NRW Chronicles: Unveiling the Charms of Hamm
While writing the title for this blog, I was wondering what charms did I unveil in this city. Haha, I was not expecting much before coming here and the city proved me right. There is nothing to expect. Nevertheless, me and my friend did go to the zoo and a museum that displayed every piece of information in German. I mean, c'mon…
Hamm Zoo
Fortunately, my friend knew German quite well and helped me understand some of the information in both zoo and the museum. The zoo is an initiative of NRW partner zoos that unites the 12 largest zoos and animal parks in NRW under one roof. The other zoos are in Wuppertal, Cologne, Bochum, etc. The entry ticket was 7.5 euros and we got it for 6.5 euros as we are students. Honestly, there are no special animals in the zoo and I had seen most of them in different zoos in the past. They kept the tiger in the end and that was the only animal I was excited to see. Around 100-year-old turtle also caught my interest. Most of the animals are from Madagascar and other African parts. We entered the zoo by watching colorful birds in a cage and moved on to watch animals that I had seen in movies.
Gustav-Lübcke-Museum
The second stop was the museum that has the largest Egyptian collection and the museum is named after a Dusseldorf art dealer Gustab Lübcke whose hometown is Hamm and he donated his extensive collection to the museum. We had the time to explore three big halls starting with equipment used for hunting in old age, modern furniture, and some other beautiful-looking things whose description was only in German 😒.
But the other two halls were interesting collections of Egypt and descriptions in English 😃. Back in 1886, an Egyptian mummy was brought to Hamm and presented in a restaurant as there was no museum. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in the Second World War. Hence the 3D printing of the mummy is present in the museum today and was developed using a black-and-white photo of the original mummy.
They also have the Osiris statue which is one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt. The main people of Ancient Egypt — Nefertiti (the queen) and Akhenaten (the king) who declared Aten (sun disk) as the sole god of all Egyptians, his son Tutankhamun were all displayed in the museum.
The third hall was climate-friendly and the concept depicted was about the water life in Egypt. The hall, fortunately, had English descriptions and interesting depictions of water to tell the story of how goods and people were transported across the Nile and the seas by ship. The last one that caught my interest was the depiction of a surface of the water that was with filters that make you look like an Ancient Egyptian. This was to show that mirrors made of precious metals were reserved only for the elites in ancient Egypt and the poor depended on the surface of water to look at their own reflection.
So with this, I almost ended my day trip to Hamm and got some dinner at Nordsee in the city center. I actually thought this is the end of my Hamm trip but little did I know that DB train is going to throw me into hell.
I know that in the introductory blog to the NRW expedition, I wrote about the semester ticket. Well, that is true indeed but the German trains are not so punctual as the stereotypical Germans are. The trains mostly are delayed by hours and in the worst case get canceled. This might come as a surprise to many who do not know the reality but this is the sad truth. So what exactly happened? I took the return train to Hagen on the right time at 7:25 PM and I was supposed to reach at 8 PM but the train abruptly stopped after 10 minutes of departure and stood there for more than an hour. Then it took us back to Hamm and asked us to take another train. But it was already late and trains in Germany don’t run late at night and after 9 PM the frequency becomes really low. Hence, I did not get a direct train and had to change in Dortmund and the trains were delayed again and I reached at 11 PM (supposed to reach at 8 PM). Uff, who says traveling is easy and in my case, German trains are not going to make my NRW expedition easy but still I am going to do it. (May be this is not the case in the entire Germany, but trains in NRW definitely sucks).
Conclusion
In wrapping up, I’ve come to the decision that I won’t be revisiting this city by choice. While I thoroughly enjoyed the venture of exploring its streets, my overall impression is that it lacks the allure I seek. It’s important to note that this perspective is entirely subjective, and I leave the decision to visit Hamm or not in the hands of my readers.
Hamm day trip summary
Hours spent: 7
Money spent: 19.29 Euros
Steps: 15900
Rating: 2/10
Check out: NRW Chronicles: Unveiling the Charms of Wuppertal
