Hamburg - London's bad weather continues

Monday 16 July 2007
I caught the first BA flight to Hamburg this morning for work. For once, the flight actually arrived 15 minutes early…amazing given all our flights recently have been delayed by ½ hour or more. Work was stressful as normal, and made more so by the fact that most of their documentation is in German so we were using a German-English Translation website a lot. Given my colleague and I had both woken up at 5am that morning to catch our respective flights, we left work just after 5:30pm, checked into the Radisson SAS, and walked around the Gänsemarkt area. Following a recommendation from the Country Tax Manager, we headed to the Harbour area in search of food, and then the taxi driver suggested we try Fischereihafen, the most famous restaurant in Hamburg. The entrance to the restaurant didn’t look very “famous”, nevertheless we went in (as we were now quite far from the main strip of restaurants) and saw three walls full of photos of the proprietor with famous celebrities, including Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Ex Russian President Mikhail Gorbechov. We learnt later that the Fischereihafen’s reputation as the most famous Hamburg restaurant is because it is “the” place to come for seafood, and we weren’t disappointed with our meal, the seafood was really fresh (well the Fish Market is next door!).

Tuesday 17 July 2007
We worked latish, until about 7:30pm and then headed to the Tafelhaus, also on the Harbour, for dinner. The maitre’d gave us a nice table with a view over the Harbour so we could appreciate what a large shipping destination Hamburg is. The containers were being moved on and off ships, and ships were entering and leaving the Harbour throughout our dinner.

Wednesday 18 July 2007
The Tax Team took us out for dinner this evening at another Hamburg dining institution: Paolino, an Italian restaurant on the banks of the Lake Alster. The food was really good, and it was a welcome change to have something other than seafood. After dinner, the Country Tax Manager insisted on driving us around Hamburg to see the main sights, which included:

- Atlantis Hotel, where a scene from Tomorrow Never dies was filmed
- Rathaus (Town Hall)
- Reeperbahn (Hamburg’s Red Light District)
- Harbour (yes again)
- Rickmer Rickmers (a museum ship) docked at Landungsbrucken
- Hafencity (Hamburg’s equivalent of the Docklands, but with much nicer canals)

Thursday 19 July 2007
Dinner this evening was at Das Kleine Rote. We should have realized from the Maserati in the car park that this place was going to be expensive…oh well, it was a business expense! We finished relatively early so after dropping our bags at the hotel, I went walking around the town centre as it was still light (the sun has been setting at around 10pm over the last few days). Hamburg is actually a really pretty city. There are lots of nice canals and bridges, interesting architecture and a skyline scattered with large Church steeples. I guess there may not be much to see here from a tourist perspective (although it is the second largest German city), but you can’t complain about being sent here for business, as there are lots of nice restaurants, many with outdoor seating areas overlooking the lake or situated on the canals.

Binnenalster; Rathaus; Kunsthalle

Friday 20 July 2007
After a very busy morning of meetings, my colleague and I headed to the Hamburg Airport to catch our flight back to London. Unfortunately for us, torrential rain had hit London (where has the British summer gone?) so air control were not letting planes land at Heathrow (most probably a good idea after the plane crash in Brazil earlier this week). As a result my flight was delayed 3 hours. Then when I got into London, there were severe delays on all tube lines due to flooding, which added more time to my journey, and consequently affected my three engagements that evening.

My first stop was Waterloo to temporarily store my luggage from the trip, then I went across the road to my work colleague's farewell drinks at Arch One, although I only had time to stay for one. Then I met Yang, who had organised my Birthday dinner at Pétrus, London's latest two Michelin star restaurant, at the Berkley. We had the Tasting Menu, that was really tasty, and was complemented at the end by their 'truffle and macaroon' trolley (they also gave you a box of your favourite ones to take home too!), oh and the service was amazing...almost as good as the original Gordon Ramsay...if only they had the same maitre'd.

After dinner, our final engagement this evening was Ryan's Birthday Drinks. We were too late for the kick-off at Arch Angel, so we met Ryan and the rest of his friends at The Roof Gardens. I had previously been to Babylon (the restaurant at The Roof Gardens) but this was my first visit to the Night Club, as it is Guest List only, and luckily for us Ryan had gotten us on the Guest List. It isn't called the Roof Gardens just for fun either, apart from the huge indoor area, it is surrounded by gardens which have views over London. There is so much to say about it, so if you are really interested, see the review. The music was pretty good too...it's been ages since I've been clubbing and out so late!

Saturday 21 July 2007
We met Tammy and Linus in Knightsbridge for an Australian (in particular Melbourne) property seminar (we came out empty handed) before meeting up with Jason, Ammy, Peter, Phuong and their friends for dim sum at Alisan, a Chinese Restaurant in Wembley Park. Today's lunch was an after-run gathering for Ammy and her friends who had participated in the 5km Run for Cancer Research UK in Regents Park. Alisan's claim to fame is that they poached a Chef from the Michelin star Yauatcha. We weren't disappointed with the quality of the food; it was slightly better than Royal China, and not as expensive. Their siew long bao (Shanghai dumplings) were absolutely delicious...we must have ordered 6 in total for the table.

After lunch, Yang and I headed to Bond Street for shopping, fortunately there were no major purchases today! By the time we had wandered around aimlessly for a few hours, it was time for our pre-theatre meal with T&L, Ryan, Nicole and James at Getti, an Italian Restaurant on Marylebone High Street. We had a pretty quick dinner, and no time for dessert so a few of us picked up some goodies from Le Pain de Quotidien before rushing to Regents Park, and meeting up with Alli and Aaron for a performance of Lady be Good at the Open Air Theatre. Thankfully the rain clouds held out for most of the evening, although it was really cold!

Following the performance we all headed to The Volunteer on Baker Street for a few drinks. Yang, Ryan and I left shortly after midnight to catch the last train home but Linus was in a partying state so he stayed on with Tammy, Jason, A&A until the wee hours!

Sunday 22 July 2007
L&T, Tammy's Grandpa (Morris), Yang and I headed to Leeds Castle late this morning. By the time we had weaved through the dodgy streets of Peckham and Lewisham in South East London to get to the Castle, it was midday so our first stop was lunch at the Ten Bells in Leeds Village. I would have to say that this is one of the most disappointing pub lunches I have had...the meat was dry and the gravy tasted like it came out of a jar.

After purchasing our tickets, we walked off lunch by strolling through the Duckery, a garden area set aside for ducks and other bird life, and the park lands before touring the Castle.

We also watched a Falconry Exhibition, which was surprisingly very impressive. I don't think I have seen a vulture before...maybe when I was a lot younger?





Then the competition hotted up between Yang and I as we tried to make it to the centre of the Maze first...Yang succeeded (that's two in a row now...pooh!). The Leeds Castle Maze was so much better than the Hampton Court Palace Maze, and I would say even better than Blenheim just because of how there is a Grotto in the centre that goes underground below the Maze to get you out.


The last attraction on the grounds we visited was the Aviary and I got to see a live Toucan...they look like toys! It's pretty sad to see birds caged, looking up and squawking at the birds flying free above them.

As the castle closed, we headed to Hammersmith for dinner at Latymers, a pub with a Thai Restaurant at the back (Karen, do you remember this place? The food is just as good, especially the Panang Prawns!). Then I headed home whilst T&L, Yang and Jason headed to the Steve Vai Concert at the Hammersmith Apollo.


It was a perfect day to be out...blue skies and warm weather...finally!