2024 September #15: Hamburg

We took a long weekend trip to Hamburg: Left Fri AM, returned to Berlin Sun PM. It's a 2-1/2 hour train trip, so we had pretty much 3 full days in Hamburg.

Hamburg is bitchin'.

We checked into our hotel (fine but nothing special) and headed into the center. Here're some shots of the Rathaus - city hall. Also we had a great lunch at a french bistro with tile walls, looks like it could've been a turkish bath originally:

Strolled around the center. Lots of plazas with lots of restaurants:

The thing about Hamburg is the water. A lake on one side, a harbor (3rd largest in Europe) on the other, and canals in between:

We took a boat tour of the harbor:

We shared the boat with a kegel (bowling) club from the ruhrgebiet. There was singing:

As evening fell we went to the Reeperbahn - you know, where The Beatles got their start. Surprising: it's huge, and packed. Not surprising: pretty seedy:

Up early next morning (Saturday), off to the Sankt Georg section of town (northeast) for a great breakfast at Le ParisieParisien. The street is 'lange reihe':

Turns out Hamburg was pretty thoroughly destroyed in WWII. There's a church, Saint Nikolai, of which the spire was damaged but not destroyed. They've left it unrepaired as a monument; you can take an elevator to a point about 2/3 up, where you have amazing views out over the city:

There's a museum in the basement of what it was like after the bombing. No pictures, it was pretty grim. Very well done.

Next stop, Speicherstadt. Lots of brick buildings built around a set of canals, used original for storage but now converted to misc businesses:

Lunch on a balcony overlooking a canal (at low tide - no smell though):

More random exploration:

On Sunday mornings, there is a 'fish market'. Historically, fish were auctioned in a huge auction hall next to the harbor, starting at 5AM. Now, it's essentially a farmers/flea market, complete with live rock band. A popular activity. We got there about 6:30:

…and back to Sankt Georg for breakfast at our other fav:

More of the city:

…to a famous building, a Unesco world heritage site, from the 1920's a classic example of expressionist architecture:

Up the western shore of Alstersee, a more upscale neighborhood/suburb:

…and finally back to the Hauptbahnhof to return to Berlin:

The bahnhof is quite busy, it's a challenge to get through it onto your train: