TRAIN # 23 – 23:20 Munich to Hamburg (Continued)
Apart from a couple of ticket checks at the start and end of the journey, we were never disturbed and I slept soundly. I woke up just before Hamburg, as the train was passing through the flat land around Luneburg.
At around 9am we pulled in to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. We stayed on board as the train continued on through the city passing through Dammtor until it arrived at Hamburg Altona. We were on time. In both distance and in train performance terms, we were now a long way from Italy.
HAMBURG
We had a hamburger and a coffee in McDonald’s at Altona and then took the S-Bahn back to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. We put our rucksacks in the luggage lockers there and then went to get tickets for West Berlin. The city wasn’t included in the Interail pass, but as we were both keen to see it we had finally decided to go anyway. At 54 DM, the tickets were just about affordable and East German transit visas could be purchased on the train.
We had decided to travel from Hamburg overnight, arrive in Berlin in the morning, spend a day there and then come back to Hamburg late in the evening. We would then take up our already planned itinerary towards Scandinavia, effectively 24 hours late and thus add another day to our original schedule.
With all this settled we went for a little tour of Hamburg. We walked through the shopping precinct to the Rathaus (Town Hall) and then past St. Michael’s Tower towards the Bismarck Memorial Monument.
Down by the docks we paused at a little kiosk for a lunch of two sausages, mustard and a roll. Then we walked along the quayside to the fish market. The smell was pretty terrible. We walked on towards the dry dock of Blohm and Voss and there in front of us was the largest passenger liner in the world, the SS Norway, formerly SS France.
We walked back from the docks towards Altona station. We decided to stock up on bread and sausage at a supermarket and ended up with grapes, tuna fish, chocolate and cake as well.
We walked over to the Reeperbahn red light district. Not surprisingly it felt a bit tame in the day time. There were only a few peep shows open and none of them looked at all inviting.
We continued on to Saint Pauli, the main park and the TV Tower. The park was pleasant and had two lakes and a miniature railway running through it. Eventually we came to the Esplanade, walked across the Elbe Bridge and back towards the Hauptbahnhof.
As I walked along, a girl cyclist stopped me and tried to explain something in German. She finally got me to understand that there was a hole in my carrier bag and I had dropped sausages along the road behind me. We went back and managed to retrieve three. They were covered in gravel though and went straight in the bin.
Having decided we had seen enough of Hamburg, which we both agreed was a bit boring and probably comparable to Leeds (although I had never actually been to Leeds at that point), we decided to spend the evening in nearby Lubeck.
TRAIN # 24 – 18:05 Hamburg Hbf to Lubeck
We caught a commuter train out of the city heading to Lubeck. The journey took about 45 minutes. We got a little map from the tourist information bureau and walked across the river into the town centre.
With its churches and spires it was pleasant enough to walk around. They were having some kind of wine tasting event in the main square with stalls decorated by brightly coloured lights and loud speakers pumping out German-style pop music. We remarked to ourselves that quite a few young people seemed to be dressed as punks.
TRAIN # 25 – 20:35 Lubeck to Hamburg Hbf
Having set a new record for the fastest sightseeing visit so far, we went back to Hamburg on the train. We caught the S-Bahn to the Reeperbahn and had a quick walk around. It was colourful enough but it didn’t seem too much livelier than earlier. Obviously we were still too early.
We got the luggage out of the locker, bought and sent some postcards and then jumped back on another S-Bahn once more, heading for Altona station. We grabbed a coffee at McDonald’s and then went in search of our train.
TRAIN # 26 – 23:14 Hamburg Altona to Hannover
We boarded an overnight train that was heading for Stuttgart. We were only taking it for the short three hour stretch to Hannover where we would change for West Berlin. We got a compartment to ourselves, but we already knew that sleep would probably be hard to come by on the journey ahead.
I spent some of the journey thumbing through the glossy ‘Berlin: Drop in On Us’ brochure that the information office had given to us. ‘A walk through Berlin allows you to experience a special kind of city’, it suggested.
Forty Years Later
- In 2026 the fastest ICE express trains take just under six hours for the Munich to Hamburg run.
- One ICE runs overnight but there are no sleeper trains in 2026, a new one will launch in 2027, however.
- Only about 60% of long-distance trains ran on time in 2026 making Germany’s network one of the least punctual in Europe and far worse than Italy’s.
- Blohm and Voss is still in existence. Since 2016 it has been part of the Lürssen group.
- SS Norway was scrapped in India in 2008.
- I have been back to Hamburg just once since 1984, spending ten days there on a business trip in 2001. With plenty of time to explore, I found the city absolutely fascinating. I have also since visited Leeds but found it nothing like Hamburg.
