Hamburg - third time lucky?

I started writing this piece, whilst onboard ship, hence the somewhat confused timeline, but it refers to what would be my third visit to Hamburg, even though the previous two occasions had been little more than fleeting glimpses of the city. More of that later, and for now here’s a look back at the events of a week ago, last Tuesday.

Our ship berthed in Hamburg, shortly after 7 am this morning. It had taken several hours to navigate upstream, from the mouth of the River Elbe to the port, but I went out on our balcony and watched as a tug turned the ship around and manoeuvred it into our berth for the day and night.

Unfortunately, the turnaround meant that instead of a nice view of the Hamburg waterfront, we found ourselves facing instead, a view of Hamburg’s massive container terminal. This is a major part of the bustling port, which is the third largest in Europe, after Rotterdam and Antwerp. Every way you look there is row after row of massive cranes lifting containers off the decks of the largely Chinese-owned ships. COSCO was one shipping company, with Evergreen the other, although the latter is Taiwanese rather than belonging to mainland China.

Eileen and I didn't rush to get out of bed, or indeed get ourselves ready that morning, and in fact were really decadent having spoiled ourselves with breakfast in bed. This indulgence represented the second morning running, but with the whole day in front of us, in which to explore the town, there seemed little point in rushing, and it seemed best to let the early birds off first.

Quite a few passengers were leaving the ship, with some having sailed all the way from New York, but later in the day many more would be joining us, for the voyage to the fjords. Others, like us, would be going ashore. We hadn’t booked to go on any of the excursions, and instead would be taking advantage of one of the shuttle buses that conducts passengers to and from Hamburg city centre.

We had various items of paperwork-identification to take with us, but as it happened the only things, we needed were our passports plus our ship’s ID card. The latter is a credit card-sized piece of plastic which, as well as being the key to our room, acts as currency on board the ship. Cunard operate a cashless, “card only” system whereby the card is linked to an individual’s credit card, with all spending debited against the latter, at the end of the voyage.

We left our room sometime between 9.30 and 10 am and headed down to the gangway that would lead us off from the ship. Our ID cards were swiped as we disembarked, and the process would be repeated, when we re-embarked later. Our NHS Proof of Vaccination certificates were not required, although our passports were. I asked for mine to be stamped, a request that was granted, with a slight sense of amusement on the part of the officer in the booth. We then made our way to onto one of the “buses” that would take us into town.

I use the term “bus” in its American sense, as the vehicle we boarded was a comfortable, luxury coach, and the ride into the city centre enabled us to see more of the massive container area, before crossing one of several bridges over the Elbe river. I learned on a subsequent trip, that the river splits into two distinct streams to the west of the city, and these then re-join further east. This means that Hamburg is sited on a huge island, and its proximity to the water means the city has more bridges, and canals, than Amsterdam – a fact our guide was only too pleased to point out.

As hinted at in the title, this was my third time in Hamburg, but would I manage to see more than on the previous two occasions? The answer was a definite yes, but I was starting from a very low bar, as those two earlier visits had both been rather fleeting in nature. The first took place in the mid-1970’s when, as a student, I travelled around Europe by train, making full use of the Inter-Rail ticket. We had journeyed from Copenhagen, and had a brief overnight stop in Hamburg, before travelling on the following morning. 

We were running on a tight budget, so had opted to stay at one of the city’s Youth Hostels, a grim and foreboding establishment that appeared to be run on tight military lines To give a flavour of what I mean, we had to be back at the hostel by 10 pm, as the doors were locked at that time. It was lights out at 10.30 pm, and reveille the following morning at 6.30 am. This scuppered any chance of a night on the town, but also meant that we missed out on opportunities for sight-seeing were considerably reduced.

Consequently, apart from the rather austere youth hostel, the only memories I have of that first visit to Hamburg, are of walking along part of the infamous Reeperbahn and feeling decidedly on edge. Apart from that I don’t even recall the city’s main railway station. (We drove past it in the shuttle bus, and it didn’t look the slightest bit familiar).

