Hamburg — The Adventure Goes International!
After a comfortable night at the Premier Inn Hub Hotel near King’s Cross, it was time to leave London and begin the international part of my great retirement adventure.
First, a journey on the London Underground from King’s Cross to Paddington, where I changed onto the Heathrow Express for the run out to Heathrow Airport.
My flight to Hamburg was with Eurowings, departing from Terminal 2.
After all those months of planning, I was finally on my way to the continent!
Arriving at Hamburg Airport, I made my way through immigration and headed for the railway station to catch the S-Bahn into the city.
The S1 line took me directly to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, the city’s central railway station.
My accommodation for the next two nights was the Hotel Centro, conveniently located near the station.
It was a good place to begin the journey, particularly as I would be travelling onwards by rail in a couple of days.
Hamburg was where the whole idea for this adventure had originally started.
For years I had wanted to visit Miniatur Wunderland, the extraordinary model railway exhibition that I had seen in videos online.
What had begun as a simple idea for a trip to see a model railway had somehow grown into a journey across Europe and Asia.
And now, here I was, finally in Hamburg!
Having settled into my hotel, I ventured out in search of something to eat.
Just a hundred metres or so from the hotel, I spotted a restaurant with a large A-board outside advertising the special of the day.
“Schweinshaxe mit Bratensoße”
Now, my German is somewhat limited, so out came Google Translate.
Roast pork knuckle with gravy!
It actually looked very nice but not being a fan of pickled cabbage I decided to move on in search of something a little more to my taste!
Fortunately, right next to the hotel was a small Italian restaurant, the Capri, where I settled down at an outside table with a plate of pasta and a cold beer.
A very pleasant way to spend my first evening in Germany, soaking up the last of the day’s sunshine and watching the world go by.
Tomorrow would be the day I had been looking forward to for years — my visit to Miniatur Wunderland.
See you all tomorrow, I hope!
TTFN
Bibbley
