After spending 2 days in Antwerp I was off to visit Hamburg. I found it quite interesting when I realised I would be staying in a neighborhood called Eppendorf. This name is very familiar to all of us working in science labs because Eppendorf is one of our few proprietary eponyms used for all sorts of single-use plastic tubes, smilarly to the way Kleenex is used to mean facial tissues. I found out that the company making all the scientific instruments and consumables we use was originally created inside the medical device workshop of the University Hospital Eppendorf, hence the name Eppendorf. By now Eppendorf tubes are the standardised single-use plastic tubes and the company is also behind the first microlitter pipettes and microcentrifuges which are essential in all labs. It was quite cool to finally understand the origin of this peculiar name and it makes me wonder if I will also stumble into Kleenex, Q-tip, or Sharpie named locations during the rest of the trip.
For dinner the first night I checked out a trendy and alternative area of town called Sternschanze. There were lots of people out drinking and it had an amazing party vibe full of young people. There I had dinner in a restaurant called Erika's Eck. Since Thursday's are schnitzel nights I chose the Jägerschnitzel which is covered in a mushroom sauce that turned out to be the best schnitzel of my life. The service and the condition of the location was not the best but the food was amazing and the prices were good which makes it my kind of place. The owner was cartoonishly grumpy and would only answer dryly to any questions if he even bothered to answer. For example in response to a question between which of two schnitzels to go for he got angry and handed back the menu to read again and make a decision and when asking about how cold the shot drinks were he said boiling. Also there was no chance of paying by bank card which I later found to be very common for most establishments in Germany along with very dry or non-existent customer service which is very surprising compared to the rest of Europe. An advise when in Germany is to mostly use cash and be happy to have anything above bad or no customer service or else the food and drink options will become extremely limited.
After a fun night out in Sternschanze the next day I set out to visit most highlights of Hamburg. Starting with an immense park in the city called Stadtpark. Among the numerous ponds, playgrounds and statues, what stood out most was the beautiful planetarium building and the sheer size of the park probably making it the biggest relative to population size. It is half the size of central park (1.48km2) but serves about 20% of Ney York's population (1.8million).
Next I made my way around the city and found a beautiful mosque located in the most exclusive neighborhoods in town called Uhlenhorst and Winterhude.
From there I continued into the heart of the city center that is dominated by the towers of the city hall and churches. Considering this it is very understandable that they called their pro basketball team the Hamburg Towers and along those there is also a huge telecommunications tower called Heinrich-Hertz-Turm that can be seen from most points in a similar fashion to the towers in Toronto and Seattle.
In stark contrast to those classical buildings I next went to the St Pauli area of town were I was most impressed by a very somber construction from the second world war. This was an imposing Nazi built anti-aircraft gun blockhouse tower and bunker that I was told was repurposed to host a music store and some night clubs.
All in all I found Hamburg to be vibrant city with great people, many sights, and great nightlife especially in the Sternschanze area.
Total travel to reach Hamburg: 576kms in 5h30mins Total travel for the trip: 1344kms in 15hrs
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