What a weather – and for Spaniards who can just miss 33°C in their home country of Madrid. Well, there’s no such thing as bad weather in Hamburg, just the wrong clothes! The group’s travel companion already knew that. :-)
So we set off from the opposite side of the Hotel Atlantic at 9 a.m. in the belief that it wouldn’t rain. Just three minutes later it started to drizzle and then rain. The whole group had umbrellas with them, which impressed me. We walked from the luxury Atlantic Hotel past the Ohnsorg Theater through the main train station, which the group had only seen briefly at night, into Mönckebergstraße. How quiet it can be here when the stores are not yet open. After a short walk through the Levantepassage, one of the many covered shopping arcades we have in Hamburg, we reached the Petrikirche, the heart of the old town, where Hamburg’s first chapel is said to have stood as early as the 9th century. We didn’t miss the opportunity to take a look inside via the Rathausmarkt. After a short stop in the rain, we walked through the courtyard with the Hygieia fountain under the Alster arcades to the Jungfernstieg.
A few swans graced us with their presence and I was able to say a few words about Hamburg’s swan life. The Italian style of the Rathausmarkt had not gone unnoticed either. At the Jungfernstieg, I then talked about the river that the Alster actually is, the mill for which the river was dammed in the 13th century and the Jungfernstieg itself. We passed the luxury stores on Grosse Bleichen, Hamburg’s stock exchange, today’s Chamber of Commerce, and finally lingered for a moment at the memorial against tyranny and war, St. Nikolai’s Church. Shortly afterwards, we walked along Willy-Brandt-Straße and admired the Kramerwitwenwohnungen and the Michel. This is what Hamburg’s old town once looked like – in the 16th-18th centuries.
At the entrance to the Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s red light district, we turned left and soon caught sight of the Landungsbrücken, which were built at the beginning of the 20th century, together with the Old Elbe Tunnel, which was a masterpiece of engineering and still functions today. Actually, I could have said goodbye to the group here, but I accompanied them on the one-hour harbor tour, on which our captain generously shared his microphone with me so that I could translate his explanations – after all, the Spanish guests were in the majority. :-)
After the harbor tour, I took Viajes Nicolas to your restaurant Pasta Pasta, where I had previously announced that we would be coming later, and then said goodbye after a quick drink. I hope the next time the guests come back, the weather will be nicer. But in the afternoon it was still coming up. I hope you still enjoyed it, my dears!
