TRIP REPORT: Off the Camera Roll. Some Photographic Adventures around Hamburg – More Innovation in Hamburg

Off the Camera Roll – Some Photographic Adventures around Hamburg
TRIP REPORT: More Innovations in Hamburg

In this week of passenger experience fun:

• Back to Hamburg Again. And yes, keeping it simple
• To Heathrow Airport with FlixBus and Terminal 5
• British Airways Galleries South, Terminal 5
• BA964 London Heathrow to Hamburg (Club Europe – New Configuration)
• The joy of the European Entry/Exit System and into Hamburg
• The Ibis Budget St Pauli (Refurbished)
• A walk through the Hamburg Dom Fair (Spring Fair)
• What you might have missed from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2026
• Off the Camera Roll – Exploring Hamburg during the quiet moments
• Escape from the Messe and Return to Hamburg Airport
• Hamburg Airport Lounge and European Entry/Exit System queues
• BA969 Hamburg to London Heathrow (Club Europe – Old Configuration)
• A Luggage Mess and a Messier Coach Ride Home
• Continued Innovation

Seeing this worked reasonably well last time when I wrote this for the Chicago Trip, here’s another edition of Off The Camera Roll.

How this post works is reasonably simple – they’re pictures from the trip that don’t have homes elsewhere in the writing, but somehow made up part of my trip. It’s a bit of photojournalism, a slideshow and some commentary to fill in the gaps. I might do a few more of these when I end up somewhere that isn’t my normal stomping ground.

Just something a little different to the norm.

With that, let’s go. And to the train station. Why? It’s one of the few places open on a Sunday evening, given German trading laws, which compel retail stores to close to the public on Sundays and Christian holidays, with exceptions for pharmacies, petrol stations, shops at train stations and airports.

And if you need to pick up dinner after a flight and a snooze, it’s one place to go without getting overly dressed for dinner.

Especially when they’re discunted ot €2.50 a pop. These breads with toppings are excellent. 

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is one of those “classic” hall stations (and a through station), so there’s retain around the edges, and the trainshed is covered with a glass roof.

~
A regional and an ICE Highspeed service

Platform level

It’s always open during reasonable hours. 

Maybe I can’t be bothered to do Uber Eats (and there were a few times this trip I wanted to, especially when it had passed midnight), or I prefer the adventure, but going out to hunt for food is always a fun activity.

Down we go

The Night Sleeper to Stockholm. One year, I’ll try to do AIX by Rail. That would take a lot of planning, though – or at least one way by rail, one by air. Least of all, it’s a 10-hour travel slog from London St Pancras…

Incoming!

DB.

It looks a little different during the day, especially when InterCity Express (ICE) trains are passing through (with Hamburg being an important node in the ICE network).

Meanwhile, near the hotel, the Dom fair lights up at night.

Whilst I wrote a lot about the fair in another post, it was on full steam, even on Sunday night.

Großer Schotte!

As night turns to day, it’s time to meet the industry. Welcome to the land of the Hamburg Messe and the Fernsehturm.

The traditional Day One hike from Messenhallen station.

I’ve given up on why the Messe loves decorative lettuce for things. I would take an answer on a postcard… but… nahh. 

Are we the robots? Travelling by Autobahn? Or on the Trans. Europe. Express? There are certainly some Numbers. Maybe even a little Computer World.  

The crime theatre. Where crimes are shown. As well as classics (there’s also a hotel next door). 

A brighter morning when heading to the Messe.

Answers on a postcard. 

When in Hamburg and it’s late on the Reeperbahn, one must end up at the supermarket. Yes, there’s a supermarket, by Penny, and it’s decked out for the experience.

Hot Parts!

Of course, the repahhan is known for neon for other reasons. Some infamous…

I was going with another image, but I suspect that it would have ended in tears. Spicy version on BlueSky after I publish this. 

And some not so infamous.

And maybe a late-night currywurst. Because late-night currywurst is the best. Well, it’s pretty hard to mess up currywurst, unless you’re at Frankfurt Airport.

I’ve had worse ones for more cash – €4.50

Next:

Time to head back to the airport after a long trade show.

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