Esens'All - A delightful return

We leave the hotel at 6.55pm and undertake a reverse route from this afternoon, catching the metro 4 and changing on to the M2 to the Roma station and walk to the restaurant.

We arrive at Esens'all at 7.25pm for our 7.30pm booking and we are the only clients for the first 50 minutes of our meal.

We first visited Esens'all in 2012 during our last European trip - Drew had read about it on TripAdvisor and it was a wondeful experience - we even blogged about it here.

The place is much lighter and brighter 11 years on, but apart from that Laurent is still doing his magic. When we were last here the place had not been open a year. One more change, the options are now five or seven courses, it was six and eight back then. One thing hadn't changed Laurent discusses your preference or dislikes in advance and then he creates the menu influenced by that. Having treated us so well 11 years ago we left him to his own choices. 

Lauret, doesn't only cook the food, he also serves it and gives detailed insight into its provenance and how it fits with his food philosophy. 

The Amuse Boche was Ravioli with mozzarella, basil and oregano and micro-flowers olive oil, the overall experience was light and zingy. 

Our first course was Goat's cheese and smoked salmon with fish roe offering a pop of salt, all in the shortest pastry I've ever tasted. It provided a real comfort and a feeling of delight and joy. Food should always be so amazing. Unfortunately, you are going to have to take our word for it, as I didn't stop eating long enough to take a photo!

The bread course was freshly cooked focaccia and pain de campagne, these were served with a soy butter. The butter had all the flavour of soy sauce but with a richer background notes as it is made into a butter. We were cheeky and asked for another set of breads so we could use up the butter.

Our next course was shrimp with four types of tomato in seasonal oil with roasted seemed seeds, linseeds and aniseed served with microflower and herbs. It seemed like a tomato would be very happy to be a part of this dish. 

I'm afraid with Lauret spending so much time with us, I've not been doing well on the photos. I missed the shrimp and tomoaroes dish, but at least you can see that the bowl and the cutlery was very pretty!! 

Next came a dish Lauret asked us to guess at. This is how it looks:

The powder tastes and acts like gel in the mouth, full bodied and rich. Yes, it is powder on the spoon, but the moment it goes into the mouth it gives a creamy mouth feel, nothing less than culinary magic. We identify the flavour of kaffir lime leaves in the dish, but (unlike the French couple who arrived and had it a little later than us) we didn't recognise the foie gras, it had been frozen and then crushed. The third taste is coco bean powder, a hint of chocolate. The combined flavour is such a delight I wish the dish would never end - wonderful.

Our next course was fresh peas, smoked eel, puffed rice, egg (lightly boiled), roe and verbena sauce. The lemonyness of the verbena works well with the eel, the pea has a savoury flavour and the puffed rice and a crispness, the just cooked egg could have been gloopy, but in this chef's hands it has become a sauce which draws out the flavour of the peas and meaty eel. 

Our fish course was a lightly steamed cod with Jerusalem artichoke, white peach, poppy seeds foam and microflowers and microherbs. Drew reminded me that my sister warned me off poppy seeds as they could come up on a drug test - but as I wasn't planning to have a drug test I was happy to eat the juicy flavour which enhanced the delicacy of the cod.

Our meat course was a breast of duck, black carrot cooked in cumin and sesame seeds, sweet potato mash and black garlic sauce - again a combination that I wouldn't have thought of putting together, but which when combined makes for glorious eating. I wonder if the chef has dreams where he makes up these dishes - when I ask, he says he has a book beside his bed and whiteboard in his kitchen, so he can catch the thoughts when they come through his mind. I'm so glad he does.  

The pre-dessert is a sesame and chia seed crisp with raspberries, strawberries, pomegranate, melon and blackberries served with mascarpone and an herb ice cream. The flavours are fresh and light, as intended the pre-dessert combines savoury flavours with a hint of sweetness.

Our dessert is a chocolate ganache with black peppers and paprika ice cream. Yes, read that again and allow the idea to enter your mind, the food was as unbelievable as it implies. All the flavours seemed to be the opposite of what you might expect in a dessert, the chocolate was spiky with black pepper, the ice cream did indeed taste exactly like paprika, not a flavour I've ever associated with ice cream and the caramel wasn't a sugar feast but a flavour of star anises and clove. 

There isn't a flavour I'd not tasted before, but in combinations that I can barely believe even after I've eaten them.