My second visit to Hamburg, occurred approximately eight years later, and was a short business trip. I travelled there, with my then boss, for a meeting, having caught a flight the evening before. I was only present because I could speak a bit of German, and in the end my linguistic skills weren’t required. To make matters worse, although my boss was a person who normally enjoyed a few beers, he decided he was too tired to venture out that evening and grabbed an early night instead. I ended up having a couple of beers in the hotel bar, and then doing the same, so I saw nothing of interest that the city had to offer.

Returning to the present day, the shuttle bus, dropped us virtually opposite the imposing Rathaus, or town hall, “More rooms than Buckingham Palace,” said the guide, continuing with her little game of one upmanship! Leaving rivalries aside, the Rathaus certainly is an impressive building, standing out amongst a sea of modernity, most of which is surely the result of the devastating WWII bombing campaign, conducted by the allies.

We found a nice little, independent café, just around the corner, and sat out at a pavement table, enjoying a coffee. The sun had started to peep out from behind the clouds, adding its welcoming warmth to the proceedings. Afterwards, Eileen fancied shopping for some food and cooking related goodies to take home with us, so after checking on Google, I noticed there was a REWE supermarket, in an arcade, just a couple of blocks away.

REWE have outlets all over Germany, of varying size, and given its city centre location, this was quite a small one, tucked away in the basement of the arcade. It seemed a popular spot for office workers to buy lunch from, or perhaps a few groceries to take home after work, but we found everything we wanted. For Mrs PBT’s these were various herb and spice mixtures, that we have bought before in Germany, which don’t seem to be available back in the UK. For me, it was some tins of beer for drinking in our cabin, onboard the ship.

In common with other cruise lines, Cunard frown on passengers consuming their own alcohol, and given the prices charged on the boat, this is perhaps not surprising. However, having picked up six different brands of locally brewed pilsner, all for less than €1.00 each, I was quite willing to risk it being confiscated. Because of the times we live in, all bags, plus passengers were scanned, airport style, on re-boarding the ship, but fortunately my small stash of cans were either unnoticed, or just ignored.

Talking of beer, we decided it would be nice to find a pavement cafe-cum-bar, where we could sit out and enjoy a beer or two, and Cotidiano Alter Wall, tucked away at the side of the Rathaus proved the ideal spot. Cotidiano are a small restaurant chain, with outlets in Munich, Stuttgart and Regensburg, along with the one we visited in Hamburg. We’d already decided to have a late lunch when back on the ship – it was all-inclusive, after all, so it literally was just a couple of beers, plus a soft-drink for Eileen, that we were after.

Having said that, as we sat waiting for our drinks to arrive, the food that was being brought out looked really good, but we stuck to our guns and I enjoyed two slightly different beers from Ratsherrn Brauerei, a relative newcomer on the Hamburg brewing scene, having commenced production just 10 years ago. I sampled their Pilsner, plus their Hamburg Hell, and whilst both were good, the latter had the edge over the former.

As planned, we took the shuttle coach back to the ship, but this wasn’t to be my last trip into Hamburg. On the cruise back to Southampton the Queen Mary 2 again docked at the port, to off-load the substantial numbers of German passengers who had cruised up to Norway and back with us. The ship also picked up travellers who would be sailing onto New York.

On that particular morning, I embarked on a pre-booked excursion to the charming little, medieval town of Lünenburg. On the way back, and before returning to the cruise ship, we had a drive-by coach tour of Hamburg, with commentary by our knowledgeable tour guide, plus a couple of occasions when our driver stopped, for a few photo opportunities. This short tour helped fill in a few more of the gaps in my knowledge of the city and acted as a fitting farewell to this busting port city on the river Elbe.

 

Welcome home

Sunday Morning, as the Velvet Underground famously sang many years ago, turned out to be a sunny, but breezy one; certainly here in west Kent. It dawned on me yesterday, that it’s a week since I last posted anything on the blog, and whilst I’ve got several articles on the ancient laptop I took with me, in various stages of completion, none of them are ready to be “put to bed,” as they say in the print trade. Instead, here’s a bit of a catch up from when we arrived back In England, on Friday.

Our cruise ship docked at Southampton just after 6.30 am. We’d “gained” an extra hour overnight, as the ship’s clock changed from Central European Time to British Summer Time. Less than three hours later we were off the ship, had collected our suitcases, and standing outside the arrivals section of the Mayflower Cruise Terminal, in the cool damp of a typical English summer’s morning.

