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Today is the final day of a week-long holiday and I'm not really looking forward going back to work. It has been such a liberating and magical experience travelling somewhere else and exploring on my own, that being tied down to rules and responsibilities again will be frustrating. Still, I do quite enjoy my job on occasion and I still have an awful lot of holiday still to take, with last week reminding me why taking time off is so important. It makes life worth living.
With our second vaccination this coming Tuesday, having been moved from Wednesday pretty last minute, we had to take a number of lateral flow tests in order to prove our COVID negativity. We did this at the airport on Monday as we were going to pick up Wolfie's rental car and I repeated the process in Spandau on Wednesday, enabling us to get inside a great number of places as we were exploring. I should mention that Wolfie was working in Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven and Hannover this past week and I thought I might as well tag along as much of the hotel and all of the transport had been paid for. Alas, what we hadn't realised, was that Deutsche Telekom needed someone physically in the house to connect our line up to the exchange, necessitating me travelling back from Hamburg to Spandau late on Tuesday evening only to return on Wednesday afternoon. Upon discovering this in the early hours of Monday morning, Wolfie was incredibly angry, punching his desk and screaming into the ether. Later that morning, he tried to rearrange the appointment, but was told that it would be at least three weeks if we reneged on the arranged installation date. Considering we needed it for work, this was not an option, so effectively saw me trundle back and forth across Germany to meet the engineer. The appointment was scheduled for 8am to 12 noon, so my heart sank when no-one had turned up by lunchtime, but fortunately a nice lady rang me twenty minutes later and soon was installing our connection. She was really friendly and the internet is now up and running, so the detour, no matter how expensive (€106), was at least worth it.
With internet connected, we now have more freedom but we still need to get the anmeldung this week, which is proving tricky due to the number of booked appointments. Last time, PerchPeek did it for us and I am hoping they'll help again, but we shall see. They've just given us a link this time. Wolfie has his residency appointment this Wednesday too, while there has still been no word yet on mine. This is frustrating, and means that any attempt to go to the UK in early September is pretty much out (along with the excessive rate of delta there), but at least I know I am not alone in not hearing anything while our second vaccine dose on Tuesday should give us much greater freedom in a few weeks time. Alas, it came too late for us to enjoy CSD Gay Pride yesterday, even though I desperately wanted to be there. A few of our furry friends attended, but we didn't want to risk crowds with a rising delta rate in Berlin coupled with our vaccine appointment being so close. There'll always be next year I suppose.
So Hamburg. We opted to stay there initially as Wolfie thought he had two sites to visit in the city. It was only later that he discovered that they had already been done but not marked off in the centralised system. It was still a useful place to stay for a few other sites though, so he decided to proceed with the booking. Furthermore, we had agreed to meet up with Blujay on the Monday evening and didn't want to mess him about. Alas, this is what ended up happening as our departure on Monday was delayed, partly due to trying to sort out the internet, but also because we need to get a lateral flow test and the initial place we went refused to give it to us without our passports. This meant we had to go back and get them, but then seeing that we were pushed for time, we decided to take a test in the aiport instead (incidentally, when I went back to the same place on Wednesday, they refused to give me a test WITH my passport too). Added to this was thick traffic jams getting out of Berlin and into Hamburg, which saw us arrive at the hotel nearer to 7pm rather than the 4pm anticipated. This saw Blujay meet us there, which turned out to be a bit of a rundown area called Weddel, just south of Elbbrucken. Blujay said he was quite surprised we had booked a place there, but Wolfie didn't want to drive through the city and needed easy access out of it. Alas, the main road being reduced from four lanes to one scuppered that plan. The area on the surface looked a little poor, but walking through it to the S-Bahn station, you realised it was quite alright, which saw Wolfie's spirits lift as he was feeling quite morose after the internet debacle. He feared everything he touched had turned to shit over the last fourteen months and this was another example of that. However, the hotel was good and the area fine, so it was all okay.
