From Business Traveller, this will be a significant improvement for travellers. The number of passengers who still seem surprised that they have to remove liquids, even though they’ve passed 22 signs telling them, never ceases to amaze me.
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Hamburg – St Nicholas’s Church (Museum)
There isn’t much of St. Nicholas’s Church which is still left standing, but the crypt did survive and there is now a museum located within it. It’s not a large museum, but it tells the story of how and why the bombing of Hamburg took place, which was in reprisal for the German bombing of historic British (and other countries) cities. The museum also explains about how the previous church was lost to fire and how the replacement church was built.
The previous church had burnt down during the great fire of Hamburg of 1842, so they reused some of the copper to make commemorative coins to help raise funds for the new building.
This is an invite to the laying of the cornerstone of the new church on 24 September 1846. The church was designed by George Gilbert Scott, responsible for many Gothic churches in the UK and beyond.
Parts of the shattered altar, which destroyed both the interior and exterior of the church during the Second World War.
Items found during the demolition of the church.
Some of the interior of the museum. The ticket includes both the elevator to the top of the tower and this museum, with the staff member at the entrance desk being particularly engaging and conversational. All in all, a fascinating site.
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Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Capriccio with Roman Ruins by Canaletto)
I didn’t know what a Capriccio was and I just assumed it was just some place in Italy (although it also sounds like a delicious dish from Prezzo), but it’s actually a collection of buildings or ruins just placed together for the purpose of a artwork. Apparently this was a popular art form during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although I’m surprised people didn’t want something a little more realistic.
Canaletto painted this in 1740, pretty much in the middle of his career, and it seems that there is a problem throughout many of his works in establishing what was real and what was artificial. This is the only work of this artist that the Kunsthalle hold, other than a series of 31 etchings which I don’t think are on display.
I think I prefer his paintings of Venice, Rome and London…..
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Hamburg – Ibis Budget Altona
Firstly, in fairness to the hotel, I did have a quick lie down before taking this photo, this wasn’t how they presented the room. It’s a typical Ibis Budget room, pretty much the same the world over. The room, including breakfast, was around £50 per night, which seems entirely reasonable to me as Hamburg isn’t necessarily the cheapest of cities to stay in.
The breakfast selection, which was more generous than some other Ibis Budgets that I’ve stayed in. There isn’t always a great deal of consistency about the breakfasts, certainly compared to the very tight brand standard of what is offered in the rooms. The meat selection wasn’t great, so I went for the rolls, salad items, pastries and jams during the week. The bread selection was marvellous though, with some really nice rolls.
A breakfast on one of my five mornings in the hotel. I particularly liked that the breakfast room never got too busy, it can be mildly frustrating trying to get breakfast and all of the tables are full. So, all in all, better than I had expected from the breakfasts.
The staff were all friendly and helpful, all speaking perfect English and the atmosphere in the hotel was always relaxed and informal. It didn’t feel very busy during the early part of the week, but it felt slightly busier towards the end of my stay.
There was no noise disturbance either internally or externally during my stay, with the room always being at a reasonable temperature. There isn’t a great deal of control over the temperature as it seems to be centrally set, but there was cold air circulating throughout.
This is the Altona location from the chain, as Ibis do have other hotels in the city, and it’s around a sixty-minute walk to the city centre. I did that a few times, but other times I just got the subway, which is around a five-minute walk from the hotel. That gets into the city centre in around ten minutes, so the hotel is as central as I needed it to be.
All told, I’d stay here again, there were no problems and the service was always friendly. It’s also one of those hotels which is keyless, with entry to the room being via a six-digit code number.
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Hamburg – Hamburg Airport Lounge
Located towards the top of the airport terminal, this lounge was one of the airiest and open that I’ve been in, all very comfortable.
That’s Haribo in the middle, unlimited Haribo. Inwardly I was beyond delighted, but externally I hope no-one else noticed just how wonderful I consider unlimited sweets to be.
Unlimited bananas. Can’t say I was particularly excited about these.
A soup machine, and next to this was a cooker which had hot dogs in, which isn’t unusual in lounges in Germany and Poland. Perhaps it should be more common in lounges in the UK, but I’d rather they introduced unlimited Haribo first.
A selection of rolls, cold meats, olives and pastries, and they were all fresh and tasted of a decent quality.
I liked these tables, although there was a choice of different seating types. These tables had power available and comfortable chairs, being at the perfect height to use a computer.
My first plate of snacks, very moreish, so I had several more plates.
As airport lounges go, this was towards the better end of the scale. The lounge wasn’t particularly busy, it was comfortable and it seemed organised. As for cleanliness, it would have been hard for the staff to have made it any cleaner. They were busy vacuuming the floors, cleaning tables and collecting plates for the entire time that I was there. Indeed, I’d say this was the cleanest lounge that I’ve been to.
There are toilets within the lounge complex and a selection of magazines and newspapers (I don’t mean these are in the toilets, the magazines and newspapers were in the main part of the lounge). I didn’t partake in the alcohol options, but there was a suitable range of beers, wines and spirits. There were juices and also a self pour soda machine which I took a particular liking to. By this I mean I liked the soda that came out of it, I wasn’t that interested in the machine itself.
I had access to the lounge through Oneworld status, although it’s also part of lounge schemes such as Priority Pass. The signage isn’t brilliant to get there, but it’s on the top floor, it’s probably easier to get there by lift, but there are also two sets of escalators which got up there. All in all, entirely satisfactory.
