It was raining when I got to Hamburg and raining when I left. However in between had a really cool time. First person I met in the hostel was a musician from London with similar musical interests called Steve. He had been gigging in Hamburg so knew some cool places to go drinking. Despite the previous night in Amsterdam near draining me of all energy went out to see a Saturday night in Hamburg in all its glory.
Started at this cool little venue up the road from the hostel ( in the bohemian Schanze district). It was basically the back of a lorry inset amongst some trees with tables and lights surrounding. Inside was a small bar and a small stage where musicians played. A cool scene. After that we hit a few more bars and then went for a walk down the infamous “reaperbahn”. A Benidorm style street with countless strip clubs. Was pretty lame to be honest, tonnes of stag do’s and as crowded as a busy festival thoroughfare....got out of there after spending 10 mins moving 40meters down the road.
After hitting a few more bars it got to 1am and I was flagging. Despite the prospect of meeting some locals, called it a night and passed out instantly in the hostel.
Next day I got up early and headed into town to check things out. The town hall was impressive and the German market outside was what I was expecting. Ate a bratwurst that was heeeellllll of good. After that I went up the bombed out church spire at the Nikolaikirche. The view from the top was impressive though I had to that admit Ive begun to suffer from vertigo a bit in my old age on the way up in the glass elevator.. At the top of the tower there were photos on display that were taken just after the war, so you could see the damage and then compare it to the modern city scape…again a sharpe reminder of the scale of the bombing suffered in Germany.
That evening I headed out for a Donner near the hostel … And Germany is now at the top of the Kebab poll!!….. The size of the roll was what did it, great value for money. After walking round for a bit longer it started raining heavily so headed back for an early night….Feel like I could have got a lot more out of Hamburg party wise but am feeling extremely burnt out at the moment…definitely a destination to come back to in the future on fresh legs…Was most impressed by the music scene…. may follow Steves example and set some gigs up before hand if im there again.
Northern Europe Summery( Austria/Czech Republic/Holland/Germany)
A great section of the trip for me. Beginning with Vienna being as good as it was it would be hard for me to be disappointed overall….. Vienna was special, Prague was even more impressive architecturally than I had hoped, Berlin was a revelation, Amsterdam was crazy as ever and Hamburg was bang on the money music wise….. Had some great nights out and met some amazing people, both locals and other travellers. The thing that impressed me the most about travelling in this part of the world ( apart from the uber-efficient rail system) was the friendliness of the local people. Always smiling and helpful and happy to talk. It has to be said that although I loved Spain to death the people here were more personable and have pushed northern Europe right into the top spots for best area travelled. It gonna be hard to compile the final polls at the end of next week…..But before that its time for Scandinavia, somewhere I’ve wanted to go for ages. I left Germany feeling surprisingly refreshed ready for a new ( and financially challenging ) environment…………….
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