Hamburg (14 to 17-Jun-2018)

So here we are in the 2^nd largest city in Germany and the one with the most millionaires (according to my mate, Hartwig; he should know as he is one). 

After a leisurely breakfast and a long hike to Horsens station in Denmark from our AirBnb, we both took the train to Hamburg to save time. 

Waiting to greet us at Hamburg station was Hassan, our host Dillara’s boyfriend to hand us the key to her lovely apartment where we stayed for four nights. He came with a big bouquet of flowers but regrettably they were not for us; they were for his Dillara, They had a big evening planned, he was being introduced to Dilara’s mum and dad for the first time with a view to seeking their blessing of their relationship and moving in together sometime in August. Blessing, they both got, so happy days and must say they do make a lovely couple.  

Hamburg is where my mate, Hartwig was born; he was kind enough to give us some tips including a detailed walking tour guide which we followed on our first day. Starting from Central station through the shopping streets towards the Rathausmarkt, with its magnificent Town Hall.

Hamburg has a number of canals and therefore bridges to cross which we did to an area called Speicherstatd which is the largest warehouse district in the world. Once used by the merchants to store their goods; it is now a very fashionable area after conversion into commercial and residential housing. “Elbphilharmonie” being the most famous conversion, built on top of one of the old storage buildings and is one of the largest and most acoustically advanced concert halls in the world, popularly nicknamed “Elphi”. 

We ended the first day by walking through the Elbtunnel that runs below the River Elbe

and no visit to Hamburg is complete without a visit to the red light district in St Pauli.

The next day under an overcast sky, we made our way towards the fish market only to stop at a nearby wharf to watch the start of an adventure rally of 7500km across 10 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea.

A private function was being held in the fish market so we took a local ferry to crisscross the Elba for the next couple of hours to get a different perspective of Hamburg and its busy port that doesn’t differentiate a weekend from a workday as far as activities go. Whilst crisscrossing the Elbe, we were getting SMS alerts on Australia v/s France game from Hartwig who was watching it in Croatia, a game we sadly lost. Buggger.

After a boost of chai for me and a decaf for Ursi, we soldiered on through the warehouse area Speicherstatd again to further walk around the smaller Lake Alster, which has a depth of no more than 2.5 meters.

By this time, we were well and truly buggered, so it was time to go home to chill and have a salad for dinner.

After a leisurely breakfast on our last day, we decided to walk the bigger Alster directly from our AirBnb; the streets were pretty deserted and shops closed being a Sunday. There was pretty heavy traffic on the path around the lake with joggers, cyclists and walkers like us. There is not a single bathroom around the lake and the one that we came across at an Ice Cream stall charged us 0.80 Euros. Absolute rip off; Hartwig if you are reading this, you need to do something about this. Mind you, there are no free bathrooms in Hamburg…Hartwig?

Anyway, after the walk around the lake, we gravitated yet again to the Speicherstatd for a chai and decaf…. twice, I had to return mine, once to make it stronger by adding more powder and once to add more milk as added powder had made it really sweet. There is no pleasing some people but I must say they served it with a smile. Next was a walk to the central station to make our way home to watch the Germany v/s Mexico (which the Mexicans deservedly won) game where we were joined by Hassan and Dillara both born in Germany of Turkish origins and supporting Germany of course. Playing right now as I finish writing this blog is Switzerland v/s Brazil keenly followed by Ursi. Tomorrow, she is off to Zurich by train and I to Bonn to start the German stage of my bike tour to Basle.