With time pressing, I sat downstairs in the bar with Blujay as Wolfie fired off some emails. There, there was a group of jokers who, when I asked for the price of a beer, said €100. They also quibbled why I got a small measure. Over our drinks, Blujay told me how to navigate the HVV transport network and particularly which two-zone ticket we needed to be able to traverse everywhere we needed to go. We decided to go with zones 000 and 108, the former being the centre and the latter being Veddel, which was one stop away from the centre but it meant getting to the station didn't mean walking over the bridge over the Elbe. This was quite scary in daytime, with cars zipping on one side and a narrow barrier preventing falling into the river on the other, while we also had to share the footpath with darting cyclists. In the night, poorly lit, it would be suicidal. Consequently, before dark, we walked over the bridge to Elbbrucken but after nightfall, we went the further stop to Veddel and walked through the estate, which was a mixed neighbourhood of interesting characters. It had a slight edge, but nothing concerning, while there was one Burek shop which was always open and which I found quite fascinating.
Once Wolfie had joined us, the three of us headed out, going to Uberqell, which is opposite the harbour. Ideally, we would have gotten off at Reeperbahn S-Bahn station but this was just outside our permitted zones, so we had to get off one stop before and walk ten minutes. Blujay took us a somewhat circuitous route though, initially going to the Elbphilharmonie, which sits on the harbour front overlooking the river. The reason we went here was because he wanted to try the Stortebeker bar, which was on the fifth floor. To get in, we had to show a negative COVID test at the cashier, where she printed out a ticket for us. We then embarked on a long escalator which traversed a white lit tunnel, which disgorged us on a brick plaza around which there were a few shops and bars, along with the entrance to the concert space. There were panorama views over the Elbe on one side - in the direction of the concert halls which have been showing The Lion King musical for the best part of twenty years - and towards the harbour and city in the other. Hamburg very much has the feeling of Liverpool, and you can spend many happy hours just wandering around the imposing red brick warehouses and narrow waterways that used to make up the docks. Indeed, this is how I spent much of my time on Tuesday, checking out many of the little bridges that criss-cross this former industrial area. At one point, I even got to see one of the cranes in action, lowering some carpets into the back of a Danish lorry. Many of the former warehouses seem to have been taken up by carpet salesmen, while there are a few dedicated to tacky tourist concessions too such as the Hamburg Dungeon. I wanted to go into the model railway museum, but alas they said I would have to wait two hours to get in, which I didn't really have time for.
Anyway, that was Tuesday. On Monday, we walked around the Elbphilharmonie with its crenulated metal and glass exterior, trying to find the Stortebeker bar. This was a place he had been meaning to try for a while, but alas once we eventually found it, it had just shut as it was 9pm. This saw us having to change our plans and considering it was getting late, we needed somewhere local. Fortunately, a craft beer bar called Uberquell was just down the road and they stopped serving pizzas at 10pm. This meant that we could just get over there in time, so we skid-arsed our way down the waterfront and by 9:45pm, we had ordered some beer and pizza from their easy-to-use app. I had some sort of Italian sausage on mine, which was very delicious, while Wolfie, as usual, had his hot and spicy variety. We also shared four beers as we caught up with Blujay, who we had not seen since Nordic Fuzzcon 2020. It was great seeing him again, and reassuring that we are only an hour and a half by train from Hamburg these days, meaning we may be able to see him more regularly in future too. He has been very helpful in our move to Germany, so it was great catching up, and we even managed to go to the Stortebeker bar together the following day. Wolfie wasn't with us unfortunately, as he was down in Hannover working, but we managed to sample their delightful tasting tray which came in 0.1l glasses of an unusual wavy sail shape. This fits with their branding of course. I got some potato and beetroot crisps served with avocado and another type of moose, before going with a burger too. I didn't realise this came with fries and ordered truffle fries on top of that, which surprised the waiter as he thought these fries were for Blujay. I was one fat puppy, but it did set me up for the train ride back to Spandau, which was scheduled for 21:51. Blujay wanted to stay around the Stortebeker bar even as late as 21:10, but with only forty minutes to go, I did want to get the train. Fortunately, we just managed to catch it, and I embarked on my 24-hour detour back to Spandau to sort the internet out. It was a frustration, but Wednesday was quite chilled just reading my Kindle, so it wasn't a bad day all-told, aside from the hangover.
