Germany: 48 hours in . . . Hamburg

When you think of the city of Hamburg in Germany most people know that it is a large city in Northern Germany and the alleged home of the original hamburger! But there is so much more to this fascinating, hip, contemporary, relaxed, place with a good vibe and is a great foodie destination with a burgeoning coffee culture.

Hamburg is Germany’s second largest city, a city that has played an important part in the building of Germany as well as Northern Europe. Hamburg is a modern mix of beautiful and ultra-modern apartments and buildings as well as relics from WWII. The street art is in itself a form of social expression and can be found all over the city and in the most unexpected places.

The public transport is very efficient and easy to use.  There is an extensive web of U Bahn, S Bahn, buses and trams that criss cross each other making the city completely accessible as well as an affordable and reliable taxi service. You can purchase a Hamburg Card which gives you unlimited travel on buses, trains & harbour ferries and up to 50% discount at more than 150 tourist attractions.  More information at www.hamburg-tourismus.de/cards.

If you find yourself in Hamburg for 48 hours you might like to look into some of these suggestions:-

Typical Hamburg Restaurants:

Goldene Gans on Ottenser Hauptstrasse 53 is small and contemporary with staff who obviously love their jobs.  They are friendly and the service is great.  Now the food!

We had the set meal which was and each course had a twist to make it unique.  Firstly an Amuse Bouche followed by “Three kinds of pumpkin” (Confit pumpkin, pumpkin ginger salad and vanilla-pumpkin-foam), Veal Consomme with homemade porcini ravioli, Pink roast duck breast with spice coffee jus, Brussels sprouts and Duchess potatoes with passion fruit and to finish Lilac berry tart with chocolate sauce and apple-walnut compote.  All of this for Euro 39.50!

and don’t forget to have a unique after-dinner liqueur made just for them, pear, walnut or hazelnut with your coffee.

Krameramtsstuben is down a little side street and when you stop inside the door you would think you had just stepped into a local grandma’s house.  It reminded me of visiting my old grandmother for Sunday lunch, warm and welcoming with great smells coming out of the kitchen!

We sat a a long table surrounded by furniture, photos, jugs and plates that looked like Grandma had bought them at the local antique store.  The food didn’t disappoint either.  There are a lot of fish dishes on the menu and of course the local speciality called Labscouse – corned beef brisket, carrots, onions, potatoes and beetroot puree with 2 fried eggs on top and garnished with a rollmops (pickled herring) and beetroot.

I had the Busumer Crab Soup with a dill cream topping followed by Big Schnitzel “Vienna Style” with fried potatoes and a homemade cucumber salad with dill and for dessert the Hamburger Rote Grutze a jelly of fresh berries and a vanilla sauce.  A beautiful way to end a day of sightseeing for sure!

 Standard – Aperitivo Bar and Cafe on Grosse Freiheit 90, was truly a gastronomic delight! You walk through what looks like someones’s front door and into a living room.  There is also another room with a long table for groups like ours.  It is a very different concept in dining.  The whole menu is vegan although you would never immediately notice this, it was only when the owner spoke to us that we discovered it was.

It is basically an ‘Aperitivo Culture’ based on the Italian Stuzzishini (little plates of food brought to you with each drink you order). There is no rush, some people pop in for a drink and a small plate before going on to a theatre or club whilst others arrange to meet friends and spend the evening.

Coffee Culture: Considering how important Hamburg has been in the import of coffee beans it comes as no surprise that there is still an active coffee movement in the city.

Elbgold (meaning Hamburg Gold) is a city wide chain offering specially selected coffee roasted on the premises.  You get a choice of how you want it brewed as well as a range of delicious cakes and pastries to accompany your drink.  Take home a bag of your favourite brew to enjoy later to keep you going throughout the day.

Genuss Speicher Hamburg located on St Annenufer 2 Strasse welcomes you with the familiar smells of in house coffee roasters.  You can of course buy the coffee to take home to make the experience last even longer.  As well as a selection of coffees and teas there is a coffee museum (Kaffeemuseum Rosterei Burg) on the premises.

Herr Max Konditorei & Patisserie is a small cake and pastry shop on Schulterblatt 12.  Matthia Max is the owner and is very passionate about his cakes and pastries all freshly baked on the premises.

Tornqvist is where coffee meets art and where coffee addict (some say geek) Linus Koster opened his minimalist coffee shop.  The menu and the interior are extreme with bright white walls and matt black coffee machines.  He has two grinders one cor espresso fine and the other for a Kalita brew.

Koster filters the water he uses to brew his coffee which he sources from coffee roasters in Sweden. He serves Scandinavian pastries and sourdough bread with cheese and butter – again keeping things simple.

Koster adamantly tells you coffee is a fruit so does that mean 5 coffees a day makes up your fruit allocation?

Out and About:

The Elbphilharmonie is more than a great concert hall located in the Hafenstadt or Harbour City lying on the River Elbe and rising high in the distance from several vantage points in the city. The Elbphilharmonie has it’s own resident orchestra and the audience sits in a 360 degree circle around the orchestra offering a wide music program.  There is also two other concert halls, a restaurant, a hotel and a public viewing platform with a panoramic view of the city.

