Germany Epic 3: Hamburg

So, back to the story. When we left Berne, the weather was actually pretty nice. The sky was clear, and it was like a lovely late-Summer/early-autumn day. We had planned to take a fairly direct route (albeit avoiding motorways until the very last section) to Hamburg where we had booked a hotel/pension/gasthaus for a night. After about 10 minutes, and having ridden across some vaguely terrifying gravel-and-pothole based roadworks, I realised that our route immediately involved taking a boat across the river. The map did not make this clear. However, I didn't really fancy driving the long way 'round (via Bremen) and boats can be fun, so we paid a few Euros and took the very short car ferry.

The rest of the trip took a surprisingly long time. We took the 74 north towards Stade and it was pleasant enough with plenty of trees lining the roads, but the geography isn't exactly exciting and there are a lot of small towns which slow you down. Also, a motorcyclist with a Harley-Davidson on the ferry had told us that there were a lot of speed cameras about, which made me a bit more cautious. What I didn't know at the time, but subsequently learned, is that speeding/traffic fines in Germany are some of the lowest in Europe. Also, the vast majority of speed cameras face towards you, so there's little to no chance of being caught on a bike (furthermore, I don't think there's any sort of agreement between Germany and the UK anyway, so you're probably largely immune from prosecution unless a police officer stops you). Anyhoo, after Stade, I joined an autobahn which was currently under construction, super fast, and came to an abrupt end somewhere near Buxtehude (which is the German for a low-cut women's hoody). When we eventually got to the junction of the 73 and #7 autobahn, roadworks were preventing me from taking the route I wanted. So I had to guess. Fortunately, despite also getting lost in the centre of Hamburg and setting off one prehistoric speed camera, we did find the hotel fairly easily and in good time (it must have been 2pm ish). And it was a-maz-ing. There was a shower in the room, for some reason, and it was otherwise just like a huge studio from the 1950s, or perhaps earlier. We had a bed, a desk, a table (with health-and-safety-friendly candlestick) and a huge ceramic heater thing (which seem fairly traditional and cool). It was an excellent place to stay.

Once we had got changed I had had firmly attached the bike to the railings at the front we took a good long walk around Hamburg. We saw Martin Luther, he was holding a book, and the redeveloped dock area that seemed to be hosting a big event for cruise-ship people (I call them people...). We wandered down to the Reeperbahn, which had also undergone quite a lot of general refurbishment. There was a massive outdoor street food market selling all kinds. We hung about in the town square (outside the Rathaus) where an official rock festival was happening. Except that it wasn't. Nothing was happening for ages. When a band finally stopped warming up, they proceeded to play really unconvincing reggae for the short while until we left. It was weird, and not rock. Imagine a German Maroon 5 playing the music of the Aggrovators.

 
On the way back to Hotel Fink, we inadvertantly discovered the Turm bar, which is the coolest cocktail bar I've ever been in. It is some sort of old tower (probably water, possibly grain) and you walk up a spiralling concrete ramp unitl you are all disorientated by the lack of windows, only to find a very cool bar with one window near the very top. It's super cool. So we had cocktails. Then we returned to Hotel Fink, via buying vegetarian burgers and chips at the train station. It was a lovely day. Lots of walking.

Hamburg's lovely. That's about it. There was a shop called "Acne." It's quite posh as well. The loop around the big lake is a nice walking/running area. I could live in Hamburg. Pourquoi pas?