Ok, you might be getting tired of hearing about our Hamburg trip, especially if you won’t be able to visit anytime in the near future. But I just wanted to post the last few photos I took and a few links for the hotel and restaurants we visited. We spent the night in a Loft at Gastwerk and the room looked a little something like this. The bathroom was behind this wall and that door you see on the left is actually a walk-in closet. One of the coolest things about the room was a few framed photos of the transition process that created this hotel from an old abandoned warehouse. It seriously must have cost them a fortune!

The staff was really helpful and friendly and the entire place is just beautifully decorated. It’s part of the Design Hotels group and all of them are quite trendy. But the room was fairly priced, it’s within 15 minutes cab ride from the city center (had we known it was that far we might have stayed elsewhere to save on cab fair) and they have a cool future of a €10 flat rate mini-bar. Unfortunately, most of the stuff in the mini-bar is not all that appealing unless you are into Red Bull (or bring your own vodka bottle to use with the OJ and Red Bull bottles). We still tried to make sure we got our monies worth out of that flat rate, though.

Our first full meal in Hamburg happened after the walking tour of the city when we landed in the Kartoffel Keller. In English, the name is the Potato Cellar…and as you might guess, the serve a lot of potatoes there. In fact, on their menu, the main course items are said to be the potatoes and the sides would be any meat options. The have a pretty huge list of options and it was almost overwhelming to make a selection. They had a collection of dishes that were sort of like a skillet with meat, potatoes and cheese over the top…but instead of actually saying what is in them, they give them strange little names like Mexican suprise and you have to ask or guess what is in the dish.

Asking was not really an option for us because the waitress hated us from the moment we arrived. Apparently the thought of 22 loud Americans (or nearly Americans) really freaked her out. Or maybe it was the fact that the restaurant had only 2 waitresses to service the entire place which was not exactly small. It could also have had something to do with the potato sack dress she was wearing. I assure you, they are even less sexy than they sound.

But the food was really good and we had a fabulous time…and if you get a glass of Riesling, expect the glass to be nearly overflowing!

And if you do happen to stop in there, be sure to go down the little alley next to the restaurant and see the street from the backside. It is beautiful! Plus you can see where one of the most historical fires in Hamburg began, at what was once a cigar factory. The fire actually burned for four days straight and destroyed a lot of Hamburg.

After a much needed disco nap at the hotel (all those potatoes were really weighing us down), the group met up again at an Indian restaurant called Ashoka. The food was good but I have yet to understand why Indian food is so dang expensive when they only give you about half a chicken breast in the dish with the pound of rice. We are actually really spoiled when it comes to Indian food lately because we have an awesome Indian place that delivers nearby and we order from them at least once a month. So we stuck to what we knew on the menu (which was also extensive) and while the food was good, it was just not quite as good as at our place. But the waiter did take our huge group in stride quite well, despite half of them showing up almost an hour late. And he smiled and joked with us the entire time.

The next morning, we met up again at the Jungfernsteig to board a boat that would take us to the other side of the Alster lake where we would have brunch. It was almost as if the ferry service knew we were coming and we were mostly alone on the ship the entire time. For the price of €9.50 per person, you can do an entire round trip of the Alster and it’s really quite lovely.

We ended our tour after about 40 minutes of traveling in and out of little coves when we reached the Krugkoppelbrücke. From that stop, the infamous Bobby Reich restaurant was there waiting for us with a magnificent view of the lake. I was too busy eating and enjoying talking to new friends to go take any photos. Please forgive me. But I know some incredibly awesome shots were taken and I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it. Apparently I was already exhausted from all the activities the day before…or maybe I had just worn myself out on Saturday when I took over 200 photos around the city.

But here are a couple more shots around Hamburg that we took during our walking tour. This canal completely reminded me of Venice…although the buildings were way too new and not leaning in any way. 🙂

And I just love the detail with the different colored bricks on this place. I have no idea what it houses but it just looked really cute and I’m fairly certain they have done a whole lot of renovation to it inside since 1888.

Well, that’s it for Hamburg. I hope you’ve had a great time learning about our trip. And if you’re planning to go yourself and want more info about anything, don’t hesitate to let me know!