Hamburg Airport is 8.5km from the center of the city and is therefore pretty easy to get to with the use of the U-bahn. The S1 line connects the airport to the main train station (hauptbahnhof) in about 30 minutes. Tickets cost 2.60 eur (will…Read More

Hamburg Airport is 8.5km from the center of the city and is therefore pretty easy to get to with the use of the U-bahn. The S1 line connects the airport to the main train station (hauptbahnhof) in about 30 minutes. Tickets cost 2.60 eur (will cost 2.70 from the beginning of 2009), the trains travel between 4am and midnight, from then on a bus service (606) is put on between the train station and airport, this leaves every 30 minutes.

Tuifly, Germanwings and Flybe are the only budget airlines flying in and from this airport as far as I am aware. If you are flying to Hamburg with Ryanair, Wizzair or Jet2 then you will land at the distant Lubeck Airport which is occasionally labeled Hamburg when it comes to Ryanair sites! That one is 54km from Hamburg!

I found Hamburg airport to be quite a good place to hang out, as I arrived a little early - there is plenty of seating and the queues were not large at all - although my flight was not particularly busy! I also noticed that the prices at the shops and cafes were not ridiculously high as is quite often the case when it comes to airport shops.

A clean and organised airport, which is well connected to the city - I would easily use it again.    Close

Travelling to and from destinations can often be the make-and-break part of any holiday, and having found a new lost-cost airline that goes from Manchester to Hamburg, I thought I should share my experiences of travelling from Manchester to Hamburg with Air Berlin. Booking? Booking is via…Read More

Travelling to and from destinations can often be the make-and-break part of any holiday, and having found a new lost-cost airline that goes from Manchester to Hamburg, I thought I should share my experiences of travelling from Manchester to Hamburg with Air Berlin.

Booking?

Booking is via the Air Berlin website, which is available in several European languages and is very straightforward. You select the dates and places to travel and the website then displays prices for one week before and one week after you travel, which is useful if you wish to chose the cheapest travel date.

I have used the website on several occasions, and it is easy to use and navigate and does not seem to be ‘offline’ at all, which is good! When making your booking, you can pay by credit/debit card, and if you book far enough in advance, only a deposit is taken, with the balance being paid several weeks before you travel.

Unlike some other low-cost airlines, you don’t just turn up at the airplane and run aboard to find seats; here you can reserve them for 8 euros per person per journey, which is a really good idea, and you get a map of the plane when selecting seats so that you know exactly where you are sitting. Again, this is an easy function on the AB website, following the on-screen directions.

My journey?

I flew with Air Berlin between Manchester and Hamburg just before Christmas on a route that used to be operated only by Lufthansa (another German airline). The cost of my flight in total was just under £70, although if I had booked earlier, I would have no doubt gotten the flight cheaper!

The flight left from Terminal One at Manchester airport and check-in was very busy, with two flights departing at more or less the same time, but there were plenty of check-in staff, so check-in didn’t take too long.

The return flight was perfectly on time, although the outbound flight was a little delayed due to late arrival of the incoming aircraft. We were soon on board, however, and the plane was only on the ground for 30 minutes, so the staff did a very fast turn-around!

The plane:

Going out the plane was a Fokker 100 with very comfortable leather seats and plenty of leg room. (The toilets were tiny though!!) Coming back the plane was a Boeing 737, which did not have as much leg room but was comfortable and modern. There was also in flight entertainment on the return flight with television and head phones could be purchased for 2.5 euros. I would recommend sitting nearer to the front as this speeds up getting off the plane when you land and the aisle seats allow you to stretch your legs. You can reserve extra leg room seats at check-in.

The in flight magazine is produced only in German, so if you like to read on the plane, make sure that you take a book or magazine with you!!

On board food:

Like most European airlines these days a snack was served on board that was a sandwich on both journeys and was of a high standard. Soft drinks and tea and coffee are included in the price, but if you wish to purchase an alcoholic drink then these must be paid for on board. There is a wide selection of beer and wine, as well as additional snack foods such as crisps and chocolate, and the prices were very reasonable with a small bottle of wine costing 3 euros (all prices were in euros on board).