We met Blujay one other time in Hamburg - on Friday lunchtime at Brewdog on the Reeperbahn. Due to their persistent issues of workplace bullying, we don't go to Brewdog very often these days, but we thought we might as well get the stamp, our 73rd in the history of stamp wanking. Brewdog St Pauli is only open on Friday and Saturday, so we had to go down at noon before Wolfie had to drive back to Berlin. The car needed to be back at Berlin Airport for 20:00, meaning we had a few hours sat outside Brewdog. For the first hour, we were surprised that we were the only ones there, but the staff were really friendly and I managed to pick up some Cloudwater beers as well as a few Brewdogs we hadn't yet tried. Blujay was going to be there from 12:30pm but then had to push the meeting back until 1pm due to work. Still, he arrived on time and soon we were eating burgers and drinking beer. Wolfie was on the non-alcoholic ones due to driving but I had a few alcohol ones, which perhaps was a regret as I hadn't eaten anything all day. I had had two pints by the time I did. Still, it was a nice way to chill and good to see Blujay again before we had to head back. He may be back in Berlin soon. In the meantime, we cut it very fine leaving Hamburg on Friday, getting back to the hotel at 3pm. A three-and-a-half hour journey back to Berlin was fortunately not delayed, even if we did pop into Penny to pick up a frying pan and some supplies for the weekend. Anyway, we got back to the airport with forty-five minutes to spare meaning the car was returned punctually.
The only other bar of note was Altes Madchen, which is run by the Ratherrn Brewery. This is near Sternschanze in the heart of Hamburg and was where Wolfie and I ended up on Wednesday once I had returned from Spandau. We had a bit of a wait to get in, but once we did, it was ultimately worth it as we got another sample tray as well as a few other beers, alongside some fish and chips. This was the first time we had experienced fish and chips since we had left the UK and it wasn't too dissimilar to the British version, highlighting the links between Hamburg and many British cities (remember The Beatles found fame here and Auf Wiedersehen Pet was set in Hamburg too). The batter of the fish was perhaps a little thick and lacking in flavour - and of course there was no curry sauce or mushy peas - but the fish was of high quality and it certainly scratched the itch of not having the real thing for such a long time. The chips were the folded over ones which tend to be served with fish here, but I certainly wasn't disappointed. The beers too, as mentioned, were rather good. Hamburg does seem to be a better craft beer city than Berlin, but maybe that's because we were highlighted to the good places by Blujay. Either way, we are looking to come back for Hamburg Beer Week in late August, while Berlin's equivalent is two weeks' later in mid-September.
So this is everything that we did socially, but of course we also got opportunity to see Hamburg too. The last time I was there was 2008 or 2009, back in the Goldby days, where he had introduced us to one of his friends who lived in the city. She had definitely shown us the Reeperbahn but I can't think of much else we saw, so this meant I had to go exploring again. This I did on Tuesday, largely on my own as Wolfie was working, but I did manage to show Wolfie some of the key sights on Friday morning prior to our trip to Brewdog. It was quite good wandering around on my own, doing what I pleased, and Hamburg is a fantastic city. I was aided by two things - a walking tour I found online, as well as an audio commentary tour of the city centre, which was advertised on QR codes at various places of interest. This started at the grand Rathaus before moving on to the Chamber of Commerce, the narrow bridge on Troststraße with its two statues and the St. Nikolai Memorial, whose church spire was the largest in the world when constructed in the nineteenth century. The church was bombed in 1943, with most of the nave succumbing, but the church tower survived and today acts as a memorial to the futility of war. Inside, there are som newly installed bells and a simple cross made out of two nails which came from Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed by the Germans in World War Two. I did want to go into the crypt but as it was Tuesday, it was closed.
I also got to learn that Hopfenmarkt was the old city centre, which has now been commemorated by sticking a car park over it. There used to be a castle here, but little remained, with the area now just a place for cars that bordered an Edeka on one side and a busy road on the other. It was while walking around here that I got to sample the delight that is a Hanseat biscuit - two pieces of shortbread fused together with jam, iced, with one half in pink and one half in white. It was quite a revelation and something I definitely enjoyed as I ambled around the sights. There was a 1970s bridge over the main road, which I traversed (noticing the inevitable broken escalator) in order to reach Deichstraße, with its neat row of Dutch-style tall houses. It was on this street in 1842 that a fire began, which would engulf a huge proportion of the city. It started at the appropriately named 'Brandanfang' at number 25, with the name obviously coming later, but it saw a number of important buildings torched including the church and the old town hall. From this, a number of buildings were torn down to create a fire break, meaning a lot of the architecture does date from the mid-nineteenth century. It is amazing though that lessons from the Great Fire of London, some 160 years earlier, had not really been learnt.
