Author: Zach Dykstra

During our visit to Hamburg we took a boat tour of their harbor and river. This was very appropriate as the city is built on sea trade. Our guide, George, told us a lot of interesting information about the city of Hamburg. The city made its money by trading many goods from countries including electronics from Asia and produce from South America. In addition to trading, Hamburg was also a popular stop for immigration to the United States. Over 5 million people went through Hamburg on their way. We went through the warehouse district where many brick buildings line the river.

These buildings used to be used for storage but now have many shops and the world’s largest miniature train setup. In the picture you may also see where the water line goes up to. George said that the water rises another 2 meters during high tide. We also passed by a new concert hall that was built two years ago and has brought many tourists to the city. As shown in the picture, the architecture of the concert hall is modeled after a wave.

We then went through a lock that is not an up and down lock but just two gates that opened and closed. This was to prevent a lot of sand and mud from getting into the harbor from the ships that come in from the ocean. The city had to spend a lot money on dredging the harbor, so this was the solution to that problem. We saw all kinds of ships on our tour from tug boats and cruise ships to giant freight ships.

We learned a lot on our tour and it was the perfect way to spend our short time in Hamburg.

Today we visited a company called Dynajet. They specialize in commercial power washers that go from 7000 psi up to 40,000 psi. The smaller ones are typically used for paint removal while the larger ones can be used in place of a jackhammer to remove concrete. They use these power washers instead of jackhammers because they do not damage the steel reinforcement and only remove the concrete. Another main strength of Dynajet was their environmental aspect. Their products don’t use any chemicals and only use the force of pure water to clean things.

Dynajet is a small company and only about 5 people were working there when we visited. They buy the parts from hundreds of suppliers and assemble the parts in the building we toured. An engineering aspect that I found interesting was the fact that their products were limited by the physics of a hand held device. What I mean by this is that they couldn’t build any bigger power washers otherwise they would have to have a robot operate it because a human couldn’t push back with enough force to keep the power washer stable.

It was very interesting to compare the strengths and weaknesses of both a large company like Gentex that we toured earlier in the day, and Dynajet a smaller company. It has also been very interesting to see the logistics of companies that sell to many different companies in different countries that speak different languages. Although a short visit, Dynajet was a good visit to learn about the strengths of a small company.

Our devotions for Wednesday morning came from Our Daily Bread. In it the author talks about how on long trips it is common to hear “Are we there yet?”. I definitely thought this on our seven and a half hour plane ride here. Sitting there trying and failing to sleep I just wanted to reach our destination. The author goes on to say that we often feel the same way in life when we are going through challenges. We need to talk to our Lord when we go through times of stress.

That day we also went on a walking tour of Bruges, Belgium. This is a beautiful city that thrived in the 13th to 15th centuries. We saw amazing architecture in many buildings including:

The Begijnhof

The Church of Our Lady

The Town Hall

And The Market Square