Hamburg 🇩🇪

We are off to visit Caroline in Hamburg, Germany’s 2nd largest city. After a half hour delay (unusual enough for Ryanair) and it’s less than two hours flight from Dublin, and we arrive in time for a beer apperitivo and a nice dinner at the local Ramen restaurant.

Saturday morning it has to be parkrun time. We grab a couple of bikes and cycle to Alstervorland parkrun.

It’s a really friendly parkrun through a park alongside the lake and it’s all flat.

Easy peasy for us 4! Afterward they have cake and I get to try franzbrötchen, a pastry similar to a cinnamon swirl. The Pride parade is today so there are additional celebrations this morning.

A cycle and walk back to Caroline’s apartment where we have a delicious breakfast of eggs, mushroom, spinach and most importantly sausages!! And obviously an array of bread. We have bought a Deutschland ticket and are ready to avail of all of the travel methods… off we go!

We take a walk through Stadtpark and see the beautiful rose garden.

We also see the Planetarium.

Time to check out a beer garden so we head to Landhaus Walter.

There’s a large variety of beers, I go for a Radler which is essentially a shandy and it suits me just fine!

Next stop is for Spaghetti-Eis – a large ice cream with raspberry sauce and white chocolate shavings served in an edible bowl shaped cone! It is delish!

We walk over a number of bridges and past a number of canals…

Next stop is Monkey Beach bar on the canal. There’s great people watching here, in particular the paddle boarders and the sunshine is delightful.

We hit another bar across the road, also on the canal before heading for dinner and having a hamburger in Hamburg – it has to be done!!!

Next morning we take a 50 minute train journey to Lubeck. We start with a little kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake) and then proceed to explore the old town.

The giant church at the centre of Lubeck is St.Marian, or Saint Mary’s. Sitting outside is the devil on the devils stone! The story goes that when the first stones of St Mary’s were laid the devil lent a hand as he thought it was to build a wine bar!! Unfortunately it was a Lutheran church!

Inside the huge church there’s a service going on and the pastor (I assume), continues his service while we walk around the edges and admire the building. There is an exhibition about the Jews of Lubeck who were persecuted and killed by the Nazis.

Opposite St Mary’s is the town hall, a dark brick building on the backside to Market square.

Most of the buildings we see are slightly leaning or just strangely wonky!!

As we leave Lubeck we walk through the old gates.

Looking back we have a great view of the gate and the church. We also manage to find rhubarb Fritz which we’ve been looking out for – delicious!

We get back on the train and go to Travemunde, a seaside town on the Baltic. It’s sunny but you can feel that Baltic wind!! We have lunch at a fish shack and I try the Backfish which is breaded white fish served in a white crusty roll! Very nice!

Time to dip our feet in the ocean… it’s cold but lovely.

Next day Caroline and I do a 9km run around the Alsta (the lake) and it is gorgeous.

It’s been quite a while since I ran that distance so a few breaks were needed but it felt great.

All cleaned up, we head out for breakfast, and after a battle with a few wasps (and maybe the best blueberry pancakes I’ve ever had), it’s time to explore Hamburg. We start with the Rathaus.

We walk through the Speicherstadt, a UNESCO listed site and the world’s largest complex of warehouses. We cross a number of bridges and canals and admire the Neo-Gothic red buildings.

We visit the home of the Hamburg Philharmonic. Opened in 2017, its construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave, iceberg or quartz crystal resting on top of an old brick warehouse. It’s fantastic to look at and there are some great views from inside too.

The ticket to get inside is free, and the escalator is the highlight! The curved escalator, known as the “Tube”, is an 82-meter-long, convexly arched marvel and the longest curved escalator in Europe. 

Next is the Elbe Tunnel – this is my favourite thing in Hamburg. It was opened in 1911 and connects two suburbs on either side of the river Elbe. We walk down 24 metres, which is cool in and of itself…

But then you see the actual tunnel which has two parallel tubes – one for cyclists and one for pedestrians. They are 426.5 meters in length and decorated with tiles of fish and marine life.

It is awesome! We walk a little of the pedestrian tunnel and then take the giant lift, that can fit more than 30 bikes back up to ground level.

From here we take a short metro journey to the St Pauli (Green) bunker. Built in 1942 in just 300 days by forced laborers, it was an anti-aircraft tower and air-raid shelter. After the war it was too massive to safely demolish so it was repurposed as emergency housing, a television broadcasting studio, and eventually transformed into a major music and media center. More recently it got a “green” makeover adding trees and the greenery we see today.

After all that we need a little rest and we head to Ratsheren brewery. I’m on the radlers and it’s delightful (especially because it’s Monday!).

We are right beside the television and telecommunications tower which is the tallest structure in Hamburg.

We check out another brew pub and have noodles for dinner before calling it a day (after 29,500 steps!).

Next day we are by ourselves as Caroline and Tom have gone to Munich, so we take the train to Bremen. The train takes just over an hour and as we head to the centre of the action, we pass by an old church that is quite unusual on the inside! It’s Liebfrauen Church which dates back to 1040! Behind the alter is a swing with a sign saying “Here you swing with God’s blessing at your own risk ( Max. load 90 kg )”!!! Well that’s a first!!

Onwards to explore Marktplaz and the 600 year old town hall – Rathaus.

We see the giant statue of Roland in the Marktplaz. Apparently there are lots of similar statues to this in Germany but, at 10metres high, this is the largest. It dates to 1404 which is impressive.

The buildings around the square are fantastic.

We see the famous Town Musicians statue – Donkey, dog, cat, rooster. The donkey is well worn from all for rubs for good luck.

From here we walk through Böttcherstraße which is a short street, famous for its unusual architecture. It has some really cool shops and museums.

We walk a little further to Bremens oldest quarter – Schnoor. It is beautiful here – feels very “oldy worldy”, with small cobblestone streets and alleyways alongside 15th century buildings.

Wandering around the delightful streets of Schnoor…..

We stop for lunch at a restaurant called Kaiser Fredrich and I order Bremen Knipp, which is a local sausage made with oat groats and pork and fried until it’s crispy. It’s a bit like black and white pudding mixed together, and it’s served on spuds – fantastic!!

We walk toward the water and to Schlachte, a riverfront promenade along the Weser River lined with outdoor terraces and beer gardens! We choose Feldmans for a Haake Beck and look across to the red stone buildings across the water.

We have an easy dinner of herring salad on the balcony and that’s our time in Hamburg done as we fly home next morning.

In this neck of the woods “moin” means hello and in some places, like Lubeck, they say “moin moin”. For now though it’s bye bye to Hamburg. We will definitely be back!