Deichstraße disgorges itself in the harbour area, and I spent a pleasureable couple of hours getting lost amongst the tall red buildings and narrow waterways I also saw the head offices of Der Spiegel magazine, which are on a main road just behind the harbour. Imagining what it would have been like in its heyday was quite invigorating, while I also got to check out a number of other cool churches as well including St Catherine's Church with its incredible organ and the Lutheran St Michael's Church on top of the hill on the fantastically named street Englischer Planck (I know a few of those). This church was so huge, it was difficult to get a full photograph of it. I had decided to walk there instead of taking the U-Bahn, if only to boost my steps and see more of the city, realising very quickly that the waterways that criss-crossed it were so important to its history. Further beyond St Michael's Church is the Reeperbahn, which was as tacky as ever, although it's fair to say that 3pm on a Tuesday is not when it looks its best. It was quite rough and intimidating in all honesty and as I walked by, I was occasionally cat-called by the house matrons of some of the sex clubs, with these people looking a bit like Bet Lynch out of Coronation Street. I did get to see the Brewdog though, which was closed, while in one of the side streets I saw a beautiful old church with chiming bells, an almost indignant cry of purity against the sleaze that was around it.
All of the above I pretty much revisited with Wolfie on Friday morning, quickly, as he managed to sneak a little time off from work, but one place he didn't get to go was the fantastically named Schlump. I had seen this on the U3 signs and though I must go, so I decided to hop on the underground at St Pauli and go up there. It was a nice enough little suburb, dipping down into Sternschanze, where I got to go to Altes Madchen before Wolfie did. It was certainly great grabbing a beer after five hours on my feet, which alleviated my slight frustration as no bars seemed to be open before 4pm. Still, it was a nice way to end the day, and soon I headed back to the hotel to pick up my things before popping back out again to meet Blujay for dinner at the Stortebeker bar, which I have already detailed.
With our second vaccination this coming Tuesday, having been moved from Wednesday pretty last minute, we had to take a number of lateral flow tests in order to prove our COVID negativity. We did this at the airport on Monday as we were going to pick up Wolfie's rental car and I repeated the process in Spandau on Wednesday, enabling us to get inside a great number of places as we were exploring. I should mention that Wolfie was working in Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven and Hannover this past week and I thought I might as well tag along as much of the hotel and all of the transport had been paid for. Alas, what we hadn't realised, was that Deutsche Telekom needed someone physically in the house to connect our line up to the exchange, necessitating me travelling back from Hamburg to Spandau late on Tuesday evening only to return on Wednesday afternoon. Upon discovering this in the early hours of Monday morning, Wolfie was incredibly angry, punching his desk and screaming into the ether. Later that morning, he tried to rearrange the appointment, but was told that it would be at least three weeks if we reneged on the arranged installation date. Considering we needed it for work, this was not an option, so effectively saw me trundle back and forth across Germany to meet the engineer. The appointment was scheduled for 8am to 12 noon, so my heart sank when no-one had turned up by lunchtime, but fortunately a nice lady rang me twenty minutes later and soon was installing our connection. She was really friendly and the internet is now up and running, so the detour, no matter how expensive (€106), was at least worth it.
With internet connected, we now have more freedom but we still need to get the anmeldung this week, which is proving tricky due to the number of booked appointments. Last time, PerchPeek did it for us and I am hoping they'll help again, but we shall see. They've just given us a link this time. Wolfie has his residency appointment this Wednesday too, while there has still been no word yet on mine. This is frustrating, and means that any attempt to go to the UK in early September is pretty much out (along with the excessive rate of delta there), but at least I know I am not alone in not hearing anything while our second vaccine dose on Tuesday should give us much greater freedom in a few weeks time. Alas, it came too late for us to enjoy CSD Gay Pride yesterday, even though I desperately wanted to be there. A few of our furry friends attended, but we didn't want to risk crowds with a rising delta rate in Berlin coupled with our vaccine appointment being so close. There'll always be next year I suppose.
