2nd January 2026

Greetings from Germany!  Oder Grüsse aus Deutschland!  After a truly incredible ten-day trip to Israel, and a lovely time with my family in Sheffield over Christmas, I’m off again!  This time for a short three-night trip to Hamburg in Germany over New Year.  This is my third trip to this country, my first being a quick whizz through Munich and Berlin while interrailing as a student through Europe way back in 1999, and then a short trip to Cologne and Bonn in 2023.  As well as long epic journeys, I’m also enjoying these short mini-breaks I’ve been having to somewhere not far away.  I’ve always been intrigued by Germany’s second city, and its largest port, and thus the idea for a short city break here took shape.

I’m actually staying in a delightful little Hanseatic town just outside the city, called Stade.  I often prefer to stay in such a place rather than in urban centres themselves, to be both within commuting distance to explore the city, but also somewhere less fast-paced with the potential to more easily explore somewhere else nearby.  Prices also seem to be cheaper in such places, while the people are often friendlier, with more of a chance to practise my language skills.  Stade seemed to fit the bill perfectly, and in fact no-one there really spoke English, so I had to use my German quite a few times which I enjoyed.

I took an EasyJet flight from my favourite London airport, Gatwick, to Hamburg, and then a train from the airport to the city’s giant Central Station.  There I changed to another train to the southern furthermost point on its metro system, the afore-mentioned and delightful little town of Stade.  My Lonely Planet describes it as a place you’d half-expect to see the Pied Piper wandering down its quaint cobbled alleyways, amongst gorgeous Hanseatic-era red-brick, black-timbered buildings.  And they weren’t far wrong!

Before checking into my accommodation, I wandered through its Altstadt, or Old Town, on my way there, and just delighted in the cuteness of the place!  The alleyways were cobbled and curvy, the houses charming, and the people friendly and jolly, filled with merriment still in the interim period between Christmas and New Year.  All the more, there were also a couple of highly photogenic canals running through town, all lit up with Christmas lights too – it was a great little start to exploring this northern corner of the country.  Checked into my friendly little hotel and a really well-heated room (it was cold outside!), did a small shop at the well-stocked Aldi nextdoor, and settled in to my room for my first night on this trip, looking forward to starting my explorations proper the next day.

The next day was really cool.  It started out a bit meh to be honest – woke up with a headache, and it was dark and rainy.  After mid-morning I felt myself again, and the weather picked up too.  Breakfast was in my hotel, though the young lady on breakfast service that morning was one of a fair few I met on this trip who, when I asked them to repeat something I didn’t understand, said it louder and faster thinking that would help.  It doesn’t!  Though I do know there are also a fair few English folk that do that too when they speak with foreigners…!

I then took the train westwards to the delightful, out-of-season seaside resort of Cuxhaven, about an hour to the west.  I just love out-of-season seaside resorts, reminiscent I think of visits to my birth town and grandparents in Bournemouth throughout the seasons as a child.  I just love the windswept and forlorn beach, the shuttered shops, and the sense of end-of-the-world desolation – call me mad!

From the train station, I took a bus along the coast around four miles to the west, to the fantastic Ahoi Bad, where I spent a chilled three hours in their bath and sauna complex, some of it inside and some of it outside in the cold wet weather.  I’m very much a bath, sauna and spa type of guy, and Germany is very much a bath, sauna and spa type of country – we’re well-suited!  I was still getting used to the butt-nakedness of them in Germany though, particularly as they are mixed.  There does seem to be something about hanging out with lots of naked people (though please don’t quote me on that!!), in that people are stripped down to quite simply who they are.  There’s an element of vulnerability, simplicity, and also of trust.  It kind of makes you wonder why we make life so complicated for ourselves really.  Anyway, enough philosophising for now!  I had simply a lovely time there, and the awesome views over the beach and the North Sea from the place’s various vantage points made it even more special.

