0112 Hamburg Docks
While Pat was in Germany with me, the vac students were taken round Germany by the organisers; and Pat came along as well. We went to see the Volkswagen factory at Hanover -- which produced the VW Combi vans. It was fascinating -- especially as VW workmen had a superb reputation for quality at that time. I remember though, how they fitted the doors, which was the mark of excellence at the time (VW doors just whispered shut). I was astounded to see that, as the vans came down the line, a hydraulic ram was produced and was pumped so hard - across the doorframe - that the rest of the body of the car stretched until the worker thought it about right. Then he finished off the adjustment with a sledgehammer; but then it fitted beautifully!
We also went to see Hamburg, which was a long way away - a very tiring journey. When we got to Hamburg the main thing we did was a three-hour trip round Hamburg docks on the harbour-master's launch. I can tell you every detail of those docks -- they were still, in those days, the old type of docks. The goods were unloaded by stevedores with very little mechanization. Those days have long since passed. The one thing I remember, apart from the dozens of single-story brick warehouses surrounded by luffing cranes, was the fact that the `paving' was of heavy timber beams rather than concrete or tarmac!
The only other technical site we visited was on a new motorway they were building. We went there to see the first ever stayed suspension bridge – which have since become common - supported by lines from one central pier, rather than from a catenary hung between two piers.
In Hamburg itself we wandered around the various sites including of course the "Michaelische Kirche" and the Inner and Outer of Allster. Needless to say we were not taken to the red light district for which Hamburg is most famous!
We also went on various trips into the countryside surrounding Braunschweig; including into the mountains. All-in-all it was very good for Pat's holiday, especially where it ended with a party in a beer cellar.
Pat then had to travel back to England. It was at this stage that I was hit by a new depth of loneliness and depression -- even though I now had only a few weeks go. My loneliness got so out of hand that, I guess, I had something like a breakdown. I just couldn't control myself. I just had to get home. Accordingly I literally just got on the train in the middle night and travelled back to England again having forsaken my work .
The journey back in fact was not that bad. But when I got back to London I couldn't go home, because my parents were on holiday. So I managed to get into my student digs and spent the last two weeks with Pat in the library. We bought a chess set and used to go out in the sunny weather in Hyde Park, to play chess in the open as I gradually recuperated. I fondly remember it as a time in the sun. My parents, though, were worried sick as they didn't know I was home and that time the East Germans were building the Berlin Wall, and there was great talk of fighting developing along the East German border.
hits