We’d phoned West Quay Cars - the taxi company recommended by both the hotel, and the agent we booked with – Holiday Extra, and had been asked to confirm our location. There are several cruise terminals at Southampton, so once establishing which one we were at, we were informed that we would shortly receive a text, giving the type of car, plus registration details, of the vehicle we should look out for.

True to the company's word, the taxi duly arrived, and the driver kindly loaded our two, rather heavy, large suitcases, one medium one, plus my bulging laptop rucksack, into the boot. We then set off through the surprisingly traffic free streets of Southampton, to the hotel, where we had left the car two weeks previously. This was the Macdonald Botley Hotel situated in the expanding village of the same name, to the north east of Southampton.

I wrote about Donald Macdonald and his chain of hotels, prior to our departure, and fortunately our taxi driver knew exactly where it was. “I live behind it,” he told us, so good job that Mrs PBT’s didn’t slate the place off too much! After locating the car, and paying the driver, the next question was will the car start? I’d never left it for that length of time, and had visions of a flat battery, followed by a call for help to Britannia Rescue, but fortunately the engine turned over fine and was up and running straight away. It was then time to head for the hills, or in our case, "Sunny Tunny," on the edge of the High Weald.

I should have known better than to trust a sat-nav, but I was feeling lazy, and Mrs PBT’s did kindly offer to find us the best route home. My idea of this was a leisurely, cross-country drive, along the meandering, but picturesque A272, so when Google directed us onto the London-bound M3, I wasn’t exactly over-enthralled. The traffic levels were high too, but once committed, I decided that we’d stay with the motorways. The M25 was even busier – no surprises there, so after calling in at Cobham Services for a much-needed coffee, and a not quite so needed M&S sandwich, I decided to leave the motorway at Jct. 8, which is the Reigate turning.

Cobham services isn’t really fit for purpose, as the facilities are all on the south (clockwise) side of the motorway, and consequently have to cope with hungry and thirsty people traveling in both directions. I should have realised this, after stopping there on the outward journey to Southampton, but needing both a wee, plus that cup of coffee, Cobham it was, and yes, it was absolutely rammed! The A25 from Reigate to Sevenoaks, was a nice quiet drive, which was some compensation, and after a spot of grocery shopping at Riverhead, we arrived home at around 3pm. 

Matthew had looked after the house whilst we were away, and he had also been watering most of the garden plants that need it, particularly the greenhouse. There were a few that he’d missed though, so after sorting these rather wilted specimens out, it was the start of the great un-pack. I’ll give the domestic details a rest now, apart from saying that Mrs PBT’s took far too many clothes, a fact that even she admitted! I became side-tracked yesterday evening, by a software issue when I tried uploading the 300+ photos I’d taken, onto my desktop PC, and this is why I wasn’t able to post anything until now. 

What I will say though, is the cruise was an absolute delight, that provided the perfect opportunity of relaxing whilst enjoying some spectacular scenery. More will obviously follow in due course – much more if I’m honest, so don’t say that you weren’t warned!

Cunard Black - Oatmeal Stout

I could get quite used to a glass or three of this excellent "Breakfast Stout," sold onboard ship as Cunard Black. It's available mainly in cans, although the other afternoon I enjoyed a hand-pulled pint of this excellent dark ale, in Queen Mary's onboard pub - the Golden Lion.

I wrote about the beer, after the previous cruise, which we undertook last September, although I don't recall seeing a draft version, back then.

For the beer geeks amongst you, Cunard Black is an oatmeal stout, brewed by Wiltshire brewer, Dark Revolution, to a strength of 5.7%, and is stated to include, coffee, almonds and vanilla in the mix.

 The beer is available at various locations around the ship, as well as the aforementioned Golden Lion. The hand-pulled version may well be cask, and I intend to write some more about this' later on, but my favourite spot was the Terrace Bar, at the stern end of Deck 8, overlooking the swimming pool. 

