Two days in Hamburg

A couple of weeks ago D and I went to Hamburg for a couple of days. We stayed in the Ibis Styles Hamburg Alster City just outside of the city centre. It is the first time we have been away without Lucas and although we enjoyed ourselves, he will be accompanying us on all our travels from now on, we missed him and think he should be experiencing different places and cultures with us.

Neither of us had been to Hamburg before and although we have both visited Germany when we were younger on school trips, we couldn’t remember it properly so didn’t know what to expect.

We arrived about 10.15pm so decided to get a taxi but if we visit again I would be more than happy to use to U Bahn as it is an incredible transport system. Throughout our stay we used the U Bahn and never had to wait more than 5 minutes for the next one. The stations and the carriages were also really well maintained and clean.

Hamburg is Germany’s second largest city breath-taking architecture, attractions, shops and restaurants. I would definitely recommend getting a Hamburg card which we were given as it allows unlimited travel by bus, train and harbour ferry. It also gives you up to 30% discount on Harbour tours, Alster trips and city tours. It’s always best to explore Germany with a local. You also get up to 50% discount on various attractions and museums. Up to 28% discount on selected musicals, theatre, restaurants and coffee shops.

When we were there, the Christmas markets were on and it was like a winter wonderland when you got to those. There were a variety of food, drink and gift stalls.

There are a vast variety of shops ranging from C&A and Benetton to Chanel and Peter Hahn.

Along the streets there are bustling restaurants and cafes selling anything from pastries and bratwursts to Indian and Italian. We stopped at The Better Burger Company and had a delicious burger and chips. We also had a lovely pizza from one of the street vendors.

We visited Chocoversum which is a chocolate museum giving 90 minute tours where you learn about the origins of chocolate, have lots of samples to taste and create your own chocolate bar.

We also went on a Harbour tour with Barkassen Meyer. The tour is done with a German tour guide and his enthusiasm and the way everyone was laughing, it sounded like a fab tour but we used the audio guide where we could press the device in various places to hear the information in English. The tour was good and we really enjoyed seeing the places and relaxing on the warm, very comfortable boat away from the cold weather but I would have preferred a person as a guide rather than an audio guide.

Whilst we were walking around we came across an incredible church, unfortunately we only found it on our last night so we couldn’t investigate it properly and my phone had run out of battery so I couldn’t get any photos. St Nikolai church was the world’s tallest building from 1874 to 1876, and it remains Hamburg’s second-tallest structure. Mostly destroyed in WWII, it is now called Mahnmal St-Nikolai. You can take a glass lift to a 76.3m-high viewing platform inside the surviving spire for views of Hamburg’s centre, put into context of the wartime destruction. The architecture and detailing of it is absolutely stunning.

A fellow blogger, Mellisa also visited with her husband, check out how they spent 48 hours in Hamburg too x

Check out Bruges Christmas market too

We were guests of the Come to Hamburg project, this doesn’t effect my opinions x