In a bid to avoid the bulk of the European winter, I’ve spent the last 4 months in Australia and Asia. My hometown Perth never changes, except for the cost of living which continues to escalate, so I spent most of my 3 months there either at the beach, hanging out with my family or working on some new projects. That was mostly fun yet very tiring as were my brief trips to Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Japan. It was great visiting home and avoiding the cold but I did often miss Europe and I was a teensy bit jealous reading about the travels of others while I was away.
As this post goes live, I’ll be on a long haul flight from Tokyo to London and for the very first time I’ll be flying first class. Yay for frequent flyer points! Then it’s straight to Berlin where I’ll be starting a month of travelling around Germany.
Berlin
I’ve been to Berlin many times but this is the first time I’ll be doing some restaurant reviews. Fingers crossed I remember to take photos of the food before I dig in, a mistake I often make when eating out for work! Bar Raval and Hamburger Bahnhof are the two places I’ll be trying out. Have you been or heard anything about them?
This trip to Berlin is for a business event but I have booked one tour of the city with the hopes of improving my photography and maybe seeing a different side of Berlin. I’ve arranged to do a 3 hour photography tour of Berlin so look out for some hopefully great photos which I’ll be sharing both here and on Instagram.
Hamburg
I get the impression Hamburg is mostly seen as a destination for business travellers or maybe as a quick city break destination but I suspect there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. I’m looking forward to exploring the diverse neighbourhoods Schanzenviertel, Hafencity and St Pauli as well as taking a boat tour on Alster Lake. I’ll be using the Twitter hashtag #mein-hamburg during my 5 days there so you can follow along or share travel tips or foodie recommendations if you have any.
Muenster, Osnabrueck and Rostock
I’ve been looking forward to this 7 day trip for more than 6 months! It’s finally come together and I’ll be visiting the northern German cities of Muenster, Osnabrueck and Rostock as a guest of Historic Highlights of Germany. They specialise in promoting travel to off the beaten path German destinations like Trier, Wiesbaden and Heidelberg, all of which are great cities with a fascinating history. You can follow this trip from the 16th to the 22nd March at #historicgermany on Twitter and of course I’ll be posting about it later in detail.
An even better way to follow my German adventure is via Instagram, my favourite social media channel. 🙂
Where are your travels taking you to this month?
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Food: when in Muenster on a wednesday or a saturday, don’t miss the farmers’ market by the Dom to eat Kartoffelpuffer by Genius, the best. and of course Spaghetti Eis. In Hamburg, eel. There’s a good restaurant by the harbour that serves it simply, with omelette and Bratkartoffel.
We arrive in Muenster on a Saturday so we’ll definitely go to the farmers’ market but Kartoffelpuffers are usually cooked in lard so that’s out, although I will check to see if they have a vegetarian version.
F loves spaghetti eis so he’ll get that for sure!
Hi Andrea, I hope your suspicion about Hamburg will be confirmed. It’s my hometown so I’m a wee bit biased. My recommendation: skip the Alster (which is a river btw, only looks like a lake) and do a tour through the port (Hafenrundfahrt). It’s REALLY interesting and fascinating. Don’t mind the rain though 🙂 Have a good flight and I’ll keep my eyes peeled for the #.
That’s interesting that you say the Alster is a river as they refer to it as a lake on the Hamburg Tourism website. That’s weird! 🙂 But I will see for myself soon enough. 😉 Thanks for the tip on doing a tour of the port, I’ll try to add that to my itinerary.
It all sounds lovely – I especially love the history tour around Northern Germany. I’m from Hamburg myself, proudly so, and I never understand why people don’t go there. Rostock is among my favs too, such a BEAUTIFUL city!! Excited to hear how you liked it!
I’m looking forward to Hamburg in particular, I’m sure I’ll love it but then I love everywhere in Germany. 😉
Hi Andrea, I will be following your trip in Germany. I lived there for 3 years (on an Air force base) but got to see loads, be it all in the 80’s. I used to shop like a local too …the markets and the shops .. We were actually based very near Holland border , so got to go over there as well .. Loved it all.
It’s great that you were able to see so much! A wonder how much has changed since the 80s…
Cool! Excited to hear about your tours with Historic Germany! Heidelberg is one of the places I most want to visit this summer
I always forget to take pictures of food too! I really enjoyed Rostock last fall but will be interested to hear about Osnabruck, Munster and Hamburg! Enjoy your time in Germany.
I will be excited to read all about your travels in Germany. I’m loving the snowy pictures on Facebook – just a little cooler than Perth has been of late 😉 It was lovely having you here for that few months but I totally agree that it doesn’t take long for lure of Europe to beckon. I hope you remembered to take the food pics!!