The world-famous chef, Escoffier said that what made French cuisine special is the ability to use simple ingredients and transform them by artful techniques, Lauret exemplifies this in everything he creates. It is great reminder, as this holiday comes to an end, that it is not the number of waiters or even meeting the chefs than make for good food, but creative ideas executed to perfection. We are so lucky we can expereince delights like this.

We finish with an espresso each

and leave at 10.15pm, arriving back at the Holiday Inn at 11pm.

Hamburg to Paris

We start the day in Hamburg and end it in Paris - with a black eye! Before getting into the detail of that incident, time to look at the rest of the day.

Morning

I woke at 4am and edited the photos from yesterday and uploaded them to Flickr - while I've been behind on the blog, Flickr has been updated much more regularly than on previous holidays when on occasion the upload has not worked - clearly wifi has got better over the years, or perhaps I'm staying in better hotels with better wifi!

Drew awoke at 5.30am and I used the posh coffee machine to make coffee for us both before I did my teeth, shaved and showered. The shower here is absolutely excellent. 

Breakfast

We pack and take our luggage down to breakfast with us. We fo down at 6.30am. I wonder as I enjoy my breakfast whether this will be my last soused herring after it being so central to breakfast since we arrived in Cologne three weeks ago.

For the second day Drew is taken by the boiled eggs that someone has named. He was intrigued by some people who used the name to decide on their eggs!

[Co-pilot's note: It was intriguing, dear readers, most intriguing indeed. One chap (a person not an egg) picked up an egg which happened to have the name COLM on it, however after examining Colm in close detail, said gentleman, shock his head, muttered nein, put Colm down and picked up Henrietta and nodded his satisfaction! I was able to observe this behaviour as he was blocking my way to the bacon!!

I couldn't work out, dear readers, what type of person they employ to write the names on the boiled eggs, but I think I could easily be employed in this role.]

Travel

At 7.20am we check out, leave the hotel, travel by U4 U-Bahn to Berlin Central North and walk to the Central Station, which is right around the corner. Our train ticket today includes subway travel to the station, so we don't have to pay an extra cost for that. 

We arrive at Hamburg HBF (Central) at 7.35am. We get to platform 14, 40 minutes early. We thought we'd got better than this, but we haven't really - you'll have to give us training Lloyd!! We are still to early, even after all this time.

The first train today is heading to Basel, we are due to leave at 8.39am - the train is 15 minutes late due to a train ahead of it running slow. We had 12 minutes to change at Mannheim now it may be no time at all!!

Hannover - the train is due here at 9:38pm, we arrive at 9:53am. It is at this point that we cross our origianl journey and have made a big circle of Northern Europe. 

Today

We were last here on Monday the 7th of August, 17 days ago.

August 7th

The journey continued in a comfortable, peaceable and relaxing way, we even had coffee and water delivered to our seats as part of the first-class service.

We travel through the following stations:

Göttingen: Due - 10.15am; Arrive 10:30am 

Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe: Due 10.35am; Arrive10:50am 

Fulda: Due 11:46am; Arrive 12:08pm 

Hanau Hbf: Due 12:26pm; Arrive 12:50pm

Frankfurt (Main) Süd: Due 12:39pm; Arrive 1:05pm

You'll note the consistent pattern, the short delay is now longer and getting longer at each stop. It is at this point that the DB app again comes into its own.

The app was vital as the level of information it provided was much better than any announcements made on the train. If we had not had access to it, we would have got off at Mannheim where the next Paris bound trains involve 2 or 3 changes along the journey. 

The app shows us that the best option for us, without multiple changes, is to stay on the train we are on until Karlsruhe and catch the Karlsruhe to Paris train from there. If we had got off at Mannheim, we would have had to change multiple times or catch the next train to Karlsruhe and been too late for this connection.

 

We arrive at Mannheim Hbf at 1:50pm, when we were due at 1:27pm and it is clear the train we should have connected to has gone, so we stay on board. 

We arrive at Karlsruhe at 2.43pm the Paris train is at 3.32pm

The weather was a shock, we left Hamburg at a pleasant 24C (75F) we arrived in Karlsruhe 32C (92 F). Luckily, the station had good aircon, so we went for a coffee while waiting for our next train.

We catch the Ice 9572, which is going from Stuttgart to Paris Est. We manage to get seats for the first part of the journey and Drew notes that we are again passing a border, the border between Germany and France across the River Rhine just before arriving in Strasbourg. 

