Helgoland; Sunday, 26 July, 2026

Another early breakfast, though on this occasion mostly because checkout time from the room was 10:30, so no hanging around and having a lie in. After leaving my bag with the hotel I headed back out for another wander around the Klippenrandweg, taking advantage of the very different light provided by the fog and mist that was lapping over the island – though it didn’t do much to reduce the smell of the Gannets when I went past them.

After doing a lap of the top I headed down into Nord-Ost-Land to visit the islands museum, timing my arrival perfectly as the first heavy drops of the first shower of the day started to fall.

I spent a bit of time looking around the museum before taking advantage of a break in the showers to head back into the centre of town and visit the Bunkerstollen, another part of the museum, housed in the old civilian air raid bunker tunnels, in the same complex as the Oberland lift.

The fact that these tunnels exist shows how badly the Brits failed in their attempts to blow up the island in 1947 – none of this should have existed, but the calculations had been too small and whilst most of the military fortifications were removed these civilian bunkers proved a little too difficult to destroy. Today they house an exhibition on life on the island during the war including the construction of the tunnels and how the British tried to destroy everything.

From the Bunkerstollen I wandered back along the harbour side to the former lobster shacks that line the quayside and which have now all be repurposed into shops and cafés, grabbing some lunch.

I headed a little further along the quay and found an empty Strandkorb, a very German wicker beach bench surrounded by a hood that protects you from the wind and, as I would discover about 30 seconds after getting comfortable inside it, sudden torrential downpours as a very hefty shower passed over the island, whilst I was nice and dry in the Strandkorb.

The weather had clearly decided the weekend was over as the torrential rain carried on for about an hour until it eased off enough that I could make a dash for the hotel and then head down to the harbour, arriving just as check-in for baggage drop-off was opening. I managed to leave my bag and get under some shelter just as another shower passed over. Usually boarding wouldn’t start until 16:00, but with the weather so bad the crew started boarding almost as soon as the rain started, so a little after 15:45 I was already on the boat and in my seat for the long journey back to the mainland.

The ferry was completely full for the first leg of the journey, a quite bumpy crossing back across the North Sea to Cuxhaven, but most of the passengers got off here, so for the final three hours back down the Elbe to Hamburg I had a row to myself and I was able to spread out and even take advantage of the onboard catering to have a not particularly great, but reasonably priced pizza, and certainly cheaper than anything I’d find in Hamburg at 21:00 on a Sunday evening.

Despite the rough crossing to Cuxhaven, and what then felt like a very slow sail down the Elbe we arrived into Hamburg right on time, so after grabbing my luggage I was able to head over to the U-Bahn station and pick up a train round to Barmbek and my hotel for the night. Less than 30 minutes after the ferry tying up down at Landungsbrücke I was already in my room at the hotel and ready to turn in for the night.