Hamburg
Arriving Sunday evening and leaving Tuesday evening meant two days exploring Hamburg. The question that's been haunting me the whole time there? What does Hamburg has to do with hamburger? And just now, I finally googled the answer - the majority of German immigrants to America departed from Hamburg and they took "Hamburger [adjective, related to the city of origin] sandwich". I really like it, the way one thing influences the languages in the most unexpected ways. Ok, no more boring linguistics stuff (for now) :D What did we do in Hamburg?
The answer is quite simple - walked, rode the pedalo and ate :D
We walked (figuratively ;)) all around Hamburg. First, the Elbphilharmonie which is amazing! They did amazing job and hats off for the design. It's one step from the port and there's viewing deck.
Useful tip: The viewing deck is not a must-see. Only recommend going if you're staying at the hotel and have the entry for free.
From there we continued along the canal to the Poggenmühlen-Brücke that I think is the perfect photo spot. With the right light, the pictures are amazing.
Then on to the Mahnmal St. Nikolai (that sounded totally Turkish in my head, but as Telchac explained it is a normal German word, you just have to adjust the tone :D). It's (now) surrounded by a construction site, so it takes some of its grandeur (a big word, I'm proud of myself :D) but nevertheless, it's nice.
I love how there are canals everywhere, you get this summer vacation feeling even though you're in the city. The area around Rathaus is charming. The water sparkles as much as wine in your glass and beads of sweat on your forehead. Across the road from the Rathaus square is the first part of the lake with the Alsterfontäne where we sat down and enjoyed another Vitamalz (that I kept on calling beer and Telchac kept on laughing about it).
In the afternoon - we decided to go for a little walk around Außenalster - cause you know, we're not really THAT active and we felt like a short walk could do us good. :D We're crazy, I know, my feet and legs died that day :D. It's around 7,5 km walk, mostly right next to the lake. It was amazing, the lake was full of sailboats and the parks were full of families playing with children, dog-walkers, wine/beer-drinkers, and joggers. It seemed like the minute people could leave work they did so and they all came here. I have never seen so many people in a park on a weekday. Again, thumbs up, Germans! About half-way around the lake, we stopped at Bobby Reich - Perle an der Alster ;) and finally we treated ourselves to two sundaes! (so yeah, we did not burn any calories if you do the count :D). I completely understood (and understand) why they eat so many sundaes, I would not eat anything else, you got some fruit in it so it's almost a salad, isn't it? I will not post any photos, because, then, you could start hating me and this blog :D
Useful (dinner) tip: We chose Das Dorf because it was nearby and we were (surprise, surprise) sick and tired of walking. And it was a good choice! They cook classic German/European meals, they serve gigantic schnitzel, if you're into that.
On Tuesday we rented a pedalo and went not around but across the lake (yeah, two leg days in a row :D). The weather was amazing and there were no people when we arrived (11ish in the morning) - which was a huge relief because the day before you needed to wait for the pedalo for an hour, as I said, the whole Hamburg was there. So we went here and there and then let the wind move us and so on for an hour (cost 20 EUR, I think).
Btw what I wanted to mention are CYCLISTS! Everywhere, lots of them and dangerous :D jk, but they ride pretty fast so -Useful tip: stick to the "pedestrian lanes", and look both ways before crossing the (red) bike lane, it's just safer. Or if you can't beat 'em, join 'em and rent a bike :).
After this trip, I have to say, I was all kinds of prejudiced and now I just think I was being stupid about the Germans and Germany. As I suffer from OCD a bit :D (I think Telchac'd say it a bit differently, but it's definitely just a bit) I was happy about their rules and order and it makes me happy even now, just telling you about it :D. I have to end this with CU soon, Germany! It was really nice meeting you! CU guys next week!
The answer is quite simple - walked, rode the pedalo and ate :D
We walked (figuratively ;)) all around Hamburg. First, the Elbphilharmonie which is amazing! They did amazing job and hats off for the design. It's one step from the port and there's viewing deck.
Useful tip: The viewing deck is not a must-see. Only recommend going if you're staying at the hotel and have the entry for free.
 |
| The Elbphilharmonie, ladies and gentlemen |
From there we continued along the canal to the Poggenmühlen-Brücke that I think is the perfect photo spot. With the right light, the pictures are amazing.
Then on to the Mahnmal St. Nikolai (that sounded totally Turkish in my head, but as Telchac explained it is a normal German word, you just have to adjust the tone :D). It's (now) surrounded by a construction site, so it takes some of its grandeur (a big word, I'm proud of myself :D) but nevertheless, it's nice.
I love how there are canals everywhere, you get this summer vacation feeling even though you're in the city. The area around Rathaus is charming. The water sparkles as much as wine in your glass and beads of sweat on your forehead. Across the road from the Rathaus square is the first part of the lake with the Alsterfontäne where we sat down and enjoyed another Vitamalz (that I kept on calling beer and Telchac kept on laughing about it).
In the afternoon - we decided to go for a little walk around Außenalster - cause you know, we're not really THAT active and we felt like a short walk could do us good. :D We're crazy, I know, my feet and legs died that day :D. It's around 7,5 km walk, mostly right next to the lake. It was amazing, the lake was full of sailboats and the parks were full of families playing with children, dog-walkers, wine/beer-drinkers, and joggers. It seemed like the minute people could leave work they did so and they all came here. I have never seen so many people in a park on a weekday. Again, thumbs up, Germans! About half-way around the lake, we stopped at Bobby Reich - Perle an der Alster ;) and finally we treated ourselves to two sundaes! (so yeah, we did not burn any calories if you do the count :D). I completely understood (and understand) why they eat so many sundaes, I would not eat anything else, you got some fruit in it so it's almost a salad, isn't it? I will not post any photos, because, then, you could start hating me and this blog :D
Useful (dinner) tip: We chose Das Dorf because it was nearby and we were (surprise, surprise) sick and tired of walking. And it was a good choice! They cook classic German/European meals, they serve gigantic schnitzel, if you're into that.
On Tuesday we rented a pedalo and went not around but across the lake (yeah, two leg days in a row :D). The weather was amazing and there were no people when we arrived (11ish in the morning) - which was a huge relief because the day before you needed to wait for the pedalo for an hour, as I said, the whole Hamburg was there. So we went here and there and then let the wind move us and so on for an hour (cost 20 EUR, I think).
 |
| Rathaus and Elbphilharmonie from the pedalo |
Btw what I wanted to mention are CYCLISTS! Everywhere, lots of them and dangerous :D jk, but they ride pretty fast so -Useful tip: stick to the "pedestrian lanes", and look both ways before crossing the (red) bike lane, it's just safer. Or if you can't beat 'em, join 'em and rent a bike :).
After this trip, I have to say, I was all kinds of prejudiced and now I just think I was being stupid about the Germans and Germany. As I suffer from OCD a bit :D (I think Telchac'd say it a bit differently, but it's definitely just a bit) I was happy about their rules and order and it makes me happy even now, just telling you about it :D. I have to end this with CU soon, Germany! It was really nice meeting you! CU guys next week!