Days 18 & 19 - Hamburg
Again a few sad farewells in the breakfast room, Don and Gayle (whom we had breakfast with most mornings), Matt & Louise, Vicki, Greg and Russell from Tassie, Cathy and Rick, Tim and Pauline, Ray and Jan were the only ones we saw this morning.
We also checked out of the poorest hotel we had been booked into to date, and moved directly across the street to the Stay! Apartments Hotel, which was infact the original hotel mentioned in the TripADeal itinerary. Although in the same street, a much better hotel !
Sunday we did a Hop On Hop Off bus tour around Hamburg, and was impressed with the city, it has some very affluent areas, including the large villas facing the lake. We revisited some of the sites we did yesterday, but learnt more about them from the commentary on the bus. We have done these tours before and it is always a good way to learn and orient yourselves about the city.
There were a couple of times we just sat, once in the Botanic gardens where we called our granddaughter and had a good chat, another time sitting at the harbour and people watching.
We returned to the same Lebanese restaurant for another tasty kebab, and then back for an early night.
Monday we awoke late in our new hotel room which was much more comfortable than the previous one directly above the sex shop. Unfortunately there is no breakfast included here, not a bad thing though as we had been eating too much over the tour. The late morning allowed us time to spend in the room, relaxing, catching up on emails, banking and our blog site. We ventured out for a walk around 11:45 to explore new areas of Hamburg on yet another Tania Tour !
We walked through St George and came to a very attractive street of apartments, shops, cafes and restaurants located not that far from our sleazy street.
Further along the way we stumbled on a huge monument and statue of Otto von Bismarck erected in 1906. Bismarck was know for unifying the German Reich in 1871, but public opinion turned against him and the memorial was surrounded with tall trees in an attempt to hide it. As you see from the photo, it is subject to a lot of graffiti and not well respected even now.
From here, we headed back toward the harbour and in particular we went to the ELBTunnel, a 426 metre dual tunnel 24 metres under the Elbe River leading to the working dock area. It is predominately a pedestrian and bicycle path, accessed by huge lifts, lined with beautiful tiles and moulded plaques, all constructed in 1909 - a wonderful achievement for the time.
Second on our list was the so-called longest curved escalator in the world ! How could we go pass that ? It is located in the Philharmonic Hall built atop one the original brick warehouse buildings. It contains 3 concert halls and it is a striking monument on the harbourside skyline. Anyway, our vision of the 82 metre long curved escalator did not concur with the actual, with the curve being up and down as it made its way up in a straight line. Both of us had imaged a horizontally curved escalator, but when you think about it, that is probably an impossibility !
The other thing that was rare, it rained today, and consistently so for a couple of hours, our first solid (although light) rain on our trip. Thus far we have been blessed with the weather and in fact we bought along too many warm clothes. We had our Goretex jackets on and umbrellas up !
On the way home we stopped at the railway station to purchase tickets to the airport for our departure tomorrow. And of course, kebab for dinner again, this time a take away and back to the room.
SOME REFLECTIONS ON OUR TOUR and CRUISE !
Thoughts on the TripADeal Tour :
Would we do another one ? - unlikely based on our experience with this one ..
1. It was poorly organised and facilitated right from the start e.g. no getting to know you evening or even names tags. The whole group was left to make their own introductions. Consequently it was days before we even knew some member's names.
2. Directions to travel were sometimes not clear from the tour guide
3. There were at least 4 or 5 changes to the hotels we were meant to stay at from the original itinerary, all changes were downgrades in quality and location.
4. We spent less than 24 hours in 3 city locations, Helsinki, Tallinn and Oslo - not enough time to really get to see the city!
5. In Stockholm, the change in hotel went from one located in the centre of the city next to the train station, to one located 7.9 kilometres out of the CBD. We were bussed in and out once per day, or had to catch local Metro transport ourselves. It also meant night time dining was extremely limited in the outer area, with a choice of 2 places both 20 mins walk from the hotel in different directions.
6. There was a day of the tour where we were bussed from Copenhagen to Kiel to embark on our cruise, a 5 hour drive, the cruise ship then went straight back to Copenhagen and docked … it could have been arranged that we just spent more time in Copenhagen, (or even in cities on the way to Copenhagen) and embarked in that city.
7. The downgrade in the final hotel was the last straw .. totally inappropriate and nowhere near what their brochure had promised should there be a change stating....“or similar” hotel.
8. The last day we were driven from Kiel (where our cruise disembarked) to Hamburg for our overnight stay - a 2.5 hour drive. We arrived early, which caused great annoyance both with the tour group and the hotel staff because we could not check in, there was no room to leave bags. This could have been easily avoided if TripADeal had organised a further 2 hour tour of Hamburg when we arrived as they had done in other cities. Bad planning on their part.
9. Extremely disappointing given we received great recommendations from friends who had done TRipADeal previously. I doubt any member of our tour will consider doing one again, even though their previous experiences with them had been positive.
Would we do another cruise ? - certainly not one on a large ship! 6,000 passengers and 1,400 crew was just too overwhelming.
1. People act horrendously, particularly at meal times - loading plates to the max, pushing in to get what they want, being rude in general. Everything on this cruise was plus, plus , plus $$$ !
2. We couldn’t purchase an individual drink package, had to buy one for all people in your cabin. Obviously Tania doesn’t drink, so at $350 per person for a basic package for the week, it wasn't an option for us. This meant that water at our dinner table was an extra as was coffee. We ended up spending about 132 euros ($236 AUD) for coffees, some beers and 1 bottle of wine.
3. Excursions are expensive, we booked something every day, but analysing if it was value for money .. would be questionable. E.G 93 euros per person for a 2.5 hour bike ride around Alesund on e-bikes. We were not relying on the cruise itself for our entertainment so the additional excursions were enjoyable none the less.
4. On board shopping and pampering is a highlight for a lot of the people and it is constantly being advertised with special sales and special deals - the deals were all still quite expensive.
5. Smoking was allowed in a certain area on deck as well as and in the casino, but unfortunately the surrounding smoke free entertainment venues were impacted too !!
6. Our personal internet data was blocked by the ship allowing basic only passenger communication through their MSC for Me app. As another option though, they did offer a wifi package should anyone want one to access the web.
Having been to Hamburg many years ago, it seems nothing has changed! At the front of the place Liz and I stayed at, two young ladies of the night offered a group discount to join us in our room! Needless to say I say any more? Next to Amsterdam and a couple of other European delights, Hamburg is a little grubby.
Totally agree with your comments about both TripaDeal and the cruise Graeme- disappointed with both. Luckily the scenery & beautiful cities compensated for the poor experiences.
I have left similar comments on TripaDeal questionnaire and alo sent them an email (via Margueete) as their is no email on their contact list. I will also be putting up a review on other sites when I get home.
Thank you both for your company during our holiday Tania & Graeme.
It was a pleasure Gayle, we enjoyed your company also.