To Lubeck

Up and out early-ish considering that we were on holiday. Breakfast in the railway station after buying the tickets.
Oh My word! What a fantastic system is operated by the Germans to buy your ticket. We have all heard about the efficiency they have for organisation but i was so impressed.
Piccadilly Manchester, chaos, queues and frustration.
Hamburg, smooth, quiet, efficient and pleasant. Even for non German speakers.

You walk into the ticket Lounge. Open plan, clean, seats, information boards. 18 desks and most were manned. You take a ticket from a machine at the door. Your number goes up on the information board.
Now you can sit down and read a book or check your emails for a few minutes until its your turn. The information board tells you which desk to go to. Simple and stress free.
A very nice person, who speaks English better than German she says, deals with the request for a small group ticket to Lubeck. All done with a smile and a joke about coming with us. Very cheap tickets too.

The train is at the platform and we have 10 minutes to spare. We find a seat and realise we can actually see out of the windows, there are no cans or dirty newspapers littering the floor and the seats.
The train is spotless. The info strip tells us we have 8,7,6 etc minutes left to departure. Spot on time the train pulls smoothly and quietly away. Its quite busy too considering the time of day.

There are only 2 stops on our journey and exactly on time we arrive at Lubeck station. An old station with lots of charactor.

The Hanseatic city of Lubeck is located on the River Trave and because of its Gothic architecture is listed as a Unesco heritage site.
We were here to walk around the old city which is enclosed by the R. Trave. Its basically an island, and to have a look around the markets.

Walking away from the station we found a free street map which confirmed we were heading in the right direction. The first building you see of the old town is the Holstentor Gate. A stunning building with 2 leaning turrets, built in 1478. It’s now a museum.

Holstentor Gate 

Holstenor Gate - other side.

Salt storehouses.

Heading along a busy shopping street we were befriended by a local lady who had heard our English conversation and asked us if we were staying in Lubeck. Her English was excellent, we found out that she was an English language teacher in a local school. She kindly told us all the nice places to visit and the whereabouts of interesting things for tourists. We chatted for about 10 minutes and then departed as we approached the market place.

The market place with the Rathaus (town Hall) behind.

The Town Hall is an incredible building. Construction started in 1226 and finished in 1308. The turreted view above was added in 1435. We were unlucky not to get a tour around the interior but we had to wait an hour.

One of the things the german Lady had told us to do was to go to the top of the Gothic St Petri church which we did. Luckily there was a lift to aid the ascent. It was extremely windy and biting cold at the top. We didn’t hang around too long. The views are wonderful and i’m glad we got up there. In summer i can imagine it being quite wonderful.

Below are a few shots taken from the top.

St Mary’s Cathedral

Town Hall Square

Outside St Mary’s Cathedral we found this amusing tale.

Lubeck really is a lovely town with its quaint narrow streets, wonderful architecture from many periods throughout the ages and it’s river banks. It’s also famous as the home of Marzipan but unfortunately we didnt get to try any. Having strolled round for quite sometime the bitter cold started to get through our layering system.

Anna above (she’s the one on the left btw) suffers with her knees and we had done quite a bit of walking over the last few days. We decided to head back to Hamburg before it got dark.

Lubeck’s quaint streets.

A walk around Hamburg dockland.

A good meal last night at an Italian Restaurant. Good quality and not expensive in comparison to UK.
Today we had a walk around the town. Its big and sprawling and you can walk miles. Did i mention it is Germany’s 2nd largest city.

Why Hamburg for Christmas, some of you may be wondering. Well it had nothing to do with me. Sheila’s sister, partner, cousin live in Australia and they were touring Europe. It just so happened that their plans had them in Hamburg for Christmas and so the plan was devised that Sheila, Dorothy  and I would meet up and the rest is history.

I had no preconceived ideas about Hamburg having never been before. I cannot speak German which bothered me slightly and i had no idea what we would find to do etc etc.
I had no need to worry. It’s a fantastic place to go for Christmas and everyone we met and tried to speak to were so friendly and patient with our lack of language. Knowing only the very basics, hello, goodbye, thank you, please and of course how to order a beer, we managed ok. Most Germans speak very good English like the rest of Europe.

We had already walked most of the Christmas markets so decided we would head for dockland which still had many old warehouses. Many had been converted into offices or tourist attractions.
The building below caught my eye for some reason.

Shame that the doors were locked as this building has the oldest Paternoster lift in Germany still in working order.
There is lots to see along the Elbe river, obviously lots of shipping, ferries, floating restaurants, tall ships, paddle steamers, Fish and Chip shops, the Elbe tunnel and many wonderful pieces of architecture.
Here are a few of the sights.

