If you love long drives and speeding, Germany is the place for you. Going on the autobahns from Berlin to Hamburg and Cologne, you can go at 130km/h and still see other cars speeding past you! Roads are wide and clearly marked. And although I rented a humble Fiat 500c, it was so enjoyable and comfortable. 
Hamburg is a huge town that was rebuilt almost completely because it was badly air raided during WW2. The Unesco old warehouses near the port was a beautiful place to stroll in. The new Elbphilharmonie gives you a great and free view of the entire city, the busy port, hafencity, speicherstadt which is Unesco, the red light district and also the old town. 

Within Hamburg, I had lunch at the food truck near the Katherinekirchhof and it was just 6 euros for meat and vegetables. It delicious and packed by lunch time, locals just stand around and have their warm meals, I love it. Do enter the churches as they are real pretty. In the NikolaiKirch, you can enter the museum which gives you a history lesson of WW2 and the 75m high tower accessible by the lift gives you great views of the town. This church was almost completely destroyed and because it had a very tall spite, it acted as a post for the air raids, very sad to know. 

Walk a short distance and you reach the huge and pretty Rathaus and the beautiful surroundings. Take your time to wander around the beautiful city and also shopping! I took the train from Hamburg as it was only 20 minutes by train from Buchholz where my bnb was. If you want $50 off your first stay, click here! Get the all day train ticket that covers you for the buses and metro within Hamburg too as it helped me walk less to HafenCity from the main Train station. 

After, I drove for 3.5 hours to Cologne. I reached the very large Cologne and parked near the Train station. A pity I reached after 6pm so the Unesco cathedral was closed for a concert and the guy wasn’t friendly when he chased me away. If you have the chance, you should go in as it is free to visit and has a lot of important art work. It was also restored after the war. It is the largest cathedral in Germany, you can’t get the whole cathedral In one frame unless you cross the bridge. It runs tower tours that you can do. My Berlin friends said the view is amazing from the tower and that is a must do, unfortunately, because the guy was rude to me, I decided to not go back the next day when it’s open although my initial intention was such. 

Around Cologne, the old town was nice to walk on as it was a pedestrian street. The old buildings are quite beautiful. 

Cross the love lock bridge! The stroll is wonderful even in the rain but watch out for bicycles. If you have time and it’s not raining, the sun sets behind the cathedral and the view is amazing. But this was the photo I got as it was cloudy and it continued to rain down so I knew it was time to drive to my bnb. 

My Airbnb is a beautiful house in a small town in Rhine valley and is the gateway to the beautiful Riesling route. Stay tuned for my next blog for an enjoyable drive to Rhine and Moselle! 

XOXO

Stella