Herfing in Hamburg – a Moveable Feast

It was raining in Hamburg and my Afghan taxi driver, a friendly chap whose Sat Nav was on the blink, told me he had moved to the German city twenty years ago and knew it like the back of his hand.

This was just before he got seriously lost on the way in from the airport. At one point during the mystery tour I thought I’d been hijacked.

Eventually, we reached my goal: Colln’s traditional German restaurant, where six herfers (early 30s to early-60s) from Britain had gathered to share their mutual love of premium cigars and all the other finer things of life.

They’d first met in a City of London cigar merchant’s emporium seven years earlier and have since been enjoying each other’s company around the world several times a year. All a herfer needs is a fine cigar, a light, a drink, something to eat, and another aficionado to share the ashtray and discuss the merits of hand-rolled tubes of fine tobacco.

The herfers have joined forces as Nicotine Ambassadors in London, Ireland, Spain, and Scotland, and Harry’s Bar in Paris. They also assured me their usual going away line to their wives/girlfriends was, “I’m off on a herfin`g weekend with the lads.” As their other halves apparently didn’t didn’t bat an eyelid, it makes you wonder what they got up to when their menfolk were away.

On this damp Friday evening in Germany, two of the Herfers eventually managed to guide my taxi driver to their restaurant, via their mobile phones. Their instructions included several versions of, “What do you mean, you can’t find the centre of the city!” and “If you put the bloody rifle down you may find it easier to drive.”

When I eventually caught up with the herfers, they were on their final course of spirits and Havanas. Over the next two days we bonded while sampling the culinary, retail therapy and other delights of a city that is both beautiful and booming yet often undervalued by our fellow Brits.

Hamburg is one of the most affluent and interesting cities in Europe. There is far to it than the Reeperbahn (now partly gentrified) in St Pauli.

It’s not known as the City on the Waterfront for nothing. Almost 2,500 bridges – far more than Amsterdam, London and Venice combined – cross the innumerable watercourses between the Elbe, Alster and Bille.

Hamburg also claims it invented the ship cruise. In 1846, the Hamburg ship-owner, Rob M. Sloman, Jr, offered the world’s first cruise aboard his frigate, Germania. Today, there are around 130 calls by cruise ships to Hamburg every year.

On Saturday, we joined 43 other European cigar aficionados and smoked, ate and drank our way down the river. The trip was courtesy of Mitchell Orchant and Christoph Wolters, two of Europe’s most successful cigar retailers who joined forces to open their first La Casa del Habano in Hamburg a year earlier.

After the river cruise, during which I spotted the QM2, the herfers crowded into Orchant and Wolters’ upmarket new Casa in the heart of Hamburg’s elegant and trendy Chilehaus. Even non-smokers shop there – for the Casa has one of the largest selections of fine rums in the world.

But the most memorable thing of this visit to Hamburg was the time I spent with the herfers It was like being in a cinema verite film directed by John Cassavetes, scripted by Ernest Hemingway and starring the Rat Pack. They were loaded, and so were the ashtrays.

They’re the kind of people you hope to bump into on a cruise ship, even if you hate smoking. In fact, I have considered shang-hai-ing them in one of the bars they like to frequent and renting them out to major operators such Cunard and P&O Cruises.

Hemingway would have loved them.

- Virgin Cruises Blog

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