The train fills up at Strasbourg and we have to give up our seats to people who have a reservation. So, we need to stand for the last leg between Strasbourg and Paris. Though having been sat down since 8.40am it isn't a problem. 

This was our route

Paris

We arrive in Paris at 6.18pm, only an hour later than our original plan. The Holiday Inn Gare de l'Est is right across the road from the station.

We check in at 6.25pm and settle into our room.

Dinner

We leave the room for dinner at 8.30pm, having spotted that there is a restaurant in the same building as the hotel further along the street, so after a long day we opt to eat there.

The restaurant is called Bouillon Chartier and has a simple, but intriguing menu. 

I was in Paris, so it seemed to be necessary to enjoy the juicy Escargots in their delightful garlic butter. They were as tasty as I expected.

Drew chooses Vinaigrette de poireaux, a Leek vinaigrette, and like the rest of the food here, the menu describes it perfectly and it is quickly consumed. 

For mains I have Langue de boeuf en sauce diable avec pommes de terre, a juicy, full-flavoured beef tongue, with a spicy sauce which all gets mopped up with the potatoes. I have a side of champignons with the mains.

Drew opts for Boudin noir aux deux pommes, a long string of Black pudding with two apples - a clever pun that doesn't translate into English. Potato in French is Pomme de terre and Apple is pomme, so the top apples speak of the mashed potatoes and the charred apple. This is a way to serve apple I've not seen before, but it must have been good as Drew's plate was finished at the end.

It was good to see cheese on the menu, so I had to avail of it. I choose Fromage Bleu d'Auvergne, and with no trimming other than French bread it was a perfect end to the meal.

Drew ordered Gâteau au chocolat avec crème anglaise - Choclate Cake with Custard - as he said, what's not to like in such a gooey delight.

We finished the meal with an espresso each and left the restaurant at 9.45pm. 

Going for a walk!

As we had been travelling for most of the day, I thought it would be nice to go for a walk. I suggested to Drew we walk up to Gare du Nord, to see what our journey would be like on Saturday morning. It only took us ten minutes to walk from the hotel to the station, so we turned around and walked back towards the hotel. 

Our route was like this:

As we cross the Boulevard de Strasbourg I mention to Drew about the fact that crossings in France don't have the same rules as those in the UK.

As I tell this story I walk past a tree, this is a photo of the tree, taken the next morning

My shoe gets jammed into the loose metal surround of the tree.

The rest of my body continues in its original direction, having the effect of me flying through the air and landing on the floor in front of the L'Avant Gare. 

[Co-pilot's note: You may, dear readers, be wondering where I was when all of this happened. All I know is I crossed at a crossing and upon reaching the other side can hear some inane wittering about rules for crossing the road. I suddenly hear a 'Oh No' followed by people rushing towards us for no apparent reason. Next, I hear a thud, I look down and there is Mr B sprawled on the floor. Doing his best impression of the Black Knight from Monty Python - 'It's just a flesh wound'.]

While most of my fall is caught by my hands, my glasses hit my arm and crash into my face, making a cut at the corner of the eyebrow (and the black eye you see above). 

This tiny cut bled profusely, so much so that, while a little patience would have seen it stop, the proprietor of the restaurant rang the Pompier (fire brigade) who deal with medical call outs in Paris. 

The blood was profuse as you can see from the washed area the next morning. 

 

The Pompiers arrived within ten minutes but their ministrations were unnecessary, however, as they had been called, I had to undergo Blood Pressure tests and an ECG, but thankfully after that I was able to go back to the hotel, wondering why there had been so much fuss. I think they assumed the blood meant I had hit my head of the floor, but thankfully that hadn't happened! 

Thankfully after a good night's sleep only my glasses were the worse for wear.

[Co-Pilot's note: I, dear readers, would like to point out that I have spent weeks telling the pilot to look where he is going and each time, I've had such advice rejected out of hand with comments like: 'It must be very scary in Drew world where people fall all the time'. I stop telling him and THIS HAPPENS - this is what I call a teachable moment!! AGAIN!!]

The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

On this Wednesday we spend the day in the City which goes by the title of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. But before I report on the day in Hamburg, time to tell the story of our journey to this great city.

