Hamburg II: Fischmarkt, Half Marathon, Harbor

the building in the back is the Fischauktionshalle: fish auction hall (now cafe)

 When I knew I wanted to take my dad to northern Germany, I knew I had to plan the trip around a Sunday morning at the Fischmarkt. It's open 5:00-9:30 am once a week, and tourists and locals come to get cheap fish (and produce and other random things nowadays). It's the oldest market in Hamburg (began in 1703), and has lots of character. The fish-sellers grab a piece of paper, and pile on fish, yelling 10 EUROS! or 20 EUROS as they continue to add to the pile until someone takes it for that price. It's a show! If you go early, you get better quality, but if you go later you can get great deals as they try to get rid of all their product.

you can see the outdoor market in the background

hilarious fish-seller man

inside the old "Fish Auction Hall", now live music and cafe

eel for sale

From the Fischmarkt I had to get back to the start of the Hamburg Half Marathon--which started with two loops on the Reeperbahn. It was rainy, which was good running weather but not so nice for spectators. I had a fun time, and it was so much fun to see my parents and Michael along the side (my parents had never seen me run!). I ran a 1:54 half marathon, which is my second-best time. Considering that I've been on my feet so much the last few days, I think it's good. :)

After the Half Marathon we had lunch at a nice little café, and then took one of the ferries that belongs to Hamburg’s public transit system (so you can ride “for free” with a day pass). We took it to the end of the line and back, so we got to see parts of the huge harbor, and went past the (now empty) Fischmarkt. Then we walked through part of the Speicherstadt, the warehouse district with rows of brick buildings right on the water. At this point we were really testing the waterproof-ness of our raingear…

the ferry

 We also went down into the Elbtunnel, the tunnel going under the Elbe River, built 1907-11, which was a marvel back then. It is 462 m long and runs 12 m under the river.

And for dinner...a great little place with traditional German food: Schnitzel and Maultaschen.

10K in the Tiergarten: Race Results

 

Saturday evening I ran the 10K Frauenlauf [women's run] in the Berlin Tiergarten. Despite rather crowded conditions I got my best time, and had a lot of fun. The weather was great: cool and sunny. The Tiergarten paths are really beautiful, especially now with all the foliage out. And we ran by the Siegessäule and Brandenburg Gate a few times, too. But the paths in the park were a little too crowded for such a run. Especially at the beginning there was a lot of bottle-necking, and you really had to pay attention to the ground because there were park benches, tree roots, etc. (There were a total of 18,000 participants, not sure how many did the 10K. They also had walking, nordic walking, and a 5K run.) Michael came along to cheer and get some pictures. At the finish I got a great little grab bag from the sponsor Avon, and...like at the half marathon...non-alcoholic beer! Crazy Germans! :)

Some randomness: when in English we would yell "PUSH" or "PUSH ON THROUGH", "KEEP PUSHING" at the end... Germans yell "ZIEH!" [=pull]. :)

Michael saw in the crowd two men with wigs, and a woman dressed in a head-to-toe beer bottle costume (see collage below). 

beer at the finish

Something very cool : the woman who gave the starting shot for the 10K was Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon (in 1967) - when women were not allowed to race. She registered under the name "K. V. Switzer". She spoke before the start, saying how amazing it is that just over 40 years ago no one thought women should be running...and to see an event like this with 18,000 women was really amazing.  I don't really think the Germans got much out of it...it was pretty loud and crazy, and she was speaking English...but seriously, it brought tears to my eyes. :) So I guess she got Avon to start sponsoring women's runs in the '80s, and they are now all over the world, and Switzer has come a few times to Berlin, Germany's biggest women's run.

[also funny: her name sounds like "Schwitzer" = "sweater, i.e. someone who sweats"]

someone else's video from inside the park:



and from the start (I couldn't find myself though..kinda crazy)

Berlin Half Marathon

 Here are some photos from Sunday's half marathon. We started out running with our friend Brett. Michael first dropped back cause his knee hurt, then passed us a few miles later. But as you can see below, we ran through the Brandenburg Gate and by the Siegessäule, also Schloss Charlottenburg and Ku'damm...all the sights! It was really fun. Good atmosphere. I wore my Detroit shirt hoping I would get a few American fans, but not really. Just one guy from Philly :) We're registered to run again in Hamburg in 2 months, so now we have to stay fit!

Berlin Half Marathon Registration at Tempelhof

This was really cool--for the registration for the Berlin Half Marathon (Sunday), they have the expo/registration at Tempelhof Airport. I had never been inside the building, so it was cool to see. Also amusing because this was the first German race expo I have been to, and some things struck me as particularly German (the big beer area, a little German honey stand). We went and picked up our race packets, t-shirts and got a Wurst. A strange feeling, to be walking around an empty, deserted airport!

One more hilarious thing I just had to add...In our race instructions we have a very explicit warning not to go to the bathroom in people's yards due to incidents from previous years! HA! It also asks you to police other runners...yikes...