June 26, 2024

Return to Hansel & Gretel Cottage Area

I returned to this cute neighborhood to take some photos, while not buzzing by on bike. I really like the neighborhood nestled between a park, school, U-ban station and the woods. The A frame style houses appeal to me with their cute inner gardens. One of the streets is completely paved with brick pavers, but I have to admit I am not loving the German ( and I saw this in Ireland too - so may be a UE thing) oh natural trend - where they leave landscape untrimmed and growing wildly, in common areas or city public spaces.


The real problem with this otherwise idyllic neighborhood; is they are right under the flight path to Hamburg International airport which is a busy place, as the second largest city in Germany. Planes flew directly overhead of me seemingly ever five minutes, while I did this walk! It is loud, but maybe one grows numb to it over time. After almost 2 weeks I hardly notice subway sounds at Tom's. Even slept with window open last night!


I used German equivalent to Zillow Immoscout24 app to find the prices in neighborhood - range from 500,000 to 1.3M Euro ( modern one, style doesn't fit but just finished and listed in last photo). 

By Pat Patrick May 11, 2026
Some days I just don't want to sight see! My birthday was one of them. I just wanted to indulge in a good movie in a comfy, cool theater, eat some popcorn and follow with a yummy lunch! That's exactly what I did, despite some of my friends trying to convince me go on a 5 hour van to see 2 gigantic temples.
By Pat Patrick May 11, 2026
The ancient temple of Soo Poo Kong was our next stop. We were all wilting in the heat by then, but they promised an air conditioned room for a 20 minute movie on the history - so we rallied! Basically, the Temple was erected as a thank you to the Chinese Muslim Admiral Cheng Ho who let the fleet stop here on their way somewhere else in Asia back in 1416 because his helmsman, Wang Jing Hong, was sick. Wang recovered from his illness in a cave on this site and built first the statue and then the temple to thank Ho for his life.
By Pat Patrick May 11, 2026
SEMERANG is the capital of Central Java , the world's 13th largest island and the 5th largest in Indonesia. Despite it's size, it is the world's most populous island, holding over 150 Million people (over 55% of Indonsesia's population). Today, I did a 50 person bus tour of some of the Semerang's history , so I could cover a lot in one day.