Weekend in Hamburg, Germany — Records of Roam

In late-June, we took a side trip to Hamburg for a couple of nights.

We didn’t know what to expect from Hamburg; we had read that the city was an up-and-coming charming destination with romantic canals.

In the end, Hamburg wasn’t what we expected, but it turned out to be a fun experience together. It was a diverse, grittier city than Berlin. We enjoyed the waterfront, canals, and seafood of this major port city.

Here’s a recap of our side trip to Hamburg!

Day 1

We started our day at Bonanza in Berlin, our favorite coffee shop! After some lovely caffeination, we took the M10 tram to Berlin Central Station, followed by an ICE train direct to Hamburg. Within two hours, we arrived in Hamburg and hopped on an S21 train to Sternschanze, the neighborhood we would be staying in for two nights.

Our hotel was in a fantastic location, and it was hip and charming; it featured both hostel-style rooms and private hotel-style rooms. Our room was on the sixth floor and was very spacious.

After dropping our bags off, we stopped for a quick bite to eat nearby and started exploring Sternschanze and another nearby neighborhood called Karoviertel. Sternschanze is a cool neighborhood, full of shops and cafes. Karoviertel felt noticeably grungier as we stumbled upon a Sunday “market” at the community center full of interesting characters. The area had a more alternative vibe, full of vintage shops and record stores.

We returned to Sternschanze and went to Otto’s for burgers for dinner - we were excited to eat hamburgers in Hamburg! Oddly, we noticed that the German diners there were eating their hamburgers with a fork and knife...weird!

It was cold out (50s!) so we called it an early night in order to strive for an early morning for our only full day in Hamburg the next day.

Day 2

We started our day with coffee and a breakfast treat at Elbgold before taking a train downtown. We walked toward Speicherstadt, a UNESCO site famous for its brick warehouses. It felt spooky and too quiet there. Unfortunately, the brick warehouses seemed to all be converted into boring office buildings.

Not long after, we spotted a burnt church steeple and walked toward it. It turned out to be the ruins of St. Nikolai, an impressive church which was destroyed during World War II. It was fascinating to see another church in ruins (the other being in Lisbon), though this one was destroyed for a much different reason (natural disaster of an earthquake vs manmade disaster of wartime bombings). The church leaders specifically opted to leave the church in ruins to establish as a memorial to those who died during the air raid and to serve as an anti-war monument.

The memorial was well done, with a museum in the crypt, and a clear point of view that paid tribute to the Hamburg victims of the air raid while also emphasizing the Nazi’s role in why the air raids happened - because the Nazis had first destroyed multiple Allied cities, including significant devastation of Warsaw. The museum even had a dedicated section to pay tribute to and educate about the destruction of Warsaw. The steeple, which was an important marker for Allied pilots during the bombings, remains standing; they’ve added an elevator and a platform at the top to provide a opportunity to see panoramic views of Hamburg.

After leaving St. NIkolai, we stopped into nearby Nord Coffee Roasters for a potty break and espresso. Nord was situated on a charming street (Deichstraße) with a narrow hallways of cobblestone leading down to the canal, which was a reminiscent snippet of Venice. The waterside of the buildings were charming & leaning against each other.

We kept walking along the waterfront until we arrived at Elbtunnel. Opened in 1911, the Elbtunnel is a tunnel beneath the Elbe River for pedestrians and vehicles to connect the growing portside of Hamburg with the central downtown area on the other side.

Back on land, we stopped to try a famous fish sandwich (“Fischbrötchen”) at the last spot on St. Pauli Landungsbrücken called Brucke 10, which Jeff had found on the fly after some quick Googling. Jeff got a sandwich with marinated and fried herring topped with onions; I got classic fried fish patty. IT WAS SO GOOD. It was like a fancy amazing filet of fish with delicious tartar sauce on crusty bread. Even the rosé he got me to enjoy with it was great. The experience was total perfection. It was the ideal, authentic spot to enjoy Hamburg’s casual fish sandwich specialty, along the river, watching ships roll in from our seat at the window.

We kept walking along the river toward Fischereihafen oyster bar, stopping off at Weinland for glasses of Mosel riesling, a rosé and some World Cup action on TV. The wines were superb!

We arrived at Fischereihafen around 5pm, which worked out well. It was a nice restaurant but we were the first ones to arrive. We found a seat at their “oyster bar,” a little side bar geared toward pre/post-dinner cocktails. It was perfect for us; Jeff tried two types of oysters, and we both enjoyed cocktails and weird little bites. We learned that Germany has three islands, and one of the types of oysters was from one of those islands (Sylt)! The restaurant was a classy spot with excellent service. As more diners started to arrive, we moved on to give up our seats.

We took a taxi to the Walrus Bar in St Pauli, which I had marked for cocktails. It was a gem; a low key bar with excellent drinks. We stayed too long and had too many cocktails, but the smoky atmosphere (cigarettes inside, yuck!) finally prompted me to convince Jeff we should say goodbye to the Walrus.

Hungry, we walked in a light drizzle to Ericka’s Eck for schnitzel. It was like a dive diner for schnitzel, served atop amazing fried potatoes with bacon and weird microwave carrots, peas, and cauliflower with an odd little side of sauerkraut. Jeff loved his mushroom gravy schnitzel, but we ran into an unexpected issue when we tried to pay - cash only! Jeff had to leave in search of ATM while I sat alone at 1am surrounded by an interesting cast of characters! Finally he returned with cash, and we hightailed it out of there. Thankfully, we were an easy walk back to our hotel.

Day 3

We woke up hungover, oops! After checking out and leaving our bags at the hotel desk, we walked a couple doors down to Codos for coffee. It was a cute little coffee shop with vegan snacks and treats. In need of bread & egg sustenance, we stopped at nearby Kost Bar for a casual brunch.

Not wanting to drink or get too crazy, we opted for shopping, popping into stores in the neighborhood like Fraulein Wunder, Momo, and Kauf Dich Glücklich, which was my favorite with different rooms of collections!

We continued onto nearby Karoviertel for more shopping, then enjoyed an iced latte outside at In Guter Gesellschaft, which was cute and offered great people watching.

It was a lovely day, sunny and 70s, so we continued exploring. We stopped into Beyond Beer, a modern, hip craft beer shop, and shared a beer outside on the sidewalk. Back in Sternschanze, we went to nearby Braugasthaus Altes Mädchen to have a beer and watch the Denmark vs France match. We ordered an early dinner before leaving for Berlin. After the match ended, we picked up our luggage from the hotel and hopped on the S to the main station.

We arrived back in Berlin within a couple hours, took the M10 tram back to Prenzlauer Berg, and were back in our apartment before it was dark out.