 Hamburg Town Hall

By the time we had reached the Elbe tunnel it was raining and starting to go dark. We decided it was time to head back. We should have taken the local train back to Hamburg Central but decided to walk instead. It was quite a walk back. Much further than we had anticipated. But we did get back even though it was now quite dark as we found the hotel.
Another lovely day. Time is going so quickly. Tomorrow we are getting a train to Lubeck.

A day out in, you've guessed, Hamburg.

As we walked past the lake following the aroma of Bratwurst being grilled and Gluhwein being warmed up we noticed a boat trip just about to depart from the jetty. We managed to get on board and had a delightful hour swaning around the Alster inner and outer lakes of central Hamburg.
There are many stunning and I mean stunning properties along the route as well as parks and rowing clubs. Lots of joggers, cyclists and dog walkers were using the shoreline path.

It was a calm day, blue sky to the north and quite a pleasant temperature.The sky over the city was quite hazy with the sun casting a luminescent light.
The Alster lakes, which there are two, are man made and some interesting points about them can be found HERE

Then above the waterfront buildings we spotted a hot air balloon which didn't seem to rise too high or travel far before disapearing below the skyline.

 Hamburg Skyline

The attractive shoreline

Back on solid ground we carried on wandering through the Christmas markets and eventually stopped for a coffee. Up from behind the Town Hall appeared the balloon again. It was tethered and so obviously a tourist attraction rather than a trip across the city. We decided to go and find its location and see if we could go up.

We found it after about a 15 minute walk, paid the 15 euro and entered the metal basket.
Up we rose to a height of 150 metres I think it was. That might not sound much but I can asure you it was high enough.
Fantastic views over Germany's 2nd largest city.

 Looking down through the basket as we rose higher.

Maybe i shouldn’t put this but the whole thing was held in place by one pin (Thats the lowest one, in the above pic). If it failed, sugar! There was a sensor on the upper pin but i don’t think there was one on the lower pin.
I’m sure they know what they are doing.

Again, once on solid ground we headed back to the lakeside markets and they were getting busy. We bought sausage and hot wine and mingled with the locals and tourists eating delightful local delicacies.
I was quite tempted to buy some Alpaca wool gloves but resisted as I have loads of gloves at home. Sheila bought herself a very nice leather purse as a momento.

A delightful day was had and my expectations of Hamburg exceeded. Tomorrow we planned a sightseeing day and i couldn’t wait.

There are quite a few more images of the day here. If you want to take a look.

Hamburg or Hamburger sir.

Debbie, that's Sheila's sis booked this hotel ages ago and at the same time checked out Christmas lunch menu. She then booked a table for all 6 of us.
The menu wasn't great but adequate for us.

So 12.00 noon came along and we made our way to the restaurant and to our table which was nicely set out in Christmas flora etc.

Then we were given a menu. Burger and chips or Burger without chips. We all looked at each other in bewilderment, a bit speechless. Debbie asked for the Christmas menu which she had been sent when we booked the table but we were told we couldn't have that because we hadn't booked the food.

But we booked a table for Christmas lunch we explained. Yes but you didn't book Christmas lunch was the reply.

Now if you were running a hotel and months in advance somebody books a table for Christmas lunch, would you not find it a bit strange if they didn't book the meal. In that case would you not reply when you confirmed the table booking that no meal had been booked, and was it an oversight?

But no. They let us book a table and no meal. Crackers or what.
So we splashed out the Euro's and went for the full burger and chips. They did offer us ice cream for desert which was very kind of them wasn't it.

To be honest I wasn't upset but Debbie was a little upset as you can imagine. We still had a laugh which was more than our other guests on adjacent tables were having.
After lunch we departed to our room for a bit of a party which went on until 8.30pm, I think.

I don't think the hotel staff were very happy this morning as they have cleaned the room but left all the empty bottles and there is quite a few. Oh well.

Christmas in Hamburg ho ho ho.

Because of the awful weather we were having yesterday we 3 got to Manchester Airport in very good time. On route the motorway was flooded in a couple of areas and the traffic was crawling. I would have hated to have been stuck in it later on.
The flight in front of ours was cancelled and the peeps put up overnight in the Crowne Plaza. We kept our fingers crossed and it worked, we left Manchester only 40 minutes late.
It was a good flight in a new CRJ 900 aircraft. A bit like a stretched Leerjet without the accessories.
Sheila's sister was there to meet us when we arrived at the hotel.
We are staying at the Barcelo Hotel in the Centrum of Hamburg.

Sheila's other half of the family which included Patrick and Anna were curled up fast asleep. Well it was 11.30pm.
After a good chinwag and a few beers we also turned in.

So today we have done some serious provisions shopping. Red and white wine, Champers and beers and I think we bought some crisps for some reason. Tonight we are off to an Italian restaurant on the waterfront. We have been told that we don't need to book a table as most German folk stay at home on Christmas Eve.

Hamburg railway station foyer.

Anyway, this post was to say to all who have read or contributed to this blog in any way, Have a Merry Christmas and have a great time.