Walk with us in Hamburg

It’s a chilly morning, but there’s not many people about yet (even though it’s almost 10).  Grab your hat, gloves and put on your comfy shoes and come, explore Hamburg with us.  Our first stop will be the station, just down the street there, where the Tourist Information office can be found.

Needless to say, it’s on the diagonally opposite corner of the station and since we can’t cross the tracks, it takes a while to get there.

We cross the bridges on the way there, but coming back we go down onto a platform and up the other side, though I fear we’re not really supposed to do that without a valid train ticket.  Oooer – but nobody sees us and we get away with it!

We now have our five-day Hamburg card and intend to make the most of it.

First of all, we’re going to walk, though.  Leaving the station and walking a couple of blocks we soon find ourselves crossing the inner ring road.  We’re following the walking tour suggested in our guidebook which begins in the warehouse district.

Walking along Steinstrasse, we notice the ugly church a little further along.  It stands amongst blocks of offices, built of bricks in a style our guidebook tells us is typical of Hamburg.

Just as we are looking around to take note of them, we spot the Sprinkenhof at the end of a side street, and a little further along, we turn left towards another notable building

The Chilehaus was there in front of us and tempted in through the archway, we couldn’t resist taking a closer look.

The inner courtyard was striking, with beautiful brickwork details and high walkways on the upper floors.

The designs were fascinating and rewarded a closer look, so we stayed a while gazing up at them and taking a few photographs.

Having strayed from the guidebook route, however, we didn’t realise until now that we missed the main feature of the Chilehaus – reminiscent of our favourite Flatiron - after all of that!  we will just have to return…

Onward, then, considering “brick expressionist architecture” for a while, we wandered through a very quiet business district.  I suppose Saturday morning is a good time to explore the area.

 

The next building of note in our book was the Afrikahaus, built by a shipping company in 1899 with a strong African theme.

The warrior by the gate confirms that, as do the two elephants in the courtyard.

We are pleased to see the name of the company which commissioned the building, Woermann, still there amongst the nameplates.  Rather satisfying, that.

Anyway, onwards, over the street and we’ll walk over the oldest bridge in the city.  What do you mean, you can’t see a bridge?  (well, no, I can’t, either)

But it is there, with a figure (a bishop and a duke) on each side and was first mentioned in 1266, we read, though this particular structure is much newer than that, of course.

Standing in the middle of the bridge we get our first glimpse of the canal network in the city, for although we were by the waterfront last night, at the Weisserzauber market, we’ve not really felt as though we were in an historic port so far.

Just over the bridge, we find the remains of the St Nikolai church, left in ruins as a memorial following the extensive bombing raids on Hamburg during WW2. 

There’s a lift up what remains of the tower and fine views of the city are promised but we decline the offer and content ourselves with looking around what is left of the nave.

We read that there have been several structures on this site, the last one being designed by George Gilbert Scott, to whom there is a small memorial in the corner.

Time to move on, then, walking along Willy Brand Strasse towards the waterfront.

Time for a bit of sustenance though, don’t you think?  I just happen to have a bag of our favourite sweets in my pocket!

See, had we not stopped for those, I’d not have noticed that little fountain in the middle of the graffiti-strewn square.  A little gem in the urban landscape marks the end of the first part of our city walk, but join us in my next post to continue to the Hafenstadt and beyond.

One way to spend the day

OK, so I can understand the reasoning and principles of time and travel but it nevertheless always comes as a surprise that choosing to take a lunchtime flight from Heathrow, the decision to fly east or west can make a disproportionate difference to where to have tea.  Take the noon flight to LA, for example, and sit on Third Street Promenade in the late afternoon sipping a cool glass of Californian white something-or-other in an altogether different time zone.  Or, fly east and at 4pm, you could be checking into the hotel in Hamburg, just one hour’s flight time away. 

Either way, it will involve an early start and a drive on a hopefully, free running M4, just as it was this morning.

Though actually, Heathrow T5 was pretty busy as people were heading home after the holidays and, I guess, like us, were squeezing in a last weekend before starting back in 2015.

It just seems rather peculiar that getting to a city just one hour’s flight time away takes a whole day, but factor in check in times, all the hanging around, a small delay when the tow truck broke down under the plane mid-manoeuvre, the time difference, the luggage collection and so on and the 12.10pm flight brought us into Hamburg city centre at around 4.15pm.

It’s great to be here and though it was very tempting to flop onto that comfy bed for a nap as soon as we arrived, we resisted the temptation and went out onto the street immediately, to get our bearings and establish ourselves here in the Hansestadt.

Our hotel is remarkably central and in the late afternoon there were still plenty of shoppers making the most of the bargains in the January sales.  We were happy to wander, taking in the atmosphere and working out what was where.

Until, that is, we came across the Weisserzauber (White Magic) market where there were one or two things to tempt a weary traveller from foreign shores.

Gluehwein or Eierpunsch?

Well, one of us chose the former.

And we two chose the latter.  Hic.

Suitably fortified, we meandered through the rest of the market, passing the doughnut stall, the hot chestnuts and the candied almonds.

I can tell you, it wasn’t easy to pass the bratwurst by and all our powers of resistance were sorely tested because we were getting hungry.

With a quick read of the gingerbread hearts which seem to be a fairly accurate barometer of current culture (there wasn’t a single, simple “Ich liebe dich” on display) we made our way back to the Rathausplatz.

We’d booked a table at Parlament and though two of us had succumbed to a snack whilst in the market, we were all feeling pretty hungry.

Just as well, because portions were a little on the generous side!

It’s great to be here, we are delighted to have a new city to explore and after a hearty supper and a couple of hefeweizen the birthday boy himself is feeling at home.  It doesn’t as take long to acclimatise as it does to get here – even if it is only an hour away!