A short walk along the HafenStadt (German for Harbour City) is the area of Speicherstadt.  Here the old and the new converge – the red bricks buildings and the modern architecture of the HafenStadt have their tales to tell. Once the warehouse district of the city it was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites in 2015.

The HafenStadt is currently the size of 40% of the rest of the city, started in 2001 it is expected that will be finished in 2025 and will add a massive district of homes, apartment, cafes and restaurants to the city. It is the largest urban development project in Europe offering great open spaces and parks as well.

Hamburg has no skyscrapers. No building can be higher than the church towers.

In the Speicherstadt area there are a plethora of coffee roasters and small cafes, you can get a whiff of roasting coffee on the wind as you walk around the district. At one time coffee was traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange and the Hamburg Stock Exchange although it is no longer traded in Hamburg.  The love of coffee and the coffee culture are however still very strong and important.

There are still remnants of building bearing witness to the Neuman family coffee business and Halsen & Lyon tea importers who first took the building in 1887 and it still belongs to the family business.

Hobenkook or Harbour Kitchen was once at the centre of the dock and railway workers and a now a place where local products are delivered by approximately 200 local suppliers (small farms, dairies, butchers and fisheries).  Around 80% of the products comes from 200 km around the city and the produce is cooked on a daily basis.  The menus determined by the produce delivered each day. You will be served at long wooden tables “Hobenkookstyle”.  The Harbour Kitchen is open 6 days per week and serves around 800 covers per day each Friday and Saturday!

Rindermarkkhalle is located in the St Pauli district and next to the Feldstrasse underground station. Here you will find over 30 stalls, shops, a supermarket and restaurants.  It is truly a food lover’s environment.  We experienced the famous ‘curry wurst’, delicious sausages from Metzler served with a cake dish that had been cooking for hours.

We also had a cooking class and lunch with Chef Thomas Imbusch who is a Michelin starred chef with his own restaurant in Hamburg.

Thomas Imbusch thinks that one needs one room, one stove and one chef to cook fine dining with the bare essentials and his restaurant 100/200 Kitchen revolves around the fire place standing in the centre of the room.

The lunch he prepared for us was simple yet coming from a different point of view and was served with wines that paired perfectly with the food.

The Reeperbahn in the St Pauli district is the place to find the hottest night life in the city.  It is where the legendary pop group ‘The Beetles’ played before becoming a world sensation.

The street is relatively quiet during the day but at night time the doors open, the lights go on and people tumble out from every conceivable entertainment joint – bars, nightclubs, student clubs, theatres, cabaret clubs and more.

Fischmarkt originally opened in 1703 has been the place to get your fill of the freshest fish.  Opening in the early hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning you can get a fish sandwich and see the owners selling their freshly landed produce.  By Sunday morning the street outside has been totally filled with stalls selling everything from fish and fish products to the freshest fruit and vegetables around.  You can hardly walk through with all the Sunday morning hustle and bustle going on around you.

Street Art:

Painting on outside walls can be classified as graffiti or as it has become to be known ‘street art’. It was really exciting to see all of the fantastic street art.  Some of it traditional spray painting on vacant walls,

some with an obvious message – be happy!

whilst others have a subtle message to pass on (social media affects everyone)!

Places to stay:

GINN Hotel Hamburg Elbspeicher : located on Grosse Elbstrasse this hotel sits right on the river Elbe with all rooms facing the river so you can sit back and watch the busy river turnpike traffic right in front of you.

The reception, restaurant and bar are located on the 8th floor with stunning views of the river.

Breakfast is served in the restaurant and consists of hot (eggs, bacon, hash browns and more) and cold (ham, cheese, yoghurts, local jams and honey) and plenty of hot coffee or tea.

Scandic Hamburg Emporio : A modern hotel a couple of minutes walk from Gansemark metro station.  This hip and busy hotel is right in the cultural thick of things and a quick 25 minute walk to the Reeperbahn area. There are Art Rooms, designed by artists for a unique experience.

Breakfast is served on the ground floor where you will also find the well equipped bar. However some rooms on the top floor have access to ‘The Kitchen’ a place to relax with breakfast, snacks, afternoon tea and evening buffet.  Tea and coffee are available all day as well as beers and wines.  You can sit, work and look out at the city.

Good value, great location and fully equipped and with great views of the city you will be welcome and comfortable staying here.

How to get there:

Hamburg is serviced from London and all other the major airports. British Airways flies there daily from London Heathrow Terminal 5, Easyjet from London Gatwick as well as various flights from London Stansted and London City airports.

So, if you have time to spend on a short get-away you will find everything in Hamburg, great German food, great coffee around every corner, culture, fun and of course really friendly people!

There is still so much to discover in Hamburg that perhaps a second 48 hour visit will be called for.  I would love to return again in the summer to see how the city adapts to different times of the year!

Here is another article about my first trip to Hamburg:-

Fun, Film and Food with FoodBoom

Some other posts in my ’48 hours in ……’ series are below:-

Italy: 48 hours in Tuscany

Greece: 48 hours in Athens

Devon: 48 hours in Salcombe 

Confessions of a Travel Addict has written a great post about spending a couple of days in Amsterdam.

I was a guest of Hamburg Tourism and was not paid to visit any of the places in this post.  I was not required to write a positive review either.  As usual all opinions and photographs are my own. No photographs may be reproduced in any form without my written permission.