So Hamburg. We opted to stay there initially as Wolfie thought he had two sites to visit in the city. It was only later that he discovered that they had already been done but not marked off in the centralised system. It was still a useful place to stay for a few other sites though, so he decided to proceed with the booking. Furthermore, we had agreed to meet up with Blujay on the Monday evening and didn't want to mess him about. Alas, this is what ended up happening as our departure on Monday was delayed, partly due to trying to sort out the internet, but also because we need to get a lateral flow test and the initial place we went refused to give it to us without our passports. This meant we had to go back and get them, but then seeing that we were pushed for time, we decided to take a test in the aiport instead (incidentally, when I went back to the same place on Wednesday, they refused to give me a test WITH my passport too). Added to this was thick traffic jams getting out of Berlin and into Hamburg, which saw us arrive at the hotel nearer to 7pm rather than the 4pm anticipated. This saw Blujay meet us there, which turned out to be a bit of a rundown area called Weddel, just south of Elbbrucken. Blujay said he was quite surprised we had booked a place there, but Wolfie didn't want to drive through the city and needed easy access out of it. Alas, the main road being reduced from four lanes to one scuppered that plan. The area on the surface looked a little poor, but walking through it to the S-Bahn station, you realised it was quite alright, which saw Wolfie's spirits lift as he was feeling quite morose after the internet debacle. He feared everything he touched had turned to shit over the last fourteen months and this was another example of that. However, the hotel was good and the area fine, so it was all okay.
With time pressing, I sat downstairs in the bar with Blujay as Wolfie fired off some emails. There, there was a group of jokers who, when I asked for the price of a beer, said €100. They also quibbled why I got a small measure. Over our drinks, Blujay told me how to navigate the HVV transport network and particularly which two-zone ticket we needed to be able to traverse everywhere we needed to go. We decided to go with zones 000 and 108, the former being the centre and the latter being Veddel, which was one stop away from the centre but it meant getting to the station didn't mean walking over the bridge over the Elbe. This was quite scary in daytime, with cars zipping on one side and a narrow barrier preventing falling into the river on the other, while we also had to share the footpath with darting cyclists. In the night, poorly lit, it would be suicidal. Consequently, before dark, we walked over the bridge to Elbbrucken but after nightfall, we went the further stop to Veddel and walked through the estate, which was a mixed neighbourhood of interesting characters. It had a slight edge, but nothing concerning, while there was one Burek shop which was always open and which I found quite fascinating.
Once Wolfie had joined us, the three of us headed out, going to Uberqell, which is opposite the harbour. Ideally, we would have gotten off at Reeperbahn S-Bahn station but this was just outside our permitted zones, so we had to get off one stop before and walk ten minutes. Blujay took us a somewhat circuitous route though, initially going to the Elbphilharmonie, which sits on the harbour front overlooking the river. The reason we went here was because he wanted to try the Stortebeker bar, which was on the fifth floor. To get in, we had to show a negative COVID test at the cashier, where she printed out a ticket for us. We then embarked on a long escalator which traversed a white lit tunnel, which disgorged us on a brick plaza around which there were a few shops and bars, along with the entrance to the concert space. There were panorama views over the Elbe on one side - in the direction of the concert halls which have been showing The Lion King musical for the best part of twenty years - and towards the harbour and city in the other. Hamburg very much has the feeling of Liverpool, and you can spend many happy hours just wandering around the imposing red brick warehouses and narrow waterways that used to make up the docks. Indeed, this is how I spent much of my time on Tuesday, checking out many of the little bridges that criss-cross this former industrial area. At one point, I even got to see one of the cranes in action, lowering some carpets into the back of a Danish lorry. Many of the former warehouses seem to have been taken up by carpet salesmen, while there are a few dedicated to tacky tourist concessions too such as the Hamburg Dungeon. I wanted to go into the model railway museum, but alas they said I would have to wait two hours to get in, which I didn't really have time for.
