Hamburg - A Traditional New Year's Eve

New Years Eve 2007 in Hamburg
For 3 years now we have been celebrating NYE in Hamburg. We always liked it there and already have rituals we follow there like jogging around the Aussenalster, going to the Thalia Theater (www.thalia-theater.de/) and eating crawfish with some white wine in the city center. We normally stayed in the Side hotel (www.side-hamburg.de/) to celebrate NYE there. It is a hotel I could totally recommend. It is modern design hotel with nice rooms (including Ole Henriksen cosmetics - Jippihhh) and a small wellness area.This year I absolutely wanted to try something different and I choose the Gastwerk Hotel (www.gastwerk.com/english/) for NYE dinner and party. The Gastwerk Hotel belongs to the same owner like the 25 hours hotel (www.25hours-hotel.de/25h/index.html), which is close and a bit cheaper). So here is my review. With regards to the architecture, I would highly recommend the hotel (see attached pictures). The building looks great from outside and inside. It has a unique style and the rooms are quite big and some of them have a loft chararcter. What is not so nice about the hotel is the location. It is situated in Hamburg-Altona, which is not bad, but it is situated in between several apartment buildings. Therefore, we did not have a very romantic view at midnight. It takes about 10 minutes to reach the city center from there. We made the best out of it, but it makes definitely sence to try this hotel out for one night when you are in Hamburg and combine it with going to St. Pauli, which is quite near (http://www.hamburg-st-pauli.de/english/menu.htm) to check out the little boutiques of young designers. A visit to Eppendorf is also quite nice for a shopping trip. There you will find small designer boutiques, which are more expensive but also very unique. Check out the fotos I made in the hotel, maybe you would like to go there some time...