Our Second Day in Hamburg

Hello everyone. I actually started writing about our second day in Hamburg a while ago, but due to a busy schedule I couldn't share it until now. On our second day we slept in and turned on full lazy mode, waiting for the weather to warm up a bit. Once we finally got up, we headed to the city center and got off at Hauptbahnhof Nord. It turned out that the day before, we hadn’t even set foot in the main area where all the canals and ports are. In other words I had completely missed the most iconic spot of these famous canals and harbors on our first day. I had actually marked it on the map the previous day and was heading right toward it. But I fell victim to the navigation and passed right by it without noticing. We stepped onto a promenade near the train station. Along the way, we encountered the classic shops you see everywhere. McDonald's, Primark, shoe stores, Mango and denim shops.

As we were walking I realized I needed to hold onto my phone a bit tighter. In just a few hours in Hamburg I witnessed a lot of bizarre incidents. Within those few hours I had already started to feel that Hamburg was quite diferent from other cities. We turned left following our direction. In some parts Hamburg has charming and beautifully lit corners. When twilight sets in, the figures and hanging lamps on the streets look much more beautiful to the eye. We decided to walk all the way to the town hall. Right around then I saw someone spreading a blanket on the ground in the street. You don't really come across scenes like this in Stuttgart. Of course there are homeless people there too, but they are usually only around the central station. Stuttgart’s biggest advantage is that not many people really know about it. Yet it is a perfectly normal city with plenty of job opportunities and major events happening.

Walking through the center of Hamburg we passed by shopping malls of a size we had never seen in Stuttgart. As I walked, I couldn't help but constantly compare the city to other places. Meanwhil the wind grew quite fierce. Fortunately despite being very windy, the weather was around 7 degrees, which felt quite warm to us. We were lucky but due to the clouds covering the sky, the scenery wasn't as photogenic as the day before. Still the lights decorating the streets were lovely. On our way we passed by some rather luxurious and serious-looking venues. Their prices looked quite steep.

We arrived in front of a massive structure that I had seen from a different angle the day before. This was the St. Nikolai Memorial, which was left exactly as it was after being destroyed in World War II. Despite the devastating bombings of the war some churches had somehow managed to stay standing. But this church was never restored to its former glory. After walking a bit further we saw the triangular wall where the roof used to rise, the old bricks and the thick ramparts. Parts of the walls have been reinforced with new bricks to prevent everything from collapsing entirely. With its old windows this is a highly impresive monument bearing the scars of the war.

When we reached the canal area I noticed that the muddy, drained canals I had seen the previous day were completely gone. The water level seemed to have risen by about a meter. The day before seeing that muddy view where the water had receded, I had grumbled: Such a beautiful canal and there's no water, everywhere is covered in mud. Now everything was back to normal. With seagulls floating on the water, bottles and trash it was a textbook city canal view. This time I walked without rushing, enjoying the moment without the anxiety of slipping on ice like a penguin. The city looked much more beautiful to me compared to the day before. It turns out you need to explore Hamburg without rushing.

While walking, you also need to look out for cyclists. Some cyclists act quite aggressively assuming they have absolute right of way at pedestrian crossings. In fact one cyclist barely missed hitting us and muttered something under his breath as he rode off. We continued our way crossing various bridges. There really are countless bridges in Hamburg and the lack of ice on the roads made walking very easy. In my opinion the unique texture of the buildings along the canals with their black, red and green tones and the decorations on the windows give the city a whole different vibe. There are beautiful buildings here.

Some passages on our route were closed due to renovations. I remembered that a few years ago these areas and the Central station had been flooded. The spot where we stood was quite high and the station was even higher. It’s hard to even imagine what these places looked like back then. We reached the famous bridge where the modern buildings rising in the background blend with the old warehouses,one of Hamburg’s top two most popular views. We headed to the bridge to catch that specific angle near the Der Spiegel building. The river splits into branches here, the canals wind around the island and then merge again further ahead. I had completely forgotten about this wonderful angle the day before. Actually you should come here at sunset. Becuse the view which looks gray and depressing, turns into a total postcard under the light of the setting sun. That’s why I had rushed on the first day but fortunately, we had the chance to examine everything in detail in this calm weather.

We walked all the way to the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie building. We discovered another walking path right by the river underneath the place we had crossed over the bridge the day before. What's more the wooden boardwalks, which had been impossible to walk on the previous day because they were frozen over, had completely thawed out. Walking past the ships and watching the new structures was highly enjoyable. Hamburg raised its first-day score by a few points in my book. Making a twonight layover in Hamburg instead of flying directly to Stuttgart cost exactly the same and we were more than glad we made this decision. Gradually we started to feel hungry. We had eaten so much great food during our trip to Poland that instead of eating out in Hamburg, we decided to stop by a supermarket and grab something practical that we could heat up in the room's microwave. After walking one more stop along the shoreline, we left behind Hamburg's unique, gray yet impressive atmosphere and headed toward our accommodation.