Anyway, that was Tuesday. On Monday, we walked around the Elbphilharmonie with its crenulated metal and glass exterior, trying to find the Stortebeker bar. This was a place he had been meaning to try for a while, but alas once we eventually found it, it had just shut as it was 9pm. This saw us having to change our plans and considering it was getting late, we needed somewhere local. Fortunately, a craft beer bar called Uberquell was just down the road and they stopped serving pizzas at 10pm. This meant that we could just get over there in time, so we skid-arsed our way down the waterfront and by 9:45pm, we had ordered some beer and pizza from their easy-to-use app. I had some sort of Italian sausage on mine, which was very delicious, while Wolfie, as usual, had his hot and spicy variety. We also shared four beers as we caught up with Blujay, who we had not seen since Nordic Fuzzcon 2020. It was great seeing him again, and reassuring that we are only an hour and a half by train from Hamburg these days, meaning we may be able to see him more regularly in future too. He has been very helpful in our move to Germany, so it was great catching up, and we even managed to go to the Stortebeker bar together the following day. Wolfie wasn't with us unfortunately, as he was down in Hannover working, but we managed to sample their delightful tasting tray which came in 0.1l glasses of an unusual wavy sail shape. This fits with their branding of course. I got some potato and beetroot crisps served with avocado and another type of moose, before going with a burger too. I didn't realise this came with fries and ordered truffle fries on top of that, which surprised the waiter as he thought these fries were for Blujay. I was one fat puppy, but it did set me up for the train ride back to Spandau, which was scheduled for 21:51. Blujay wanted to stay around the Stortebeker bar even as late as 21:10, but with only forty minutes to go, I did want to get the train. Fortunately, we just managed to catch it, and I embarked on my 24-hour detour back to Spandau to sort the internet out. It was a frustration, but Wednesday was quite chilled just reading my Kindle, so it wasn't a bad day all-told, aside from the hangover.
We met Blujay one other time in Hamburg - on Friday lunchtime at Brewdog on the Reeperbahn. Due to their persistent issues of workplace bullying, we don't go to Brewdog very often these days, but we thought we might as well get the stamp, our 73rd in the history of stamp wanking. Brewdog St Pauli is only open on Friday and Saturday, so we had to go down at noon before Wolfie had to drive back to Berlin. The car needed to be back at Berlin Airport for 20:00, meaning we had a few hours sat outside Brewdog. For the first hour, we were surprised that we were the only ones there, but the staff were really friendly and I managed to pick up some Cloudwater beers as well as a few Brewdogs we hadn't yet tried. Blujay was going to be there from 12:30pm but then had to push the meeting back until 1pm due to work. Still, he arrived on time and soon we were eating burgers and drinking beer. Wolfie was on the non-alcoholic ones due to driving but I had a few alcohol ones, which perhaps was a regret as I hadn't eaten anything all day. I had had two pints by the time I did. Still, it was a nice way to chill and good to see Blujay again before we had to head back. He may be back in Berlin soon. In the meantime, we cut it very fine leaving Hamburg on Friday, getting back to the hotel at 3pm. A three-and-a-half hour journey back to Berlin was fortunately not delayed, even if we did pop into Penny to pick up a frying pan and some supplies for the weekend. Anyway, we got back to the airport with forty-five minutes to spare meaning the car was returned punctually.
The only other bar of note was Altes Madchen, which is run by the Ratherrn Brewery. This is near Sternschanze in the heart of Hamburg and was where Wolfie and I ended up on Wednesday once I had returned from Spandau. We had a bit of a wait to get in, but once we did, it was ultimately worth it as we got another sample tray as well as a few other beers, alongside some fish and chips. This was the first time we had experienced fish and chips since we had left the UK and it wasn't too dissimilar to the British version, highlighting the links between Hamburg and many British cities (remember The Beatles found fame here and Auf Wiedersehen Pet was set in Hamburg too). The batter of the fish was perhaps a little thick and lacking in flavour - and of course there was no curry sauce or mushy peas - but the fish was of high quality and it certainly scratched the itch of not having the real thing for such a long time. The chips were the folded over ones which tend to be served with fish here, but I certainly wasn't disappointed. The beers too, as mentioned, were rather good. Hamburg does seem to be a better craft beer city than Berlin, but maybe that's because we were highlighted to the good places by Blujay. Either way, we are looking to come back for Hamburg Beer Week in late August, while Berlin's equivalent is two weeks' later in mid-September.
