Ich bin ein Hamburger

What a lovely city Hamburg is!

Despite a rather delayed and wet journey from Groningen, we arrived at our hotel (B&B Hamburg City Ost) and managed to find some takeaway sushi for dinner in our hotel room.

The next morning we took the U Bahn from Berliner Tor to Baumwall to visit Miniatur Wunderland. This place is fab! We whiled away hours looking at the different regions, including a full scale moving model of Monaco and its F1 racing track, Swiss mountains, Rome, Las Vegas, Copacabana Beach, a fully functional airport and of course Hamburg! There was a lot of humour built into the information boards and loads of buttons for children to press to make the models move. It was definitely worth a visit.

Afterwards we walked to the piers and took a boat trip around the docks, learning about the history of Hamburg as a port city. It was a good way to see the city from the water and get a feel for where the main attractions were.

After a quick rest back at the hotel, we jumped back on the U Bahn for dinner at Alex Hamburg on the banks of the Binnenalster Lake. It was a pleasant evening watching the waterspout and various rowers before an amble past the Rat Haus along the canals to Rödingsmarkt.

The next day was surprisingly sunny so we decided to check out Planten un Blumen, a massive park that runs the length of the city. The park is full of flowers and includes a rose garden and a Japanese garden. It also has three separate playgrounds, so H was kept thoroughly entertained! It was Ascension Day which is a Bank Holiday in Germany and it appeared that the local students used this day as a way of showing off all their societies by parading through the streets, playing music and waving flags and banners.

As we left the park, we stumbled across the Hamburg Bunker, which you can walk to the top of for free to get brilliant 360 degree views of the city. Even the rain didn’t put us off and it was nice to spot all the places we’d been during our visit. As the weather was really starting to close in, we took the U Bahn to St Michael’s Church, which was surprising as it was all white and gold inside and none of the windows were stained glass - it wasn’t what I was expecting at all!

We headed back north again to the Schanzenviertel district for dinner, which was very lively and had a nice meal before heading back to the hotel.

I’d heard good things about Hamburg before we went, and I was pleased to find that I really enjoyed the city. It was very child friendly and easy to navigate, public transport was simple to use and the main tourist areas were all in walking distance. I’d definitely recommend it for a short city break.