We’d just visited St Michael’s Church, ticking off “church in a foreign city” from our list of things to do, so our making-it-up-as-we-go-along plan for our day in Hamburg on our 2022 Island Princess Western Europe cruise was left with “finding a museum or art gallery” and also “finding a bar to drink in” because we’re keen consumers of culture and of locally-produced ales. But while we were intending to do the former followed by the latter then walking back to the cruise ship and were debating which direction to head, some of the decision-making was taken out of our hands by a check of the weather forecast.
Rain was due, and if we opted for the museum we were interested in then we would be fairly isolated after that, nowhere really close to the bar we really had our eyes set on, and a decent distance from Island Princess too, meaning we’d potentially be soaked by the time we got back aboard. However, the bar was not open yet and in the opposite direction to the ship. Our plan became: head towards the bar anyway, wandering the streets around the area for anything interesting architecturally, hoping the rain would hold off, then make for the town hall square to get a free shuttle bus back to the ship instead of walking.
This plan lasted just long enough to pass a little bit of Hamburg street art.
The rain started to come down and we needed to re-evaluate quickly so out came the phones and a look at maps. We needed somewhere inside, open, close by, quick, and that led us to a small pub called Vielharmonie. It was a place on a street corner with a few tables and a bar lined with locals; definitely not a tourist’s spot. However, super friendly. We ended up staying for two drinks because there was a bit of chat between the locals and us, and between the barmaid and us. So, yes, if someone asked me if I’d recommend this pub – and I don’t usually like recommending things because personal experiences and expectations come into play – then I’d say yes…
…with a couple of caveats.
Firstly, pretty much everyone at the bar was smoking. This is such an odd thing to see indoors in Europe these days and for us as non-smokers the smell is really off-putting, even before the associated health implications. I mean, we were there drinking beer in the afternoon so I can’t push too much on the health implications but you know there’s still a difference between something that only affects you and something that affects everyone around you. Okay, enough of being on that high horse.
Secondly, cash only. Now, this was something we’d read about before we travelled to Germany so we were half-expecting it but it still took us by surprise. Apparently, allegedly, whatever, Germans haven’t really embraced contactless or even card payments with quite the zeal of the rest of Europe because of a general paranoid fear of government tracking or something, with a large chunk of the country sticking to cash either primarily or, as in this pub at this time, exclusively. We might have stayed for another drink as it was friendly there but the two rounds wiped out the limited amount of Euros we’d brought with us and we ended up stopping at an ATM after this pub visit to get some more in case we’d need it in the next bar.
By this time the bar we’d really wanted to visit was now open so we headed the relatively short distance to Bar Oorlam. We are keen craft ale drinkers so we’d already researched this place and knew it would give us a good opportunity to have some local ales.
Bar Oorlam couldn’t have been more different from the pub we’d just vacated, with a bright, modern feel in pastel colours (which I personally find a little cold and not as welcoming, but then I’m old), a large range of drinks to try, and actual card payments. We were the first people in there, very shortly after it opened, and had a quick chat with the barman before settling in to enjoy some drinks in odd, modern glassware. The look and feel of the place reminded us a fair bit of Microbar Reykjavík from our cruise earlier in the year to Iceland.
We ended up staying for four over the space of a few hours as the bar slowly started to fill up with locals, before deciding we had better head through the streets of Hamburg for our shuttle bus back to the ship.
Back on Island Princess then, and after showering and changing we headed to the dining room for dinner, and it was very good, as usual, and did a decent job at soaking up some of the alcohol content from our day ashore in Germany.
Of course, there was more drinking in the evening, and we enjoyed a little bit of the sail away along the Elbe from our balcony late in the evening, but only a little bit as that rain was still there.
In the next post in this series we’ll enjoy a day at sea on Island Princess with a look around the ship and a first chance to swim in the indoor pool on the ship.