From First to Second Class

As part of planning the holiday, the development of the Stockholm to Hamburg night train announced in late 2022 had made the plans easier, by providing an overnight route to our next destination. In August 2022, The Guardian wrote about the resurgence of sleeper travel in Europe based on this route. So, we had decided to treat ourselves by booking this journey as a First Class experience. The Man in Seat 61, shows pictures of the accommodation we had booked. 

On Tuesday morning when I woke up in Stockholm, I received a message from SJ (the Swedish Train company). 

Hi! Your seat numbers on EuroNight train 345 2023-08-22 (YVH6867C) has changed, your car has been exchanged to a different type of car. Your new seats are bunk beds 21 – 26 in couchette car 24. This is a full 2 Class couchette compartment reserved for you. You will automatically be compensated with a 50 % refund of the ticket price within five business days. We apologise for the inconvenience. If you would rather rebook your journey free of charge, or cancel and receive a full refund, please contact your ticket retailer.

Kind regards, SJ

On a positive note, we were still getting a private car for the two of us, but no private toilet or shower!

Leaving Stockholm

We go onto platform 10 at 5:15pm for the train at 5:34pm, when the train arrives at the platform at 5:25pm it is a packed platform. 

We get on board and into our couchette by 5.30 and the train is on the way at 5.34.

While it isn't first class it is perfectly comfortable, though it seems strange to be two people in a sleeping cabin designed for six - I can't imagine what it would be like sleeping with four strangers in the same couchette, so I'm glad I don't have to find out!

Route

The train route is as follows:

The planned timing is as follows

18:34 - Stockholm Central 

20:02 - Norrköping C 

20:27 - Linköping C 

21:25 - Nässjö C 

22:05 - Eleventh 

22:49 - Hässleholm C

23:25 - Lund C 

00:25 - Malmö C 

01:04 - Copenhagen 

02:59 - Odense 

07:01 - Hamburg 

Twelve and a half hours.

Overnight

We make the beds up at 9.15pm, both of us laying our sheets, pillows and duvets on the bottom bunk, rather than attempting to access the other four bunks, this seems to work well and we are both soon asleep. 

We sleep through Malmö, though we had visited the city for a day trip last year. We also sleep through the Øresund Bridge and Copenhagen. 

I wake for a toilet call at 1.15am, the toilets are next but one to our car, so we can see if it is occupied at any time. I see the train come into Odense at 2am and stay until 2.10am. I fall back to sleep sometime before 3am. 

I wake as the train comes to a stop at Padborg at 4.20pm, which is the border town between Denmark and Germany, we have almost come full circle on this trip

At 4.45am the train departs again, Drew wakes at 5am and we both use the facilties and get changed into the new days clothes. We have to use what Drew refers to as, a shower in a tin (antiperspirant spray) as the absence of our first class carriage also means we only have access to a wash basin. Still new clothes makes one feel refreshed. 

I go down to the mini-bistro (a cupboard at the end of the carriage) for our breakfasts. A roll each, cheese, marmalade and fruit drink. The nice strong coffee is very welcome, this is included in the price even though they are discounting 50% of the price due to the absence of said first-class carriage. 

We use the HVV app to buy day tickets for our travel today unlike most of the places we have visited this is a day ticket, rather than a 24 hour one - i.e. it runs out at Midnight. The day tickets are discounted when they bought on the app: €7.71 rather than €8.40. 

We arrive in Hamburg HBF (Central) on time at just after 7am.

We walk to the U-bahn station and catch the U4 to HafenCity.

We arrive at HafenCity

and can see the hotel which is only 50 meters from the station. 

We check in to the hotel (we can access the room from 2pm) and put our luggage in the storage area. Given the light snack on the train we decide to pay for breakfast in the hotel before venturing out to see the city. It is a very generous breakfast. Herring and Liverwurst are lovely breakfast flavours.

Visiting Hamburg

As mentioned at the start of the blog, what sets Hamburg apart from other German cities is that it owes its roots to the Hanseatic league of which Hamburg was a key member. During the 13th to 16th century, Hamburg was considered second only to the port and city of Lübeck in terms of its sea-borne trade, with the development of trade with the Americas, Hamburg overtook all German ports and even today it remains the largest port in Germany and the third largest in Europe.

I'd picked the Holiday Inn, HafenCity of the three IHG hotels in the city due to its proximity to the U-bahn station for ease of arrival this morning and departure tomorrow, what I was to discover was that it was a great location for exploring the up and coming development in the old port area of Hamburg.

