Hamburg, Take Two

We left Bavaria behind and took the train from Frankfurt to spend the weekend in Hamburg. We had reserved in advance but when we boarded the train we found someone else in our seats, they had been double booked. Dayne used his high school German with the conductor and soon we were in 1st class. It wasn't all clear sailing though as the conductor told us that if someone boarded in one of the other cities with our seats we'd have to move again. Luckily that didn't happen and soon we were checking into the über hip hotel The George.


We grabbed a few pre-dinner drinks in the hotel bar which does more than a just passable cocktail and then headed to Carl's out on the harbor for dinner. I really like this area of Hamburg, it's actually very similar to what's going on in London's Dock Lands (post coming). And the food at Carl's was a nice change from the big heavy Bavarian dishes we had been eating for the past week+.

After dinner we met our friend Cirsten at The Four Seasons in their "Luggage Room" Bar.

This tiny, 2 level bar tucked inside the elegant hotel is rumored to have once been a luggage storage area. Not a lot of people seem to know about it (besides the locals) and it's got a real speakeasy feel without being one at all. Great service and cocktails- Dayne took this photo standing in the doorway.

The next morning we went and did a bit of shopping at Weinquelle Liquor Store. This store was amazing, carrying a huge selection of things we can't find in the states and even giving us tastings (at 10:30am) of rare gins and whiskeys. Among other things Dayne picked up an amazing bottle of gin aged in Isley Scotch barrels.

We then met Forest who came over from Paris to join us for the night. And after lunch another friend Liz, met up.  Unlike us this was Dayne's first time in Hamburg so we went for a little sightseeing cruise around the harbor area.

One of the ships we saw was the Eclipse, the world's most expensive yacht being built for Roman Abramovich. It's 558 feet long, has nine decks, pool, cinema, 20 onboard jet skis, 4 boats, 2 heli pads and supposedly a missile defense system. All that and more for $500 million. 

Also in port at the time was the Maersk Sheerness which at 1,099.1 ft and carrying 8,000 20 foot containers, is one of the largest cargo ships in the world.

After the cruise we strolled around charming Hamburg for the rest of the afternoon.

That evening Forest, Dayne and I met our friend Cirsten at the wine shop she use to work at for champagne before before heading out to dinner at VLET. This is a wonderful restaurant which puts a modern spin on many classic German dishes and also uses some French influences.

No trip to Hamburg is complete without cocktails at Le Lion, where we headed to after dinner and stayed late into the night/ or early into the morning- however you like to look at it!

All photos from Hamburg are here.

In like Le Lion...

Day two in Hamburg we took a great cruise on the upper lake canals. It is very very pretty with it's swans, mansions, waterways, etc. Hamburg boasts a lot of things- one of them being the Venice of Germany.

The US embassy here looks like a mini White House...

After the cruise we grabbed some lunch and did a bit of shopping. That's what girls do on vacation you know? Eat, shop, drink. In that order. So once we had fulfilled said itinerary we got ready for our night out.

A short walk from our hotel and we were at our destination and very excited! We sat up at the bar and within minutes Mario Kappes was chatting to us while Marcel Baumann mixed up some gorgeous cocktails. When Mario learned that we had come to Hamburg specifically to try out Le Lion he introduced us to owner and fabulous host Jorg Meyer.

I was asking them about Le Bon Lion which I had heard about from Mike Meinke, a speakeasy supposedly across the street from Le Lion. Mike had told me to bring a little something with a lion on it as entry. Turns out you don't really need to do that and they only use the speakeasy for private tastings now. Well it just so happened that tonight they were doing a private tasting with the first bottle of Cartavio XO being opened in Germany and they invited us on the fun!

A small group of approximately 10 of us walked across the street to the French bistro there, entered the restaurant and climbed a narrow flight of stairs.

Once inside the tiny room the private tasting of this magnificent rum (and also some very nice Pisco's) took place. Jorg thought it was hysterical that he was getting the bottle and tasting before previously mentioned Mike Meinke and that Mike had sent me there. He recorded a little message to Mike:

We had such a great time with everyone at the tasting, especially Cirsten Kessler, it was so fun meeting everyone!

 

Back across the street for more cocktails until the wee hours of the morning. I gave Mario the lion bottle stopper I brought them and we ceremoniously chose the bottle of Hendricks for it to go on. So if you see a lion bottle stopper on a bottle in Le Lion know that it was a little trinket from Seattle (that we actually bought in South Africa!)

To top off the amazing night Jorg pulled out a bottle of Pol Roger and with the base of a wine glass sabered it open!! More importantly Jorg told me that the next time I come he'll saber a bottle of Pol Roger Winston Churchill! I will be holding you to that kind sir and will see you next September hopefully!

Thank you Le Lion staff and customers for a hell of a good time! Photos of all our Hamburg adventures are here.

Hamburg- a fine place for cocktails

After Forest and I rocked Paris to it's core (ok, not really but we gave it a shot!) we got up early (damn you Forest, stop booking flights that require me to get up at 6 am!!), took the train to CDG (much easier than I imagined) and hopped a flight to Hamburg, Germany. Neither of us had been to Hamburg (this was my first time even to Germany!) so you may think the destination of Hamburg is a strange choice- unless you are into cocktails and then you might know that it is home to Le Lion, voted best new cocktail bar in 2008. More about that later...

After checking into our hotel we went out exploring. We walked around the lake, through part of town and made our way to the Deichstrasse in search of lunch: schnitzel & beers to be exact. After lunch we went to the St. Nikolai Memorial, the remains of what was once the world's tallest building (at 482 feet)  had been bombed out during the war. We took the elevator up for great views of the city and also visited the underground photo memorial.

It was really interesting and especially since I haven't been in Germany before it was my first glimpse of a city pretty much leveled during the war.

This photo is of a Holocaust memorial that is sitting on the bricks taken from the near by concentration camp Neuengamme.

We headed back to our hotel, making stops in some grocery stores for aperos , but found it difficult as the stores in our area were Muslim. We soldiered on and found some weird wine and suitable snacks. After a bit of a rest it was off to Christiansen's on the recommedation of Philip Duff. Owner Uwe Christiansen made sure that we were well taken care of, even breaking out the antique barware as we discussed cocktails, Hamburg and Bai Ling. How can you not like a bar that stocks an amazing selection of booze, offers free chair massages on Monday nights and has an owner with an impressive history in the biz (there is a story about his having a hand in the Cosmo being a huge trend, don't hold it against him!)

That is just one of many walls of interesting liquor including the rare and mysterious Lufthansa liquor that Uwe let us taste. Oh and he sent us home with some of his name branded liquors too. A very fun man, a very fun night and some very good drinks. Thank you Uwe!!

Since we were so close to the Reeperbahn we just had to go have a peak. This might be the largest by area, red light district in Europe but it was tame, tacky and a bit ho hum. Do you know that this is where the Beatles originally got their start though? John Lennon is quoted as saying "I might have been born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg"

I'll let you ponder this window scene. End of day one!