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Hamburg – Hamburg Airport (Button on Screen)
I get excited by the most ridiculous of things, but this information board was very useful because of that button at the bottom of the screen. It can be a little frustrating to stand in front of these when it’s on screen 4 of 4 and I want the information that will be on screen 3 of 4. The Germans have solved this issue by putting a button onto the screen to allow passengers to skip screens, quite marvellous.
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Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Three Women in Church by Wilhelm Leibl)
I’m not going to pretend that I’ve ever heard of Wilhelm Leibl, but I thought this painting had a bit of depth to it. He is apparently one of the most important German realist painters and he lived from 1844 until 1900, with this artwork being painted in around 1878 to 1882. The aim of the artist was to portray three different generations in a state of prayer and contemplation.
I have no knowledge of this other than having read it on-line, but this is also the most important work which was painted by Leibl. The Kunsthalle obtained the painting in 1906 and it’s apparently a forerunner of the ‘neue sachlichkeit’ generation, or the ‘new objectivity’ movement.
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Hamburg – Hamburger Kunsthalle (Sturzacker by Caspar David Friedrich)
This is part of my “paintings which look interesting to Julian” series, which is based on absolutely no artistic ability on my behalf. This painting is by Caspar David Friedrich, who according to Wikipedia (and of course therefore this must be entirely true) is “generally considered the most important German artist of his generation”. The German Post Office used his work on one of his stamps, an honour he’d have no doubt been thrilled with if he had been alive to see it.
Friedrich lived from 1774 until 1840, with this artwork of a ploughed field having been painted in around 1830. Unfortunately, I can’t find out anything more interesting about this particular painting, other than the Kunsthalle obtained it in 1905.
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Wolsey Waddle Challenge Walk 2019 – Norfolk and Suffolk LDWA
In two weeks, on 7 July 2019, it’ll be the Wolsey Waddle, the first time that the LDWA have held this event. For anyone wanting to enter there’s still time (unless you’re reading this after 7 July, in which case the situation is more awkward if I’m being honest) at:
https://www.ldwa.org.uk/NorfolkAndSuffolk/E/21288/wolsey-waddle.html.
The photos below are from the reccy, a day when the sun was shining in the Ipswich area. Or in other words, it was too hot. Fortunately I had some Greggs to help power me round the area.
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Flights – Hamburg to London Heathrow T5 (British Airways)
The boarding process for the British Airways flight to Heathrow T5 was smooth and better managed than usual. Groups were called through so that Group 1 went through first, then Group 2, then Group 3 and then everyone else, sometimes it’s not quite that organised. There were also a lot of passengers with status, so perhaps that’s why they take particular care. The staff at the boarding gate were polite, efficient and visible, so first impressions were all positive.
My first minor irritation is that this is an A321 neo, which meant that my emergency exit row seat had transformed into a normal row. Not that it much mattered as I had an aisle seat and there was no-one sitting next to me so I had plenty of space. This is aircraft registration G-NEOP and it only came into service in March 2019, so it still nearly new.
I was in row 11 so I was seated in a seat which is the same as British Airways have been using in other aircraft, but these seats only go back as far as row 14. They went that far back in case the Club Europe cabin ever justifies such a number of passengers, and both plug and USB sockets have been put into these first fourteen rows. I had one under my seat and it was already damaged and knocked out of its holder, so I didn’t trust it to charge my devices on. It’s not perhaps ideal for an aircraft that is so new.
For row 15 and behind that, British Airways have introduced a new ultra-thin seat which doesn’t recline. Nearly nobody I’ve heard likes this arrangement, although handily I do. I hate seat reclines and I like the ultra-thin seats as I sit in a near bolt upright manner anyway. These seats just have USB sockets, so where possible, it’s best to be seated in the front fourteen rows when on this aircraft.
As for the aircraft, I think British Airways have gone too far with their tinkering about. They’ve taken out a washroom from the rear of the Euro Traveller cabin and this caused an evident problem on this flight as they had passengers going up and using the Club Europe toilet. One of the advantages for Club Europe is that it’s a quieter cabin, so I’m not sure what the customers will think up in those seats when there’s a queue of people standing by their seats and they themselves have to wait to use the washroom.
And British Airways have decided to remove the drop down screens, so I can’t get to watch the moving map, or more importantly, the flight safety announcement by Chabuddy G. The crew safety demonstration on this flight wasn’t really ideal, the crew member was giggling and it wasn’t entirely audible. This meant that I didn’t see many passengers actually listening to the demonstration.
Other than that the service was efficient and polite, but I can’t help thinking that the interior of the cabin is more Wizz Air than British Airways. That’s fine, but I don’t see British Airways have any choice but to keep on their downwards spiral of pricing if they’re determined to keep cutting corners.
And here was a little problem at Heathrow T5, although it caused a delay of around fifteen minutes when disembarking. The air bridge to the aircraft broken down near to the front door and couldn’t be moved. This meant that steps had to be brought to the rear door and then buses used to transport passengers to the main terminal. Given that this wasn’t expected, the delay didn’t seem too excessive to me, although there were inevitably complaints.
Given that this was a reward flight saver, the price was very reasonable and so I’m probably one of the reasons that British Airways keeps trying to save money by taking out any hint of luxury from their cabin. The pilots sounded professional, the cabin was relatively clean and so overall it was a comfortable and easy flight.