Other facts and figures:

Baggage
You can have one suitcase/bag which can weigh up to 20kg and one piece of carry on luggage that can weigh up to 6kg.

The only downside to flying Air Berlin for people who fly to Hamburg is that in Hamburg you use the slightly old and dilapidated Terminal One rather than the brand new terminal 4 which is utilised by Lufthansa, but when you are paying so much less it doesn’t make that much difference, and you walk to Terminal one if you so wish!

Finding out more:
Check out the Air Berlin website at www.airberlin.com, and this gives you up to date availability, special offers, and more!

Air Berlin fly to and from a variety of European cities including most major German cities including Berlin, Dusseldorf, and Hamburg.

Lufthansa also fly direct between Manchester and Hamburg although the flights are more expensive they do have an early morning, late return flying both Manchester-Hamburg and Hamburg-Manchester so may be better for business travellers. You can check out Lufthansa flights at www.lufthansa.co.uk.

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Alsterwasser is a typical Hamburger drink. I think they sell it bottled, but you can also make it yourself. You can do it with half a glass of beer (preferably Holstein made in Hamburg), and half a glass of a clear soft drink (like Sprite). Pour…Read More

Alsterwasser is a typical Hamburger drink. I think they sell it bottled, but you can also make it yourself. You can do it with half a glass of beer (preferably Holstein made in Hamburg), and half a glass of a clear soft drink (like Sprite). Pour the soft drink first, take the gas out shaking a spoon inside the class, and then pour the beer. It's delicious, and accompanied with a Currywurst (a frankfurter with curry sauce) or any other local dish that you can find almost anywhere in city, you'll have the perfect combination.
Try it out!!!!!!!!!!   Close

These markets are a great chance to remember that although Hamburg is a rather modern city, it happens to be 1200 years old. They are very interesting events, where you get to try local beer and dishes (prepared the medieval way), see a little of…Read More

These markets are a great chance to remember that although Hamburg is a rather modern city, it happens to be 1200 years old. They are very interesting events, where you get to try local beer and dishes (prepared the medieval way), see a little of the traditions from the Germans of the Middle Ages,enjoy medieval music shows and buy 'medieval' handicrafts and costumes. It's also a great chance to get to know the locals.

People may have the first impression that Hamburger people are cold and unfriendly but in events like this one, you'll get to see the warmth and friendliness of the locals. Unfortunately these markets aren't permanent, so you have to ask the locals or look in the local papers and magazines or pay attention to the advertisement on the streets.    Close

Address: Right in front of the Altona Bahnhof ( train station) on the way to the Mercado. This is a place where you can enjoy - all year long - swimming pools, saunas, hot showers,in-door tanning, gym, or just relax and read for a while. It is…Read More

Address: Right in front of the Altona Bahnhof ( train station) on the way to the Mercado.

This is a place where you can enjoy - all year long - swimming pools, saunas, hot showers,in-door tanning, gym, or just relax and read for a while. It is like a mini-resort in the middle of town, but with something particular: Most of it is for the FKK (Freikoerperkultur), which means it's a nude bath. So if you don't have a problem with nudism, take a towel and enjoy. You'll have a great time. It's a good opportunity for relaxing and maybe recovering some energy to move along.    Close

I did hear some peeps and squeaks from some of you since I didn't send out a travelogue for two weeks, so here it is! After Rome, I stayed briefly in Florence, where the eyes nearly go blind from the wealth of artwork collected by…Read More

I did hear some peeps and squeaks from some of you since I didn't send out a travelogue for two weeks, so here it is! After Rome, I stayed briefly in Florence, where the eyes nearly go blind from the wealth of artwork collected by the Medici family. Michelangelo's David (completed when the artist was only 29) is, of course, in Florence, standing immaculately under the natural light of the Galleria dell Accademia's glass cupola. And if you discreetly look around yourself in that hall, you'll notice that there is a disproportionately large percentage of women lingering, craning their necks, with their eyes glued to David's perfect body, while the sweaty pot-bellied husbands and boyfriends wander on to the early-Renaissance religious artwork department...

