Hamburg
I admit that I was only in Hamburg a day and a half, so I didn't have much time to visit it properly. I was certainly surprised by its size... I imagined it much smaller and more concentrated. Let's say that a few hours still served me to get an idea of this city. You can certainly tell from the order and cleanliness of looking around that it is German in style. Not to mention the cold!! Being a city on the river (in fact it is crossed by the Elbe) it is very bitterly cold..then we went for the Immaculate Conception bridge so try to imagine.. 🤨 We landed early in the morning with Eurowings..(ex Germanwings), a German low cost airline which I can say is closer to Easy Jet in terms of aircraft and service than that of Ryan Air (a little poorer). I also expected the airport to be much smaller than expected. However, everything is well organised, as are the means of transport that connect it to the city centre. In fact, the metro has a good network with good daily frequencies. Prices are obviously adapted to the lifestyle of the country. In fact, like the rest of Germany, Hamburg is still a fairly expensive city. If you happen to be walking around the center during the Christmas period you will come across many beautiful markets where you can make all kinds of purchases and above all taste typical food at a low price. Of particular interest is the Rathaus square (i.e. the Town Hall) especially in the evening all lit up which reflects the lights on the river and on the two artificial lakes that surround the city. Porto is also very impressive. Here too I was surprised to discover that it is one of the largest and most important ports in the world!!! 😲 Absurd... The fish market is very famous here on Sunday mornings but unfortunately I can't tell you what it's like as we went on a Friday and left for Berlin the next morning so we missed it. Surely there will be no lack of opportunity to return to visit it better since my cousin lives there! ;)
Berlin
As already mentioned, in this case I had organized a Hamburg+Berlin combination for the Immaculate Conception weekend. In fact we arrived in Berlin by train from Hamburg. I must say that, in this case, I expected the cost of the train to be higher but instead it was a pleasant surprise to see that it cost around 15 euros each and it was the fast train. I obviously booked it online in advance on this site: www.trainline.it
Once we arrived at the central station we reached the hotel, this time booked through a "Boscolo Gift" box and once settled we immediately left for the German capital. Our hotel was a few steps from the luxurious Kurfürstendamm shopping street, where you can find boutiques and shops of the most prestigious brands, but also elegant cafes, theaters and luxury hotels. Regarding what to see and what to say... Berlin, certainly being a historic city and having been the target of numerous important events, houses many monuments and works worthy of being visited. One of these is obviously the famous Wall. I won't deny that I felt a few thrills walking along this long sidewalk bordered by these bricks entirely covered in murals. A fundamental stop is also Alexander Platz, the main square of the city with the famous television antenna, symbol of Berlin. Here you will also notice a strange structure representing a universal clock depicting all the time zones of the world. Together with the antenna, it too constitutes one of the symbols of the city. I would like to point out that also in this case there is an observatory on the TV tower to watch Berlin from above but honestly this time I didn't go up because the view didn't inspire me much... (having seen better ones of course... 😋 ). Yet another symbol of the city is the famous Brandenburg Gate and then finally I highly recommend the Holocaust Memorial. For those who don't know, these are large pillars of different sizes that form a sort of labyrinth in which you could get lost inside. Then obviously if you go during the Christmas period, the many markets fill and warm the city with their colors and scents!