Hamburg

Monday 29th September 2008

Welcome to Steep Hills. We are on the road to Hamburg with the ferry trip from Denmark to Germany recently behind us - lots of boats and sailors and small waves and wooden huts around us over the last day. They flash by. And now we approach mighty Hamburg.

Hamburg is full of memories. Tiny harbour bars we have visited in the past filled with sailors and their wine and their sardines and their Jacques Brel cassettes. White bearded and white haired men in caps sitting at their tables talking of their days at sea. Robert enjoys these ‘taverns’ as he calls them. The women behind the counters greet him as he takes his table by the window. Normally he doesn’t speak to anyone but soaks up the atmosphere as he listens to the wind at the door, the lapping waves outside, and the tales and laughter of the old sailors. It is a vanishing Bohemian world that he holds onto and the harbour taverns and bars in Hamburg are one the last places in the world where this scene goes down. All of it of course preparation for the Hamburg show tonight. As we stand on stage we will hear the wind, the old Brel and Scott Walker songs that the sailors still sing late at night and this shall push us on to whatever heights we reach. Inspiration is here.

Third fudge tin gone.

Celebrity Watch…… this is a new feature of Steep Hills where we will keep you posted on some of the big names that come backstage to ‘hang’ with us and then follow us as we take them to the night-time (is the right time) delights of clubs and bars that our names instantly open up. So far we have met no one. Oh well…..

Eating a dark chocolate Toblerone. Yum.