices, restaurants. Really beautiful part of town. We even walked by where my old ship Seabourn Sojourn docked.

Under the UBahn along the canal.

Beautiful old factories along the canals. Revitalized and refurbished.

Old customs house perched above the canal with wide stairs down to the water. Now a super quaint cafe that seats 12.

Love the green tin roofs in the distance. The colors, when it wasn't sleeting, were awesome. The Hamburg Philharmonie in the distance.

Rathaus.

Rathaus Cascading Selfie.

Very user friendly public transport in Hamburg.

We popped into Fleetschlösschen (which is an old customs/toll house on the canal from the 19th century) for a cappuccino and to warm up right as light hail started to fall. Perfect timing. My 4€ umbrella bit the dust. I was here 4 years ago, almost to the day with the cruise ship. I think The Menace from Manchester was even with me then. Feels like yesterday.

We walked north to Rathausplatz and caught the UBahn back to the St. Pauli station at the east end of the Reeperbahn. Started hailing and raining again but we seemed to time it well. Grabbed our gear from the lobby and headed east of the city to check into our hotel for the night. We are staying in Trittau tonight (30 minutes east) which is the location of our show tmrw. We had to roll out and get the keys before the show because they will be closed by the time we get there after the gig. So we rolled out, enjoyed a nice hour long nap in my modest little room, got cleaned up and hit the road. Knowing what I know now, I would've loved to just stay in Hamburg for the night instead, but oh well.

This plan turned out to be slightly problematic when we hit traffic in the city. What should've taken 30-40 minutes took an hour and 20 minutes. Only slightly frustrating when we drove past our hotel from the night before with 10 minutes to go to our destination.

We arrived as the first guests were arriving (who happened to be the former owners of Anno Poll in Parchim where I played back in 2009 with Clint and Kaleb.) The apartment was really nice; nice sized living room, cool two bedroom joint with small balcony. We met the organizers of the house concert Kati and Thomas and the owners of the apartment Sabine and Matthias. All lovely folks. Sound check was easy as there was no PA. Boom. Sound check over.

The room by 8pm was jammed with 38 beautiful Germans. The set felt really nice. Vocals sounded tight. They found a small bass amp for peter which was useful but I thought the blend sounded really natural and warm. The crowd was very receptive; it almost sounded as if they were anticipating the Oh La La's in Printemps. Very nice and fuzzy vibes tonight. I love playing music in this setting; intimate and real. Hope to do it again next year.

During Peter's song "The Beauty that Surrounds."