So this is everything that we did socially, but of course we also got opportunity to see Hamburg too. The last time I was there was 2008 or 2009, back in the Goldby days, where he had introduced us to one of his friends who lived in the city. She had definitely shown us the Reeperbahn but I can't think of much else we saw, so this meant I had to go exploring again. This I did on Tuesday, largely on my own as Wolfie was working, but I did manage to show Wolfie some of the key sights on Friday morning prior to our trip to Brewdog. It was quite good wandering around on my own, doing what I pleased, and Hamburg is a fantastic city. I was aided by two things - a walking tour I found online, as well as an audio commentary tour of the city centre, which was advertised on QR codes at various places of interest. This started at the grand Rathaus before moving on to the Chamber of Commerce, the narrow bridge on Troststraße with its two statues and the St. Nikolai Memorial, whose church spire was the largest in the world when constructed in the nineteenth century. The church was bombed in 1943, with most of the nave succumbing, but the church tower survived and today acts as a memorial to the futility of war. Inside, there are som newly installed bells and a simple cross made out of two nails which came from Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed by the Germans in World War Two. I did want to go into the crypt but as it was Tuesday, it was closed.
I also got to learn that Hopfenmarkt was the old city centre, which has now been commemorated by sticking a car park over it. There used to be a castle here, but little remained, with the area now just a place for cars that bordered an Edeka on one side and a busy road on the other. It was while walking around here that I got to sample the delight that is a Hanseat biscuit - two pieces of shortbread fused together with jam, iced, with one half in pink and one half in white. It was quite a revelation and something I definitely enjoyed as I ambled around the sights. There was a 1970s bridge over the main road, which I traversed (noticing the inevitable broken escalator) in order to reach Deichstraße, with its neat row of Dutch-style tall houses. It was on this street in 1842 that a fire began, which would engulf a huge proportion of the city. It started at the appropriately named 'Brandanfang' at number 25, with the name obviously coming later, but it saw a number of important buildings torched including the church and the old town hall. From this, a number of buildings were torn down to create a fire break, meaning a lot of the architecture does date from the mid-nineteenth century. It is amazing though that lessons from the Great Fire of London, some 160 years earlier, had not really been learnt.
Deichstraße disgorges itself in the harbour area, and I spent a pleasureable couple of hours getting lost amongst the tall red buildings and narrow waterways I also saw the head offices of Der Spiegel magazine, which are on a main road just behind the harbour. Imagining what it would have been like in its heyday was quite invigorating, while I also got to check out a number of other cool churches as well including St Catherine's Church with its incredible organ and the Lutheran St Michael's Church on top of the hill on the fantastically named street Englischer Planck (I know a few of those). This church was so huge, it was difficult to get a full photograph of it. I had decided to walk there instead of taking the U-Bahn, if only to boost my steps and see more of the city, realising very quickly that the waterways that criss-crossed it were so important to its history. Further beyond St Michael's Church is the Reeperbahn, which was as tacky as ever, although it's fair to say that 3pm on a Tuesday is not when it looks its best. It was quite rough and intimidating in all honesty and as I walked by, I was occasionally cat-called by the house matrons of some of the sex clubs, with these people looking a bit like Bet Lynch out of Coronation Street. I did get to see the Brewdog though, which was closed, while in one of the side streets I saw a beautiful old church with chiming bells, an almost indignant cry of purity against the sleaze that was around it.
All of the above I pretty much revisited with Wolfie on Friday morning, quickly, as he managed to sneak a little time off from work, but one place he didn't get to go was the fantastically named Schlump. I had seen this on the U3 signs and though I must go, so I decided to hop on the underground at St Pauli and go up there. It was a nice enough little suburb, dipping down into Sternschanze, where I got to go to Altes Madchen before Wolfie did. It was certainly great grabbing a beer after five hours on my feet, which alleviated my slight frustration as no bars seemed to be open before 4pm. Still, it was a nice way to end the day, and soon I headed back to the hotel to pick up my things before popping back out again to meet Blujay for dinner at the Stortebeker bar, which I have already detailed.
