Blankenese

Said like: blan-ken-ay-suh. This is a little riverside resort town up the Elbe from Hamburg. S, Ms. N, and I traveled by boat and then on foot to get there on a lovely hot day. Ms. N is here, on the deck of our second little boat on the way.



This is the wild mud child of Blankenese, or some such. We saw her playing in the mud of low tide on our way into the little town; her mother was sitting on the beach reading, and called out to her when she got too far away (apparently into the really good mud). She - we think she was a she - was completely naked but dressed in mud, and was belly-diving into it, romping around like a bear, like Mowgli, making up games.



The town itself - beautiful houses stacked up into the hillside, with the river just out of view here.



Kolz loves rhubarb (it's a family thing) and here, I am drinking in his honor a rhubarb schorle, which is the quintessential summer drink made with juice/nectar and sparkling water. It was, you can see, an interesting taste. Sour and sweet and very nice & summery. We were in a restaurant right on the water that bobbed up and down slightly when big boats went by. Behind us is the big Airbus complex.




Very. Big. Boats. This monster sailed past us as we ate dinner in Blankenese, toward the harbor at Hamburg - I actually took two pictures, but can't really do it justice. All matter of boats were out on the Elbe this fine Sunday: lovely sailboats, tourist tours, old wooden motorboats, water buses, small and large and jumbo-sized container ships.