All squeaky clean and walking on clouds, I began an invigorating four-mile coastal walk back to the train station, following first the North Sea coast, and then the left bank of the River Elbe as this great German waterway meets the sea here at Cuxhaven.  The weather was squally, with strong winds and intermittent rain, and the walk involved awesome beach views as the tide was far out and the tiny island of Neuwerk was visible in the distance.  Apparently at this low tide, you can walk the four miles along the sand flats to this island, and there seemed to be a trail marked out in markers in the sand, though I wasn’t risking that for one minute!  Every now and then a huge container ship either entered or left the Elbe on its way to or from nearby Hamburg, Germany’s principal port and gateway to the outside world.

Many couples and families were out for a New Year’s Eve walk along one of Germany’s few and far between beaches.  The country is more of an inland one really, with two small stretches of coastline on its northern flank – one here on the North Sea, and the other further east on the other side of Denmark on the Baltic Sea.  I have never visited the German coast before, it is very much a rarity!

On the way to the station I passed the town’s harbour, with sailings to the fascinating island of Heligoland around 30 miles off the coast.  This tiny little windswept North Sea island was swapped by Great Britain in 1890 for Zanzibar, which didn’t initially feel a fair swap to my mind until I learnt of the strategic importance of this tiny rock in being able to oversee events in the North Sea during both World Wars.  A day trip to the island was actually my original plan for this day, until I saw the ferry company’s amended New Year’s Eve service which would only have given me half-an-hour to explore, between the two-and-a-half ferry ride each way.  This didn’t seem worth it, and there was no service at all on New Year’s Day, so I abandoned my plans to visit this fascinating little island, and instead thoroughly enjoyed my day in Cuxhaven anyway.

Back in Stade, I stopped off on the way back to my hotel in the 14^th century St Wilhadi Church and then the 12^th century Saints Cosmas and Damian Church, as they were both open.  The former was apparently one of the first churches in the region to convert to Protestantism following Martin Luther’s 16^th century German reformation, while I stayed around in the latter as it was having a service during my visit.  I’m still trying to get my head around German culture to be honest.  I was clearly late for the service, and rather than being made to feel welcome as a stranger in a new church, I felt lots of dagger eyes towards me, presumably because I was either late, or sitting in the wrong place.  I wasn’t sure.  Whatever the case, it was water off a duck’s back to me, but there is something about German culture and people that seems to really, often oppressively, insist that you do the right thing and follow the “rules”.  I’ve noticed it during previous trips to the country, and it felt strange to see this in a church of all places.  Not one person made eye contact with me as I walked around at the end while they were socializing with each other.  Very strange.

Ah well, it was a lovely church and a fascinating experience, and I called it a day as I holed up in my warm hotel room for the night, with earplugs in and noise machine on to drown out the fireworks.  I am no New Year’s Eve fan.

My second and final full day on this little trip was an excellent exploration of the big, urban, oft-times gritty city of Hamburg – being from Sheffield, I love these kinds of places.  The weather could have been better, as it was cold, rainy and windy, but it also could have been worse – being also British, I never aim to let bad weather get in the way of good travels.

As mentioned, I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Eve, and the fireworks the night before went on until 2am.  Despite not the best of sleeps, I still felt fairly refreshed in the morning, which I appreciated.  After breakfast, I took the train eastwards this time into Germany’s second largest city, with a population of two million and a metropolitan population of five-and-a-half million.  I enjoyed my wanderings on this New Year’s Day especially, as the place was empty and I pretty much had it to myself.  There was not much open, no workers, bad weather, and clearly evidence of a good time having been had the night before with firework and alcohol remnants everywhere – most people would probably have still been in bed sleeping it off while I was there.

I did a big walking tour, starting from Hamburg’s Hauptbahnhof, or Central Station, taking in first the grandeur of the Rathaus Town Hall and the large Rathausmarkt square in front of it.  I then nipped down a few side streets to reach the St Nikolai Memorial Church, whose church tower and a few walls are the only things left standing after the “Feiersturm” blitz of 1943, morbidly named “Operation Gomorrah” by the Allies.  The attack lasted ten days in the middle of summer, killing up to 60,000 people, destroying 60% of the city, and leaving one million people homeless.  It was one of the key turning points of the war which led ultimately to Nazi defeat, and this remaining tower alongside the empty remains of the rest of the Memorial Church stand as a reminder of this fateful day for the city.

