Hanging out in Hamburg

From Amsterdam, we set out from our hotel on the canal, traipsing through the cobblestone pathways, to catch the 8am train to Hamburg via Osnabrück. Along the way, Jason kept cursing the fact that we brought suitcases instead of backpacks. “Bring suitcases to Europe, it’ll be fine”, he muttered to himself.

We boarded the train and got comfortable for the almost three-hour journey through the Dutch and German countryside. Across from us was a young woman, wearing a hijab, and her child. Before setting off, her partner said his goodbyes and disembarked. I could see him waiving goodbye from the platform, but Jason, ignorant of this, surmised the most elaborate story: they couldn’t afford two first-class tickets, so he took his seat at the back of the train in second class.

Not long after boarding, the ticket inspector came by to check tickets. He asked the woman for ID. I assumed that she must have had a concession ticket and he wanted to confirm her eligibility. Jason thought he was racially profiling her and he was checking her visa/residency status. I hope it was the former. No-one else was asked for ID in our little cabin.

We arrived in Osnabrück a little before 11am and a train headed for Hamburg was waiting on the platform. This seemed too early for our train. Before Jason went to jump on the train, I made him check with the train guard. Yep, this was the 10:23am train that was running very late. Apparently only 64% of trains run on-time in Germany. So we waited another 15-20 minutes for the correct train.

We got to Hamburg around quarter past one and made our way on foot to our hotel. The hotel was supposed to be across the road from the station, but of course we took the wrong exit and instead of an 80m walk it turned into a 480m walk. That meant further for Jason to drag his suitcase!

We checked in and immediately set out to explore the city centre around the hauptbahnhof (Central Station) and the St. George area. The train station would be the epicentre for most of what we did over the next two days.

Roaming about the city we stumbled upon Cinnamood, a cinnamon rolls bakery with all kinds of decadent flavours. Of course, we had try a couple. They were the tastiest cinnamon rolls I’ve every tried, so fresh and gooey. In true Ricky and Jason fashion, we would revisit once more before we headed to our next destination.

We explored the harbour area, Binnenalster, which is an artificial lake that is “inside” the city walls. The old city walls no longer exist, and have been replaced by two bridges, the Lombardsbrücke and the Kennedybrücke.
We then decided to explore the southern end beyond the Hamburg hauptbahnhof. All of a sudden we felt we had roamed into a different world. There seemed to be a boundary that we crossed. German no longer seemed to be the first language of the residents. The smells and sights of the Middle East filled the air. I had only looked down for a second, and we hadn’t walked that far to end up in Morocco!

Later that evening we went for dinner at a restaurant close to the hotel. As we sat down, Jason looked around, and said “have we landed on the set of Cocoon? “. The average age was probably 65 in the shade. We survived without having the youth, or what remains of it, sucked out of us.Read more