The Passenger ⋆ Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.

August 15, 2026August 15, 2026

Das wirklich wahre Leben

Dittsche – Das wirklich wahre Leben is a German comedy series centred on an unemployed Hamburg man who regularly visits a local snack bar. Wearing a dressing gown, jogging bottoms and bathing sandals, Dittsche exchanges empty beer bottles for full ones and then launches into elaborate theories about politics, sport, science and everyday life. His arguments are based on what the programme humorously presents as dangerously incomplete ‘half-knowledge’, making him both exasperating and oddly endearing.

August 15, 2026August 15, 2026

Planten & Blomen

Planten un Blomen is a large public park in the heart of Hamburg, extending across roughly 47 hectares between the city centre, the exhibition grounds and St. Pauli. It is far more than an ordinary urban green space: visitors find landscaped gardens, ponds, lawns, fountains, mature trees and quiet paths, all within easy walking distance of Hamburg’s main shopping streets and transport connections. The park is often regarded as one of the city’s greenest and most attractive public spaces.

August 15, 2026August 15, 2026

Michel

The Hamburger Michel is the affectionate name for Hamburg’s principal church, St. Michaelis, a magnificent Baroque building near the harbour. Its striking copper-covered tower rises 132 metres above the Neustadt district, making the church one of the first landmarks visitors notice when approaching the city centre. With its bright white interior, spacious nave and imposing clock, the Michel is among the most recognisable buildings in northern Germany.

August 15, 2026August 15, 2026

Kunstforum

The Bucerius Kunst Forum is a compact international exhibition centre in the heart of Hamburg, situated at Alter Wall opposite the Rathaus courtyard. Rather than maintaining a permanent collection, it presents around four carefully curated exhibitions each year, bringing together works from museums and private collections around a particular artist, theme or period. Its purpose is to place familiar works in fresh contexts and to reveal connections between different eras and artistic disciplines.

August 12, 2026August 12, 2026

Centre of Germany

Krebeck, in the Samtgemeinde Gieboldehausen in the Göttingen district of Niedersachsen, is marked as the geodetic centre of Germany. In the village, a prominent stone with an information plaque commemorates the site, although the calculated point itself lies in the Struth woodland, roughly one kilometre north-west of the village centre, at 51°35′26″N, 10°06′22″E. The memorial was installed after German reunification and was inaugurated in 1991, with Bundestagspräsidentin Rita Süssmuth reported to have attended.

August 9, 2026August 11, 2026

Velorace

The Velorace in Dresden is a city-centre cycling event that has been held since 2013 and has become a fixed part of the national racing calendar. It grew out of the wider Saxon cycling tradition and has steadily developed into one of the best-known mass-participation races in eastern Germany.

August 8, 2026August 9, 2026

Pioniereisenbahn

The Dresdner Parkeisenbahn is a charming miniature railway running through the Großer Garten, Dresden’s large historic park. Its origins date back to June 1st, 1950, when a temporary children’s railway was opened between the Zoo and what is now Straßburger Platz. Although it was initially intended to operate for only one season, its popularity led to a permanent service; the line was extended in 1951 and reached its present circular route of approximately 5.6 kilometres.

August 8, 2026August 9, 2026

Hygienemuseum

The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden was founded in 1912 on the initiative of Karl August Lingner, a local industrialist and manufacturer of the mouthwash Odol. Its purpose was to make scientific knowledge about the human body, personal health and preventive medicine accessible to ordinary people. The present building, designed by Wilhelm Kreis in a monumental yet modern style, was completed for the Second International Hygiene Exhibition in 1930. It was badly damaged during the bombing of Dresden in 1945 and later rebuilt; after German reunification, the museum was fundamentally reoriented as a museum about human experience.

August 8, 2026August 10, 2026

Verkehrsmuseum

The Verkehrsmuseum in Dresden is one of the city’s most distinctive museums, housed in the historic Johanneum by the Neumarkt. Its roots go back to 1877, when the collection that later became the Saxon Railway Museum first began, while the museum itself was founded in 1952 and opened to the public in its present setting in the 1950s.

August 8, 2026August 10, 2026

Grünes Gewölbe

The Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden is one of Europe’s great treasure chambers, created for August der Starke in the early 18th century as a highly theatrical display of power, taste and wealth. It began as the elector’s private collection and was then expanded into a public showpiece, making it one of the oldest museum-like collections on the continent.