On Wednesday, 19 May, I said goodbye to Italy and traveled just over the border to Lugano, Switzerland, where I stayed for three days with my friend Kathrin. Imagine seeing someone familiar after seven weeks of traveling alone! In any case, Kathrin is one of the craziest people I know, and her current project is to pretend, for school enrollment reasons, that she is five years younger than she really is. This appears to be insanely stressful, but on the other hand, last September, she did have the rare opportunity to celebrate her 27th birthday for the second time, amongst her teachers and fellow classmates, unawares that she overstepped the boundary into the 30s two years ago already.

From Lugano, I took a train through the rocky snow-peaked mountains to Zurich, where I spent a melancholic afternoon, then boarded a sleeper car for an overnight ride, waking up 400 miles later as the train was cutting across the flat golden fields of Niedersachsen, Germany. In the train, we passengers were already pulling on our wool socks and wrapping our scarves before stepping out into the fresh morning air... And at 10:45am on that Sunday, I was in Hanover, pushing the doorbell at Dürerstrasse 7, where my buddy Susannah opened the door and I dragged my astronomically heavy duffle bag--thonk, thonk--54 times up the stairs. By the way, my friend Susannah had, incidentally, also fallen in love with a Portuguese man, of all places from Porto, as we all know, where the cats smile as they lay themselves down on the doormats at night.

But now I was in Hanover, the sleeping heart of the bellyfat of northern Germany. I know this city well because I lived here for four years. It's actually a pleasant city, with the second largest block of intact Art Nouveau architecture in the world. And in these houses, with their curly windows and bellowing roofs, on a Sunday evening the lights go on and the warmth of family life shines like teeth through their tall ornamented facades. But as a family town, it is cursed with being too nothing, not too big, not too small, not too dangerous, not too pretty. No one ever comes to visit, and it is land-logged. And it has this inherent flatness, with scarcely any landscape in sight, so that at night, when you walk between the tall houses, for a moment you won't know if you are moving forward or if the city is rolling backwards, behind you, under your feet...

I stayed in this city just overnight, then traveled onward to Hamburg... Now Hamburg, my friends, is the famous shipping town of the north, enormous, and in its northern non-beauty it is attractive again. It is similar to Hannover, but plugged into a million-watt generator. The houses are the same, but taller. The people are the same, but livelier. The food is the same, but fresher, and suddenly you have a very cool city which embodies the ultimate overcast, harbor-town romantic. I am staying here in Olli's apartment, which is sparsely furnished and lies in the middle of the Schanzenviertel, the city's hippist neighborhood that actually defined Grundge long before Grundge was even a word in Seattle. The Schanze simply has dinginess in its blood, thus creating Grundge with urgency. It's located a spit away from the Reeperbahn, one of Europe's most infamous red-light districts, and also happens to be the neighborhood with the largest cluster of Portuguese cafes.

And to match the towering houses are the tall northern Germans. Each time I see Olli, Dirk, Alex, and Hendrik, they seem to be getting only taller and thinner, and I'm afraid that the next time I see them, I'll be surrounded by long, swaying ropes whose faces will be too far away to talk to. This extreme height is especially noticeable in those Portuguese cafes around the corner, where the tiny Portuguese baristas look like escapees from Oz. This may be why they never smile and bitterly slam the coffees onto the bar as they serve the tall blond customers who mispronounce the names of the pastries anyway....

Olli lives on Schanzenstrasse, and Susanne lives on Susannenstrasse. To the right of Olli's house door is a lamb butcher, and to the left there is a pork-sausage boutique. In the next house are stores specializing in Hello Kitty Underwear and S&M garden trolls, and on the corner is Scarpovino, a shop that sells shoes and wine... go figure.

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