Hamburg - Day in the Life of a Chippendale

Anyone that knows my older bro won’t be surprised to hear that for the last few months, he’s been on tour in Europe with the Chippendales. They closed out the tour in Hamburg, inviting an easy weekend trip for me and Jerel from Brussels. We weren’t expecting much from Hamburg but it turns out to be quite a lively and scenic city. Canals and bridges abounded - I learned that Hamburg has more bridges than Amsterdam and Venice combined!

After a late arrival on Friday, we kicked off our weekend on Saturday with lunch at Ami’s regular haunt, a casual cafeteria where you are guaranteed the best bang for your buck when it comes to generous portions of healthy food. We spent the afternoon exploring Hamburg, meandering along the Binnenalster (inner city lake) and past the impressive Rathaus (city hall). Jerel and I continued on to enjoy a chilly panoramic view of the city from St. Nikolai’s church, whose ruins are a WWII memorial, while Ami went to rehearsal.

Ami had arranged for guest tickets to the Saturday night show, known to be the craziest night of the week…and crazy it was. I’ve never seen so many seemingly normal women going nuts – upwards of 600 women filled the venue that night. The crowd was on their feet for much of the show, cheering and shrieking. Fortunately, one of the other two men in the audience (the tour manager) was sitting at our table, which gave Jerel some comfort. He tried his hardest to look like he was on official business as well. The show was a lot of fun, with impressive dancing and music (and abs). To my relief, I didn’t have to close my eyes nearly as much as I had feared… The show also featured a good dose of audience participation, and to my dismay, Ami had ensured that I would be picked as one of the ‘volunteers’. Suffice it to say that I survived, with even greater appreciation for the nerve it takes to perform in front of a big audience.
After the show, I stood in shock as women lined up to take their picture with Ami, or requested an autograph. Either he’s a good actor or the experience hasn’t grown old even after 6 shows a week for several months! After the show, we navigated the bustling Reeperbahn together (Europe’s largest red light district) and joined Ami for his second dinner.

Sunday and Monday passed much the same as Saturday, to the rhythm of Ami’s sleep-eat-exercise-eat-perform-eat life. Katharina (Ezra’s girlfriend) joined us from Berlin as did her friend Jana who lives just outside Hamburg. Jerel returned to Brussels for work on Monday while I stayed behind. Katharina and Jana attended the show on Sunday and it seemed that they also enjoyed it …I caught them posing with one of the other Chippendale’s when I returned to meet up with them after the show in the ‘flirt lounge’. Sunday ‘apres-show’, Ami and I joined some of the guys for dinner, which made for some interesting conversation. Monday, Ami and I passed a pleasantly quiet day, lifting weights at the gym (my pecs are still recovering!) and lingering over lunch and tea. All in all a very satisfying and memorable weekend.