On our second day in Hamburg (you can read day 1 here) I was feeling a bit better and we decided to travel to St. Pauli - home of the Reeperbahn, the old Elbe tunnel and much more. To get here we travelled from Hamburg-Harburg Station, opposite our apartment, to Hamburg Station where we had to get the underground to St Pauli. After a lot of confusion trying to find the right platform, we were on our way and it wasn't too long of a journey.
When we arrived in St Pauli we didn't have much of a plan so we just started walking - and almost straight away we came across the Millerntor-Stadion, which is the St. Pauli football stadium. We really wanted to do a stadium tour but I'd already looked and they were fully booked, so we got some photos and just admired the outside for a bit.
Then we decided to head to the Reeperbahn area of St. Pauli - aka, the red light district. We got the bus here from opposite the stadium, which was only about a 3-4 minute journey but as we had our Hamburg card with *all* public transport across Hamburg included, we thought we'd make the most of it. By this time it was coming up to midday, and where we got off the bus there was a Five Guys and a restaurant called Zwick. As we could easily get a Five Guys at home we decided to try Zwick, and we headed inside to find a rock-themed bar/restaurant! I had the Joss Stone pasta (chicken in a creamy garlic sauce) and my boyfriend opted for the Chuck Berry burger; both portions were massive and the food was really nice. He had a Guinness and I had a coke, and the bill came to around €40.
From here we decided to walk down the Reeperbahn itself - it's a cross between Blackpool and Amsterdam, very tacky, very loud and very busy. Definitely a stag do kind of place! There were two bars along the way that we really wanted to visit, however, and using Google Maps we found both of them easily enough. The first was the Golden Glove; this is a tiny bar just off the Reeperbahn itself, and it's where serial killer Fritz Honka spent his time and ultimately found his victims. This was the only place so far to ask us for our vaccine passes, funnily enough, and the guy working there was lovely - and happy to tell us all about Fritz Honka! The drinks were also really cheap here, coming to around €7 for a beer and a vodka lemonade.
Our next stop was Zur Ritze which is just around the corner, and on the Reeperbahn itself next to the unmissable Pink Palace. This is a bar with a boxing ring underneath it, and information is sparse but I believe it was founded by Hanne Klein, who was a boxing trainer. The Klitschko brothers, Tyson and David Haye have all trained and/or fought here apparently, and there has been at least one shooting and one hanging on site. It was empty except for us when we arrived and the barmaid seemed annoyed that we'd come in at all so we didn't ask to see the boxing ring downstairs, but I wish we had!
From here we mooched further down the Reeperbahn, and then got on a train to the riverbank area. We popped into the Hard Rock Cafe which was absolutely booming, and opted for a drink on the rooftop terrace. The views were gorgeous but it was SO WINDY! They also didn't have cocktails on the menu which disappointed me greatly but I did get a fruit cider here.
Our last stop in St. Pauli was the old Elbe tunnel; you go down inside a glass lift until you're 24 metres underground, and then you can walk to the other side of the river. I did this alone as my boyfriend wasn't keen, and it was really peaceful and cool to experience. He bought a beer from a little truck and had a wander in the sun. Then we got the train back to our apartment to freshen up... and promptly fell asleep. Then we had a drink in the hotel bar (we got one drink free with the room) and then popped out for one drink at the B7 bar we'd been to the night before. And voila, day two in Hamburg was over.
A jam packed day and a jam packed blog post - thanks for reading to the end if you have!
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