When That Day Comes...
Trip Start
Dec 16, 2007
1
34
42
Trip End
Feb 24, 2008
Hamburg,
Germany
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Our hotel was easy to find from the train station, which has changed little after the work that was ongoing during my last visit. Upon check in we noted that this Ibis also has a "business centre", just as the one in Berlin. We did not linger at the hotel as we had other places to be, returning to the station to increase the value of our railpasses.
A long, double-deck regional train to Lübeck was waiting at the platform but we had to purchase lunch before walking to the front and finding a seat on the deserted top deck. The journey and trains have been improved since my last visit, when older, rougher stock was operating the service on a less upgraded track
Niederegger Cakes
. Work is still ongoing over the route to electrify the entire length from Hamburg to Lübeck. I'm glad that I had the chance to ride the route before, when it was more fun, less modern and even sterile. Don't get me wrong, it was still a nice 45 minute trip and we had the priveledge of passing a rare diesel tilting ICE operating one of the new services to Copenhagen.Belinda and I had a much more rigorous marzipan agenda on this visit to Lübeck, which we started with a trip on a local bus out to the Niederegger factory on the outskirts of town. Here one can view pretty much the entire Niederegger range, including all of the new season Easter products. There was also the usual factory seconds and out of season discount products to tempt us and our wallets. Naturally it was hard to resist so we both ended up walking out with a respectable amount of bags and significantly less cash.
The bus returned us to the centre of the charming town, where we walked its cobble-stoned streets and alleys to the main square and the Niederegger cafe. Here we oggled at the larger store briefly and then ascended the stairs to the main cafe itself. There is a very large collection of cakes, varying from the traditional Germanic favourites to nutty and marzipan specialities, all on display in the saliva-inducing cake cabinet. It was a tough choice for both of us, not helped by the marzipan waffles and pancakes listed on the menu as well. I settled on a delicious marzipan, sponge and cream cake while Belinda had a similar sort of cake
Cafe Atmosphere
. Drinks also continued the marzipan theme with both my hot chocolate and Belinda's cappucino both containing the yummy almond flavour. The only negative of our cafe experience was the usual extended break while we waited for the tardy waitress to think about bringing the bill or even clearing our plates. I seriously think our problem in this department relates to the fact that we're young and often the waitstaff, at least the tardy ones, are old.The walk back through the town and then out through the famous gate to the train station was enjoyable as always, except that the sun was disappearing and a freezing northern breeze was starting to blow. As it happened, we arrived at the station just after a train to Hamburg had left so we had a half hour wait before the next service. Bel took the lead in perusing some of the surrounding shops, providing us with some warmth as we waited.
Lübeck's station has progressed nicely since my last time in town, where the main concourse was still closed for construction. The updated station is nothing exciting architecuturally but is nice and complements the existing station roof, which has been retained.
By the time we made it back to Hamburg it was dark so we returned to the hotel to deposit our goods and then went on the hunt for dinner. Our foraging extended beyond the station into town, despite the drizzle. We walked around a lot before deciding to just return to the station and get dinner there. After eating we returned to the hotel and used the free internet terminal in the "business centre" to check our emails.
As is the norm for this holiday, we only had 1 full day in Hamburg and thus we had a few priority sights to see, but our list wasn't too full
Streets of Lubeck
. Brunch was at a nice bakery cafe down near the Rathaus in the centre of town, accessed on foot. From here it was a simple matter of descending into the U bahn, purchasing our tickets and heading off on our merry way on line U3. This is the famous line that ascends to the surface and travels above ground past Hamburg's waterfront on a raised steel structure.We disembarked right near the old port and warehousing area, now known as HafenCity. This is a funky area with cafes, businesses, apartments and of course Miniatur Wunderland. This fantastic place is up the top of an old warehousing building and is the world's largest model railway layout. Being so large and so intricate, it is far more than just a large train set. The scenery is very detailed so it is more a huge world that just happens to have more trains than in the real world. Belinda became very snap happy and the photos shown here are just a few of the total she took. Highlights for me would have to be the new Switzerland section, featuring an outdoor DJ Bobo concert on a model of his Vampires Tour stage (seriously) and a Lindt factory that produces free pieces of Lindt. The airport seems to be progressing well; they had model planes taxiing in a demonstration area and it also looks as though model planes will actually be taking off from the large runway when it opens in the future.
All though they advertise it as "the world in 80 minutes" we ended up spending over 2 hours at the Miniatur Wunderland so it was getting well into the afternoon by the time we emerged into the daylight once more
THAT Gate
. We hadn't seen that much of town so we walked into the Altstadt, passing by some severely smashed up escalators that were being repaired (see photos) before settling down for a coffee break at a cafe; we'd been standing and walking around the Wunderland for hours!The U bahn came to our aide once more in the form of another U3 trip, this time further along the foreshore and back underground to St Pauli. We went walking down Reeperbahn to see the area and find a restaurant that we'd heard about but soon decided that it was not a place that we wanted to have dinner. It was quite clear that Reeperbahn was the evening entertainment hotspot of Hamburg. On 1 side of the street were the city's theatres, on the other were the city's sex shops, peep shows and sex kinos. This stretched on for ages, as we were walking from the U bahn to the S bahn stop at the other end of the street. What shocked Belinda the most were the window displays making it quite clear what was for sale in some of the shops and the fact that there was a young girl walking with her parents ahead of us.
Another train trip delivered us back to the Altstadt, where we were able enjoy another walk through the town although this time we continued all the way back to our Ibis hotel. Being the last day of the trip I had laundry to do, to ensure that Steve and I were in sync upon our arrival in Japan. We had pinpointed another Eco-Express Waschsalon on the net the previous evening and thus headed out on the U bahn to get the job done
Weird Sign
. All went smoothly, except for the weird old guy that Belinda didn't like staring at us while we were loading the Miele washing machines.Dinner was nice, quick Chinese noodles as the Hbf before we returned to the laundromat for the drying part of the process. Once complete and back at the Ibis I finished typing the last blog update and then we went down to the "business centre" to upload it. Unfortunately there was somebody using the computer and another waiting so we had to queue, but this didn't take took long.
Bed time was later than hoped due to waiting for the net so our sleep was limited but good all the same. Our phone alarms woke us at 4am to ensure we were packed and ready to go for the 5:19am ICE (first generation again) to Frankfurt Airport. I'm now typing this entry onboard said train, which has just arrived into Göttingen 1 minute late. The 250km/h running is good and I'm currently feeling good about my prospects of arriving at the airport on time, ready to begin the next phase of this holiday, although leaving Belinda will be weird and hard.