HafenCity developed in the 1870s as a new port built between the canals alongside the river, the great warehouses, quays and harbour basins has now been recreated into a modern urban redevelopment. It is now Europe’s largest inner-city urban development area.

We visited many of the sites as outlined in this map of our route:

We visited the very impressive Elbe Philharmonic which is visible throughout the city

We walked up towards St. Michael's Church and Drew mentioned it felt like walking through Cardiff Bay and all that was missing was the Norwegian Church - not to disappoint, the very next sign we saw indicated the Hamburg Norwegian Church

St. Michael's is Hamburg's Lutheran Cathedral and like the Lutheranism of Sweden, the church is rich in decor. The photos are all on Flickr, so wht not have a look at them starting here. 

From St. Michael's, we walk to the Church of St. Nicholas' which is the ruins of a church which was bombed by the British in 1943 and now stands as a memorial to World War II. 

We stop for Coffee and then walk on to St. Peter's Church, a more traditional Lutheran Church in the heart of the City. 

A few streets away we come to the very grand City Hall or Rathuas, this shows evidence of the decades of income which trade brought to this city. 

We then go back on to the U-bahn and travel on the U2 from Ganesmarket to Schlump where we change on to the U3 from Schlump to Landesbrucken and back to the river.

Over recent years I have seen photos by Robin Croft of under river roots in some European cities, like this one in Antwerp, so I was fascinated to see that Hamburg has such a tunnel under the Elbe. It was to good an opportunity, so we walked both ways:

It is a fantastic piece of engineering. 

We catch the 111 bus back to Hafen City and get access to our room at 2pm.

I sleep for an hour to catch up with my low level of sleep last night, then we plan tonight's eating and I load last night's photos to Flickr and write a blog post about Riga. 

Dinner

We leave the hotel at 6pm and catch the U4 to Berliner Tor and transfer to the S-bahn S21 train to Holstenstrasse arriving at 6.45pm in time for our booking at 7pm.

The route doesn't look the most logical, but it is the one with the simplest changes to get us to our restaurant for the evening - Anno 1905.

Drew had spotted Anno 1905 when we were looking for restaurants this evening - after yesterday's burgers he knew I wanted some meat and veg [Co-pilot's note: I tried to point out, dear readers, that he had meat and veg yesterday in his burger and fries - he just wouldn't listen!!!], and this was perfect for that. Anno 1905 offers homemade North German cuisine in the Hamburg tradition with an original oldy worldly restaurant feel. 

Drew began with the Gratinierter Ziegenkäse mit Salatbouquet, that is Goat's cheese au gratin with salad. He said it was lovely to eat the fresh salad and the goat's cheese which is well toasted and has that tart, earthy tang which all good goat's cheese have.

I had Kleine Portion Labskaus, a small portion of Labskaus - this meat, egg and herring dish, seems to be the roots of the American misconception of the Hamburger - they flatten and fry/grill the meat but the rest looks and tastes nothing like Labskaus which is truly delicious, the gherkin and beetroot draw out the richness of the meat - perfect.

For mains Drew opted for Annie's Fish & Chips, crispy pollock fillets baked in batter, served with French fries, homemade tartar sauce and vinaigrette. He was delighted with it.

I had opted for Sauerkraut mit Bratkartoffeln und Bratensoße und zwei Kleine Schweinshaxen, i.e. Sauerkraut with fried potatoes and gravy and two small pork knuckles. Here I am back in Germany and back with the lovely pork knuckle I'd enjoyed first in Cologne almost three weeks ago. The Sauerkraut was sharp, tangy and well peppered, the potatoes lightly sauteed and the pork juicy and rich in fatty goodness.

Just as I had felt obliged to go back to the lovely taste of sauerkraut and pork, so Drew, in his dessert, harked back to a German favourite -  „Omas“ Apfelstrudel warm serviert mit Vanilleeis, i.e. "Grandma's" apple strudel served warm with vanilla ice cream and cream, he was in his oils.

After dinner we caught a bus, the X3 back to the hotel arriving there at 9.30pm. 

Transportation Accounts

You'll note from the above that we used public transport 5 times (the twice we caught two U/S bahns one after another only count as one journey each.) The single ticket in Hamburg is €3.60, so €18 compared to the €7.71 we actually paid - again a great saving.