As in the photo, Cunard Black is only available in cans, away from the pub. It might be heresy for a former CAMRA member to say so, but I actually preferred the can version to the cask, especially as the former was invariably served, slightly chilled. The beer is definitely well worth checking out, in the unlikely event you encounter any of it ashore, but you never know!

Stavanger - Norway

I've been super lazy on this holiday, as well as super-indulgent. I've done plenty of walking, especially around the promenade deck, and have used the stairs rather than the lifts (elevators for any Americans out there), so I don't mean physically lazy. 

What I mean is, that whilst I've done plenty of reading, I've been mentally lazy in other ways, certainly as far as this blog is concerned, but I've never really liked one-finger typing, of the sort I'm doing now on my Smart Phone. 

I brought a battered old laptop with me (more about that later), so most evenings I've been tapping out appropriate posts on a proper keyboard. With no internet connection though these literary gems are going to have to wait until I return home, so in the meantime readers will have to make do with the occasional one- fingered post, like the one.

We're currently moored at the attractive port town, of Stavanger, in Norway, following an enforced change of plan. Our destination following Alesund, was supposed to be Flaam, but after concerns from local inhabitants, regarding the environmental effects of massive cruise liners, like the Queen Mary 2, large vessels are now prohibited from docking there.

Instead, we sailed south, and are now berthed looking out over the quayside of this very pleasant Norwegian town. A walk around the town, earlier this morning, saw me visiting one of the state-owned, liquor stores, (Vinmonopolet), to pick up a selection of locally brewed, stouts and porters, followed by some weaker (below 5% abv) beers from a nearby supermarket.

I haven't checked the exchange rate, although something tells me they are going to work out expensive. Still it's not every day that you get the chance to buy Norwegian brewed, heavy weight, craft beers.

We're leaving Stavanger, layer this afternoon and heading back to fjord land proper. Depending on availability of a 4G signal, I might post another update, but if not it might have to wait until we call in again at Hamburg, on the way home.

Almost ready for the off

I'm pleased to report that Mrs PBT's and I both returned negative results on our Covid antigen tests, and are now cleared to board our cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2 tomorrow afternoon.

We are staying overnight at a hotel that's within half an hour's drive from the port - Southampton, and are now enjoying a relaxing evening, following what has been quite a fraught day.

Internet and IT issues with Mrs PBT's phone didn't help, although I have to say the drive-thru test centre, at Gatwick, worked well.  So after having our nasal swabs taken, we had a 30 minute wait for the results to be emailed through to us.

We drove into nearly Crawley, and parked up. Mine came through OK, but for some reason, the email icon on Eileen's i- phone vanished from the screen. "You wouldn't get that with an Android," I told her, which probably wasn't the wisest thing to have said.

Fortunately, my suggestion of a quick reboot,  did the trick, and after she too returned a negative test it was all systems go. We headed for Southampton, and our pre-booked hotel and parking place.

After turning off the M25, we had a relaxing drive via the A3  and then the A272. The countryside as we crossed from Sussex into Hampshire, was glorious, and as we neared the Meon Valley, it moved on another notch on the scale of superlatives. 

This stretch through West Meon and Meonstoke, brought back memories of walking the South Downs Way, thirteen years ago. We had a spot of difficulty finding the hotel, thanks to the sat-nav on Mrs PBT's phone.

We stopped for a spot of shopping at Wickham, a large and  picturesque village, with an attractive looking Fuller's pub - the King's Head. As we were running late, I thought it wise not to suggest stopping for a drink, but also because the reason for our last minute shopping was me leaving my wash bag at home.

I won't go into the reasons, but it was easily solved with the purchase of a few washing accoutrements from the well-stocked, Co-op, overlooking the village square.

The hotel was comfortable and all one might expect from a modern, corporate hotel, although I didn't know that Ronald McDonald ran his own chain of hotels! Actually the Macdonald group run a chain of hotels both here in the UK and in Ireland and its CEO is called Donald, rather than Ronald.

No decent beer of course and whilst we could have driven off somewhere,  I'd already left the car in the long stay carpark and deposited the keys at reception.

So Perroni it was, and some good, but rather expensive, cod and chips. We are waiting now for the taxi that will take us to the cruise terminal, and once on board we can start to properly relax.