The Madison is a wonderful hotel but breakfast at €27 a head was a bit rich, so we opted to walk the twenty metres across the road to the Amber Cafe, where we each had a very satisfying breakfast for a total of €15. It really is easy to eat your money when travelling. 

Public transport in Hamburg is so easy. We walked the 150m to the Baumwall UBahn station where we bought a weekly travel pass and headed off on the U3 which is a circle line. There are no barriers or ticket checks, just signs at the entry to the stations warning that you need a valid ticket. I imagine they are randomly checked and the penalty is €60.

We had consulted the hotel staff and headed for Sternschanze. I think we hadn’t listened properly. It was grungy, covered in graffiti and the stumbling drunks and druggies made us feel out of our depths. We were very tired and definitely not on our game. We called it a day.

The hotel was brilliantly located with easy access to public transport, a supermarket, the harbour and a marvellous ‘eat street’ in the Portuguese quarter. We had a paella one night and pasta another. Not very Portuguese I know but still, great food. 

Not all choices we make are good and generally I’m guilty of rushing-in. The harbour area Landungsbrucken, was incredibly busy. It was Wednesday. Maybe it was German holidays. Lots of families about and an incredible number of tourist boats. We bought a ticket for a two-hour tour which the fellow said had English. Well, he didn’t lie exactly. Then we discovered it was in 70 minutes…not seven. OK -brunch. There was plenty to choose from. The boat company was Rainer Abicht and there were lots of boats. We may have boarded the wrong one. Anyhow it was a case of downloading the app and it would pick up the commentary in English as we went past certain transceivers. The app also had a map so we knew when it would start up. We discovered how immense the port was, how massive the container vessels were, how substantial the canals were through the city and that the typical greeting, regardless of the time of day, is ‘Moin’, which is a bit like ‘G’day’. Our English commentary was brief. Meanwhile the tour guide entertained the native speakers and hardly came up for breath for the whole two hours. I really wish I spoke German!

Hamburg is an ancient port city, and the thriving ‘Red Light’ district is in St Pauli on Reeperbahn, which had porn shops, weapons shops, bars, music venues, plenty of eating places and quite a few hotels and apartment buildings– very eclectic!! The Beatles became very familiar with this area on their trips to Hamburg as it was the centre for music and the creative arts in the early 60s. 

We thought we should check it out. It was notorious so we figured four in the afternoon would be tame enough for us oldies. We were right. We found a bar, the Alte Liebe, sunk a pint and then to our delight we discovered that they were setting up for Night Markets in the square -Spielbidenplatz. Lots of tourists, mainly German, wandered the street taking in the colour and vibrancy. Many stopped to take photos of the apparently very famous Police station, Davidwache. I think it appears in quite a few German TV Police dramas. 

Hamburg is easy to negotiate and feels very safe. I ventured into the city to do a bit of shopping on my own. I like German jeans. They make them for my shape! I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around on my own while John took advantage of the Hotel spa and pool. A perfect day for both of us.