Hamburg - Day 2

The next day found us better rested. We woke up, had a quick little bite and headed out. The weather was fantastic, bright, sunny and warm.

We had a better tour planned out for that day. I went and did a little bit of shopping while Hussein got ready (I just had to visit TK Maxx ) and after dropping off my bags at home, we set off again to the city center.

We started off by visiting St. Michaelis Church, which boasts a tower 132 meters high. The church itself is really beautiful and its interior is quite different than what you typically expect. For one thing, it’s actually quite bright inside. Most of the churches I’ve been to have stained glass windows and tend to have darker interiors. This contrasted quite nicely with St. Michaelis Church, which had clear glass windows that let the sunshine through and had a mostly white interior. While we were there, there was a wedding in progress so we got to sit through that for a little bit, which was kinda sweet.

​One of the major attractions at St. Michaelis Church is its tower. I was feeling a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to climb up the tower, but lucky for me, turns out there’s an elevator that goes all the way to the top. And up we went. The view from up there was spectacular. After fooling around there for a bit with the camera, we made our way back down (using the stairs this time) and off we went.

​Our next stop was the widows’ quarter, which was a row of old houses that were given to particular widows (I can’t really remember which ones). After a quick stroll there and a few pictures, we hopped onto a bus and went off to have the best burger in hamburg. Recommended by both Mariam and Meda, we have to say we were not disappointed. It threw us a bit off schedule, since we had dinner reservations about 2 hours after we have finished our meal, but it was totally worth it. A huge patty that was oh so juicy. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

Our dinner reservation was particularly special. Hussein had finally convinced me to give “Dinner in the Dark” a chance. Basically, it’s an effort to increase understanding for people with disabilities. The concept is have dinner in complete and utter darkness. All the waiters who work there are blind, and you as the guest are ushered in and serviced by a blind person. The experience in and of itself was interesting. We were seated at a table with around 4 other couples. We couldn’t see anybody and even though we had all briefly seen each other outside, there was no way of knowing who was who once we sat inside. Across from us sat an interesting couple and the conversation was very pleasant. For me personally, the darkness made me feel a little claustrophobic. It didn’t help that it was unbelievably hot in that room and the air conditioning wasn’t working. I kept feeling like there were walls all around me and that I would hit myself against one of them.

Anyway, we were served a 4 course meal without being told what we were eating, so we had to guess what was being served. We were slightly disappointed by how easy it was to guess. We had expected to get complicated meals where we would really be unable to tell what we were eating. That unfortunately was not the case. The food itself was pretty good. We had a small Caesar salad, tomato soup, chicken with risotto, and a lemon-strawberry pudding for dessert. The whole experience lasted around 3 hours. The darkness didn’t disturb me so much as the heat, but I was definitely happy to be out again in the light and better yet, out of the building and into the fresh air. It was around 11pm when we finally got out, and after taking a few pictures, we headed off home.