I then headed to the city’s UNESCO-listed warehouse district called Speicherstadt, with humongous and really quite attractive warehouse buildings lining the many canals running through the area, testament to the city’s status as Germany’s main port town, both historically and still today.  On the edge of Speicherstadt with a commanding position over the Riber Elbe stands the massive hulk of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall.  Here, I took a ride both up and down the world’s longest arched escalator at 85 metres long, to get up to the visitor’s floor and its great views over the city, river, and miles upon miles of harbour and port facilities as far as the eye could see.  They do like things big around here!  A walk past the nearby ship-shaped Chilehaus building took me back once more to the Hauptbahnhof to complete my full circle walking tour.

I then enjoyed a very chilled three hours at the excellent Baderland Bartholomäus a short bus ride out of the centre, perfect antidote to the rather chilled explorations out in the weather of that day.  The place had a large thermal bath which was very popular on this New Year’s Day, and a separate section filled with steam rooms, pools, and a variety of saunas, showers and relaxation areas.  I loved it!  It was naked again in most parts and fully mixed, including the changing rooms (!), and I was beginning to actually feel comfortable with this.

As with the Ahoi Bad the day before, and also Neptunbad during my trip to Cologne a couple of years ago, there were regular sauna sessions with a guy coming in to a packed sauna room adding aromatherapeutic smells to the heat, and wafting great big fans to spread the lovely smells and heat around everyone in the room.  These sessions are really quite intense and very hot, but so invigorating and relaxing at the same time.  I’m going to miss these German bath houses, very much my favourite part of travelling in Germany, just like I missed the Japanese onsen I delighted in after my trip to Japan seven years ago.  After the train back to Stade, I was walking on clouds once more as I headed back to my accommodation for my final night on this mini-trip.

Gosh, my flight home the next day was troublesome, though I felt so fortunate to still in the end be able to fly.  I also have travel insurance which gives me lounge access if my flight is delayed, and I enjoyed a couple of whiskies, a fill-up lunch, and a coffee in the executive lounge in the meantime, which I appreciated.  While the weather forecast was only for sleet in the morning and then fine for the rest of the day, it turned out to be a full-on snow storm hitting Hamburg!  My flight was delayed by six hours, but I still felt so fortunate as many others were cancelled.  This included the British Airways flight to Heathrow just before mine which I had in fact originally booked until I was able to cancel it for free due to a time change, and instead book my Eurowings flight using a good deal of the air miles I’d accrued from my Lufthansa return flight to South Africa a few years ago.  The EasyJet return flight that I had taken there from Gatwick was also cancelled, as was an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, while a WizzAir flight to Sibiu in Romania was cancelled two hours after the passengers had already boarded!  A later EasyJet flight to Gatwick was also cancelled, along with one to Manchester.  Complete hats off to the absolutely fantastic Eurowings who flew me home.  It was my first time flying with them, and I was so glad I chose to book with them.  A later Eurowings flight to Heathrow also went ahead, as did its one to Manchester.  What a fantastic airline!  I should also say that the Ryanair flight to Stansted also went ahead, so well done them.

After what felt like an eternity de-icing the plane, followed by the pushback vehicle breaking down and them having to send another one, we finally took off and flew the short hour-and-a-quarter hop over the North Sea to London Heathrow.  I took my usual bus back to Croydon, and celebrated my arrival home with a double brandy and a pot of instant noodles before hitting the sack around midnight.

So after a really interesting time in Hamburg, and another intriguing mini-break in Germany, I had the weekend to contemplate what an amazing Christmas holidays of travels I had had.  It of course started out with simply incredible Israel, then a wonderful Christmas with my family in Sheffield, and now this short trip to this little-visited corner of Germany.  Now it was time to wind down a bit, before my next trip, planned for Moldova and my last European country in February.  Watch this space!