We all can agree that smoking is bad for your health, and might kill you. But what doesn’t, in the end? I sometimes engage in things that might seem outdated, long overhauled, dying out even. This is why I, from time to time, like to smoke a pipe – not to come across as a top hat and monocle-wearing hipster, but because I’m interested in traditions, their rules and rituals that are slowly disappearing. And the place that first allowed me to come into contact with the whole world of smoking is Pfeifen Heinrichs.

Opened almost thirty years ago, the speciality shop is housed in one of the delightful pavilions from the 50s that line the Hahnenstraße. Once you enter, you’ll find friendly but raucous shop assistants in white smocks chatting to customers, or puffing away, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of different pipes from all over the world, from cheap meerschaum pipes to replicas of the pipes of Gandalf and Frodo to really expensive ones made of cherry wood and ceramics. Pfeifen Heinrichs also sells their own tobaccos, cigars and whiskeys from all over the globe. Truly a traditional place and one of the last of its kind; even if smoking is not your thing, visiting the shop and having a chat is highly recommended, if only just to take a whiff of the old world.