I took the fast ICE (Inter City Express) train from Münster to Hamburg this morning, arriving at Hamburg Hbf right after 1:00 pm. Since I had some time to kill before my Airbnb was ready, I had a nice lunch at Mutterland, a delicatessen with a restaurant. After lunch, I took an Uber to my place in the leafy Ottensee section of the city, near Altona. My host met me at the door and carried my bag up four flights of stairs to the apartment. After he left, I got settled and went online and got an HVV (Hamburger Verkehrsverbund) three-day travel pass. Later I found out that the HVV S-Bahn stations don’t have turnstiles.

Although the weather was partly sunny, it was freezing cold—in the mid-40s and gusty. I waited for a bus to the center, but decided to walk to the S-Bahn stop in Ottensee instead and take the train to Reepersbahn in the St -Pauli district, where the Beatles famously played before becoming rock stars. By the way, I was never a big fan.

The St-Pauli district is seedy, but adjoins a nice neighborhood with views of the harbor and the iconic Elbphilharmonie. I walked up to a large park dominated by a gargantuan statue of Otto von Bismarck. As the wind picked up, I decided to take the S-Bahn back to Altona, to explore that neighborhood.

Altona is another leafy district of Hamburg, with attractive parks and a neo-classical City Hall (Rathaus). I walked around a 17th-century Protestant church and graveyard before heading back to the train for the short hop to Ottensee.

When I got back to my Airbnb after logging almost 8 miles, I looked for a local market to grab some food since I didn’t feel like going out for dinner at 8:00 pm. The E-Center Struwe is a superb grocery story a short walk from my Airbnb situated in a redeveloped industrial space that used to be a gasworks. As is universal in Europe, unlike the US, all sidewalks and open spaces are finished in pavers. I’ve never seen poured concrete streets which are ubiquitous in the US. It always seems that we Americans do everything on the cheap. Asphalt roof shingles are another hideous feature that one never sees in Europe. These are some shots of the redeveloped gasworks. The final shot is of my building.

I had to turn the heat on since it’s going to dip into the 30s overnight. Tomorrow I join a walking tour at the civilized hour of 11:00 am. My host has three coffee machines plus a grinder so I’ll be well caffeinated tomorrow morning. Guten Abend!