Back in Hamburg

David and I are back in Hamburg staying at the very familiar Madison Hotel, where we lived for 3 months last year. David and his European casting tour team took the train from Berlin to Hamburg last night, while I flew from London. I never thought I'd say this: it is nice to be back in Hamburg, especially in the spring.

In the taxi from the airport to the hotel, I recalled many funny and fond memories David and I have of our life in Hamburg. As I found out upon our reunion, David had similar such trip down memory lane as he approached the hotel: our adventures in finding more comfortable bedding (I searched all over Hamburg, quite literally, for a king size flat sheet under which we could both sleep -- Germans do not believe in king-size bedding, just 2 twin-size bedding); going to the fair ground during our break for a bratwurst dinner and a couple of rides; face planting in the snow due to excessive sangria consumption at our beloved Portuguese restaurant; various food incidents, naturally, such as a crepe Amaretto flambe that I blew out too early in order to retain some of the alcohol content only to ruin it (I blew out the flame too early, and it was inedible), and David trying to resuscitate it by re-lighting it -- which failed miserably -- we ended up with match flavored Amaretto covered crepe, which is not tasty.

Now that it is spring, there is green in Hamburg and the city looks more appealing than I remember. The food tastes better too, fresh, and salads are available. David has been starving so far in his German casting tour -- food in Dusseldorf and Stuttgart left him rather thinner than I last saw him in London a week ago. I purchased shortbread cookies and fudge at Harrod's in Heathrow Airport, thinking David might bring them as treats for everyone in casting, but he hungrily opened them last night and started on them. Apparently, he has been living mostly on Snickers bars, which reflects what kinds of foods have been available to him at the cantines at work or restaurants to which he has been taken with his work colleagues.

Last night, to celebrate our reunion and in an attempt to feed David food other than Snickers bars, we went to East. East is an extremely chic hotel restaurant built to an impressively cavernous yet airy design, with an Asian-fusion menu. We went there last year for Valentine's Day. The food was fantastic, better than we remembered, mostly because of how fresh everything was. We had a delightful "catch of the day" sashimi, tuna tartar with avocado, crispy duck, and spargel -- white asparagus, which are in season at the moment. We had the spargel with a white fish, which had been grilled with vanilla bean pierced through the skin; the spargel themselves are drizzled with olive oil and parmesan cheese. David loved this dish, and has vowed that he will eat as much spargel as possible on his casting tour. The fish in Hamburg is excellent (since it is a port city), and we had a fabulous selection of them last night, as well as gorgeous spargel and mixed green salad (something we do not recall finding easily the last time we were here).

Today, we slept in -- we needed it -- and then wandered over to our favorite Portuguese restaurant for some grilled sepia and dorade. The restaurant does grilled, simple items well, nothing fancy and we used to rely on their friendliness and potent sangria, sometimes even grappa, to get us through the coldest, darkest days in Hamburg. The waiter remembered us, and was lovely. We sat outside as the weather was great, and had a great lunch. After lunch, we went to see the matinee of Hamburg Dirty Dancing. The show is good shape, although David and I both took notes we'd love to see incorporated. The cast was thrilled to see David, whom they see as their wonderful dance teacher. We met some of the new cast members we hadn't met, and the familiar ones were keen to hear about how the casting tour is going. They were friendly and nice.

One of the wonderful things that is happening in Germany is that smoking is being banned in restaurants and building. When we worked here last year, we could not sit in the cantine because of the smoke. Now, there are apparently designated times when smoking is allowed. Same with the restaurant last night -- last year when we went, people smoked in the restaurant. Now, we discovered to our delight that there is no more smoking allowed. This makes a big difference when eating dinner.

Tonight, we are off to Indochine for dinner. So far, maybe because I am not having to work here and the weather is nicer, Hamburg is turning out to be a nice, mellow city to have our weekend together before David and I go our separate ways again.