Zollkanal

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a direct train from Amsterdam to Hamburg but it was still an easy journey with only one connection. Soon enough, we were pulling into the center of Hamburg with our hotel, Kieler Hof, only a couple blocks away. Thankfully, the hotel was cheaper than Amsterdam so we planned to go out for dinner. After we completed some much needed laundry, we set out to explore the area and get food.

We found a pedestrian street lined with stores and full of people enjoying the beautiful eventing. We stopped at a fast food stand called MöGrill which Sara saw online. We ordered a currywurst because it seemed to be the most prominent thing on the menu. It was basically a sliced bratwurst covered in a curry flavored sauce that tasted fine but we were glad we only ordered one to split.

Dinner at Gröninger Braukeller

I was excited to try some local Germanand had found a microbrewery, Groninger Privatbrauerei beer, online which we headed to next. I was surprised that this was the only Hamburg brewery I could find during my quick search. We walked in to find a counter full of delicious German food sold cafeteria style. Looking at the menus, we could tell everything on the counter was sold by weight and it seemed difficult to stay in our price range. The staff spoke almost no English, and even though I took 5 years of German I was still struggling to communicate. We managed to order two beers and a set plate of bratwurst with sauerkraut to share and stay in budget. The food was excellent but the beer was nothing special. I feel that most German beer is similar and never too exciting (especially after having such good beer in Brussels)!

Hamburg Hbf train station

Leaving the brewery, we were surprised how bright it was outside – it was almost 9pm and the sun was still up. Starting in England, the late sunlight has been messing with our internal clock. Every day, we have fun exploring and then all of a sudden notice it’s 9pm and we haven’t eaten dinner yet. We then go to bed late and sleep in each morning. It is a vicious cycle that will only get worse as we head north into Copenhagen, Norway, and eventually above the Arctic Circle.