Warm welcome in a cold climate
ICMA General Secretary Rev Hennie La Grange, in Hamburg to plan the ICMA world conference, praises German hospitality amid wintry weather
An icebreaker at work in the port of Hamburg
Jorg, Jasper, Gbenga and Moh
As it snows heavily for the eighth consecutive week, Hamburg is icy cold. The Elbe is an arctic scene: chunks of ice drift downstream and collect in corners of the port. An ice breaker vessel makes its way up and down the waterways to ensure access through the caking ice flow for the ferries and barges and pleasure craft that populate the river.
“It’s strange weather for Hamburg,” says Heike Spiegelberg, pfafferin of the Nordelbisches Evangelisch Luthershe Kirche. Heike has her office at the Altona Seamen’s Hotel of the Deutsche Seemannsmission. She chairs the organising committee for the ICMA World Conference planned for Hamburg in 2011.
It is here at the Altona that the organising committee met this week.In this bitterly cold northern chill, we and the seafarers from Hamburg’s port find the warmth of hospitality of the Altona Seemannshotel Newly refurbished, the hotel has comfortably appointed en suite bedrooms and welcoming common rooms, a quiet chapel for reflection and a restaurant which serves good German home cooking (and a traditional Russian layered cake for tea – yum!). It has a downstairs gaming area with billiards and table tennis, a bar oozing with atmosphere, and a view over the port of Hamburg second to none.
The AIDAblu leaves Hamburg on her maiden voyage
The cruise ship AIDA-blu set out on her maiden voyage from her port of registry, Hamburg, accompanied by a spectacular fireworks display, the foghorns of ships wishing her well and a flotilla of pleasure craft following her out to the North Sea. I was treated to this spectacle from the window of my hotel room: it felt close enough to touch!
But no list of the facilities can really describe the hotel staff’s generosity of spirit. Diakon Jörg Moritz, Altona’s manager heads a staff of professionals and volunteers all eager to please, quick to smile and easy to talk to. They clearly enjoy serving their guests. To say simply that one would expect nothing less from a Christian institution would not do justice to the extra miles regularly travelled to meet the needs of their guests.
The hotel’s guests are mostly seafarers who use it when passing through Hamburg for crew changes. For seafarers, the hotel charges a preferential rate. Tourists are just as welcome in this good value-for-money hotel.
Hamburg is set to host ICMA’s World Conference in 2011. ICMA can report that even though there are several hurdles yet to be crossed, the 2011-World Conference is on track.
Click here for the website of the Hamburg Altona Seafarers Centre