It has been a while on the blog hasn’t it? Apologies, this has been probably the longest break I have ever taken. I suppose you can blame the lovely weather. I am never really in the mood to sit down in the evening and right a post. However this one has been on my list for over a week now.
Two weekends ago I flew over to Hamburg in Germany to celebrate my friend’s birthday. I have never been to Hamburg before, even though it’s literally a two hour drive and a bit from my original hometown. We had booked this break early enough in the year and I was really looking forward to it I have to say. The mini break was for three nights and we were staying in the Gastwerk which was located a bit outside of the city. There was no need to spend crazy money on hotels within the city when public transport is available from in and around the city.
I arrived in Hamburg around lunch time and made my way to the hotel via S-Bahn. This takes around 45 minutes which I find wasn’t bad at all. It’s all the way, it would be a different story if I had to change trains all the time. I arrived at the hotel around 2.15pm. Karo already checked us in and was waiting in the room.
After a big welcome and a room tour, we decided to go and have something small to eat. There was no point having lunch at that time. Instead half way down on the way to the port, we stopped at a lovely little cafe to have a coffee and some cake. You see, in Germany at around 3.30pm, it’s tradition to have tea/coffee and cake each day, mostly at weekends though.
Considering we only arrived in the afternoon, we actually covered a lot of the sightseeing on day one already. We spent a good few hours at the port, enjoyed the view on the viewing pyramid and took lots of photos. Apart from the wind, it was a beautiful day and really warm. Half way through the port, we walked up a bit to see the Elbe Tunnel. Back in the day it used to carry people and vehicles over to the other side of the tunnel. The depths of the tunnel is almost 24 meters and it is nearly half a kilometer long.
Then we walked a bit further into the city to climb up the famous church St. Michaelis aka. “Michel”. Entry is €5 but if it’s your birthday, you get in free of charge. So Karo was lucky in that sense. It’s totally up to you whether you want a work out and walk up the stairs or take the lift. Once you reach the top of the church (106 meters), you will have an incredible panoramic view of Hamburg.
In the evening time we went for food at Dulf’s Burger. I invited Karo as her birthday meal. Of course I had to have sweet potato fries. The burger was grand but we would have expected more as so many people are praising that restaurant.
Day two… it was an early enough start as Karo booked breakfast for us near the Reeperbahn in a place called Zuckermonarchie at 10am. Think about it like afternoon tea but the breakfast version of it. (They do offer afternoon tea, too) We were greeted by the lovely staff and were able to choose either a cake or cupcake which comes with the breakfast. Nothing wrong with cake for breakfast, right? We were seated and handed the menu. The only thing we had to pay on top was the coffee. Shortly after we were presented with our breakfast. And oh what a presentation. You can probably guess, we had no lunch that day.
The breakfast menu contains of bread, a roll, a croissant, cold meats, a yoghurt with fresh fruit, an egg, fresh orange juice, cheese and cold meats. This was just my cup of tea. We were so stuffed afterwards.
Once the bellies were filled, we walked down to the port where we finished off the day before. As well as a tram, train and bus system, Hamburg also has a ferry system. This is included in the day ticket which can be used from 9am for only €6.40, a bargain in my opinion. And so we took the ferry all the way to the last stop and back and stopped off at a beach. The water was surprisingly warm. We took a little break before we went back onto the ferry back to the port. We took another line that went the opposite direction past the Elbphilharmonie aka. “Elphi”. It’s known as one of the most acoustic concert halls in the world.
We took the underground train just for one stop to Hafencity University as we didn’t want to miss the light boxes and music which is on everyday in the afternoon. The train station is quiet for pretty much ten minutes and people arrive and just listen and recording the spectacular attraction. I managed to record it all too but didn’t get a chance to create a video of it yet. I will do that separately on my YouTube channel in the next few days.
That Sunday it was really warm. We actually both ended up with a sunburn on arms and chest. Getting burnt in Hamburg you don’t get that everyday. The weather is normally compared to the West of Ireland. Next stop was the “Speicherstadt”. This quarter of Hamburg is the world largest warehouse complex. The warehouses are built on oak piles. The Speicherstadt can be explored by water as well as many boats offer a tour through the canal of the quarter. However we did everything by foot that day.
We did about 20.000 steps everyday. On the way back to the hotel, we decided to stop off at Starbucks and take a break. Instead of taking the train, we tried out the bus route which brought us directly to the hotel with only two minutes walking distance. You’ll find after a while that the bus can be handier sometimes than the train as the train station is about a fifteen minutes walk from our hotel. However when we stayed in Hamburg, there was a lot of roadworks going on and so the bus route was disrupted.
We decided to relax with some TV for a bit but not get too comfy. For dinner we opted in for Vapiano in Altona. It’s pretty much an Italian place where you pick your dish, your type of pasta and they cook it right in front of your eyes. It’s super delicious and health, too. Our plan then was to go and see the water light show in the park Planten un Blomen (you may have seen it on my insta story back then) Time was getting tight but with a bit sprinting we made it on time for the opening. There were hundreds of people. The show is on every night at 10pm from May to September. It is around half an hour long.
Day three… The first half of the day was spent with some shopping. In Germany shops aren’t open on a Sunday. Later in the day we walked around in the centre of the city to have a look around a few more shops. We stopped off at a little cafe and had a drink. The weather wasn’t the best that day and I wasn’t in the mood for too much sightseeing. It’s probably to do with the fact that we walked so much the two previous days. We passed the city hall which is close to the Alster, part of the river Elbe. The Alster is surrounded by a lot of cafes and restaurants. As this was our last evening, I wanted to eat some traditional.
When I was in Berlin two years ago, we went for food in this restaurant called ALEX. It’s a chain which also exists in Hamburg. I had to have a Schnitzel and we got one of the delicious watermelon drinks again. We could drink that all day long. It’s amazing and so refreshing.
Back at the hotel Karo and me went to the bar to pick up the free cocktail. She received a voucher for her birthday on the Saturday. The last two evenings were pretty late and so we just watched a bit of TV and went to bed early enough The next morning we had to check out early enough as I had to make my way back to the airport while Karo had her car with her to drive back to Berlin.
If you are thinking of traveling to Hamburg someday, I made created a map with all the sights and restaurants we’ve been to which will make it a bit easier.
