Monday 20 June 2022

Day 4 in Hamburg

Our fourth and final day in Hamburg was actually my favourite. I kept seeing 'Stade' on the train destination boards, so I did a little Google and I was absolutely blown away. Even better, it was included in the transport pass as part of the Hamburg Card, so we didn't pay to get there.

We got up, packed the rest of our stuff up and checked out, leaving our bags in the apartment building until we were ready to collect them later - I love hotels/apartments which let you do this! Then we headed over to the train station to travel from Hamburg to Stade...

Hamburg to Stade

Stade is a beautiful city 45km out of Hamburg, in Lower Saxony, and it is well worth visiting if you're after a slow pace and pretty scenery. We actually got the wrong train so had to stop the journey halfway through and wait for the connecting train to Stade but if you do it all in one go you can get from Hamburg-Harburg station to Stade in just over half an hour!

It was the canal area that had sucked me in, but when arrived I couldn't quite figure out how to get there on the map. So, being the social media freak that I am, I searched on Instagram for the hashtag #Stade and found a picture of someone at the canal, at a particular cafe, and put the name of the cafe into Google maps. We actually decided to eat here too, but more on that soon!

 


The walk from the station was really pleasant; it's much more of a traditionally-German-looking place than Hamburg is, and we walked through a park and across a bridge with lush water underneath. It was a lovely warm day, too, and the sun was shining. We walked through the modern town area, which to be fair reminded me a lot of a British high street, and saw a lovely looking church. Then it was time for the main event: then canal area.

It's like a cookie cutter chocolate box town and I loved it - perfect for getting some gorgeous photos, and there are loads of places to eat and drink and people-watch, which is exactly what we did. We stopped at Die Bohne, and I had a cheese and ham baguette with a bottle of Fritz Kola while my boyfriend had a currywurst and a beer. It wasn't too expensive, the staff were lovely, and there was the choice of indoor or outdoor seating. We sat outside and it was super windy but so pretty.

After we'd eaten we sat and chilled for a bit, admiring the many many dogs people walk around this part of Stade. Truly fantastic. We also visited the local museum (everything was in German but there was some Beatles-related stuff) and the nearby art gallery; you buy one ticket for the two and it was 8 euros each. We then walked back through town to get our train back to Hamburg...

 

After arriving back at the station near our apartment, we ran across to grab our bags then got back on the bloody train to go into the city centre and back to Paddy's Irish bar for the Merseyside derby. There was a huge dog in there, possibly a St Bernard or something, who was having a terrible time with a fly that kept annoying him - he was so cute and I'd go back just to pet him again. We watched the match, had some drinks, and of course managed to bump into someone from our home town because obviously. He works over there now but his wife was visiting and happened to be on our flight, so we got a taxi back to the airport with her - there was some stress over not having enough cash before we got in but you can pay on card in taxis in Hamburg, and the barmaid called one for us which was great.

Our last day was very chilled, and our flight home was very smooth (love u EasyJet please don't cancel my flight to Switzerland next month!!!) - Hamburg was a city I'm glad to have ticked off my list, but I'm not sure it's one I'll be rushing back to. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I had a fantastic time, it's just done now. Have you been? Let me know in the comments!

 



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