2015-11-13 53 10

Location

Garden of a nursery school in the Farmsen neighborhood of Hamburg

Participants

OtherJack

Plans

I didn't think to check the coordinates until around 3pm when I was a bit bored on my last day at the office in Hamburg (tomorrow I leave for France.) After a week and a half of rather inconvenient hashpoints here, this one finally looked reasonable! 15 minute walk from a U-Bahn station in the northeastern outskirts of the city, and it appeared to be in an open green space. I checked with User:Hermann, he couldn't make it due to prior plans but encouraged me to go.

Expedition

After cleaning up and saying good-bye to my temporary office (and colleagues) from these weeks, I set out for the nearest U-Bahn around 5:45pm. A nasty-looking rain storm looked to be on the way on the radar in an hour or two, so I moved quickly. Strangely enough, I hadn't ridden the Hamburg U-Bahn yet during this visit, even though I'd been here 10 days. The ticket turned out to be quite reasonably priced and the train was waiting for me at the platform. Changed at Jungfernstieg in the center of the city, and in a half hour or so I was at my target of Farmsen. Much of the network is above ground here (despite the name u-bahn) which gives a nice view of the cityscape, as in my hometown of 41,-87.

Near the station there was a lot of commercial activity with restaurants and shops, but as I turned north toward the hash it got much quieter and darker, except for the many cars on this major four-lane road. There were big grass fields and large darkened business properties, some houses too. Very different from the older, denser part of Hamburg I was living in. Soon the road curved under the tracks and the hash drew near. Still not raining yet.

When I was near what I believed to be the turnoff path by some woods, I took out geohashdroid (forgot the yellow GPS at home this trip) to find that I was still about 25m too far southeast. I'd thought the point was closer than that! (The map hadn't loaded due to lack of data plan, so all I had to go on were the numbers and dots/flags at this point.)

Dutifully I started proceeding northwest into a driveway and small parking area, but after just a few meters I realized this was the front of a nursery-school for small children. Even at the front door, the GPS still said I needed to go 18m due west. I must have taken about five minutes to remember how to take a screenshot... it's a new phone, so Micsnares earlier advice about this didn't work.

No one seemed to be around, though, so I decided to try heading around back to see if the back property line was any closer. After some very minor urban bushwhacking I managed to get pretty close on the left (south) side, but still something like 20m too far south. Kept going all the way around to the back (west) side, behind the playground, but still 17ish meters too far west. Disappointing, but I wasn't about to trespass this one.

I was taking a few photos of the building and fence to document when I saw someone was inside! It was an elderly woman cleaning up. Thankfully, I don't think she noticed me... I really would have freaked her out standing there in the dark outside the fence taking pictures of her nursery school. I put the phone away and immediately started walking back south to the station, right as the light rain began. It didn't occur to me for another few hundred meters that I could have theoretically rang the bell and asked her permission to reach the point. (Would have made little sense though, since she probably didn't speak English (too old) and would have been suspicious regardless.)

As I turned the corner by the station the heavier rain and wind arrived, taking people by surprise. Luckily, I only had two minutes until the station, and made it inside for some chicken and fries. In Germany (or at least in northern Germany) you can get a 1/2 roasted seasoned chicken ("1/2 Hähnchen") at fast food places, usually quite juicy and good. Not heard of back home in the USA.

Home by 9:15pm.

Photos

Kids, parents and a real live horse walking with lanterns for ~~some funny Hamburg holiday. my colleagues told me about it but I can't remember the name~~ St. Martin's Day
Soccer on turf
Tennis Clubhaus SC Condor
U-Bahn-train in storage
Front of the hash-nursery...
...18m too far east!
Side of the hash-nursery...
...24m too far south!
Back fence of the hash-nursery 18m too far west!