Apr

30

Hamburg Travel Guide

April 30, 2008 |

A Trip to Hamburg
Hamburg is Germany’s freewheeling commercial engine and window on the outside world. The port city, in the country’s north-centre, is the country’s second largest and sits astride the Elbe River that links it to the North Sea about 100km from the Danish border. The city’s business life is dominated by its twin industries of shipping and media. The former gives Hamburg its eclectic cosmopolitan flavour and the latter its creative spark and openness to new ideas.

Hamburg Airport
The Hamburg airport is airport is located 8km (5 miles) north of the city and served by a transfer service that leaves every 15 minutes from 0600-2330 and taxis (around 25 Euros). All the major car hire companies have desks in the terminal. See EasyCar.com for the best deals on Rental cars in Hamburg.

Sightseeing Highlights
With its centuries long procession of sailors pouring out of schooners, destroyers, tankers and frigates it’s hardly surprising that Hamburg is home to the Disneyland of red light districts: Huge in scale, creative minds coming up with a new spin on the central theme all the time and a tourist attraction in its own right. It’s in the St Pauli district (ironically named for the celibate apostle) with the Reeperbahn its main street and cranks up in the late afternoon when up to 40,000 people come to cruise its bars, sex clubs, eateries, shows and cafes. Once a sleazy, crime-ridden ghetto, like Times Square it’s been largely sanitised, with the hookers almost an exotic add-on amongst the neon, boisterous crowds and carnival atmosphere.

The Port of Hamburg makes up 12% of the entire city and while a series of wharves and docks is not a usual tourist destination the history and scale of this one makes it worth a look. You can get a good view of of the sprawling complex at the Stingfang stone balcony above the Landungsbrucken U/S Bahn stop or take a cruise to view the harbour at sea level. Other maritime sights include the museum aboard the Rickmer Rickmers an 1896 windjammer and the immigration and shipping exhibits on the newer and larger vessel, Cap Son Diego.

Although not in the same league as Berlin’s showpiece civic museums, Hamburg has an interesting collection. The best include: The Kunsthalle for art from the middle ages to the 20th Century (Klee, Munch, Kokoschka) as well as a series of 19th Century Germa paintings; The Galerie der Gegenwart for modern pieces (Baselitz, Richter Koons, Hockney). The Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe (Arts and Crafts Museum) with a huge collection of everything from jewellery, porcelain, musical instruments and sculpture to posters, interior and graphic design and furniture. The Museum fur Volkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology) with objects and displays such as masks, sculptures, canoes, costumes and musical instruments from Africa, Asia and the South Pacific. The Museum der Arbeit (Museum of Work) focussing on the working environment that has evolved in and around Hamburg.

One of the city’s most idiosyncratic features blossoms for a few hours every Sunday morning and then with its frenetic energy expended lies dormant for the rest of the week. The attraction? The Fischmarket in St Pauli which starts around 5:00am (7:00am Oct-Mar) on the banks of the Elbe just south of the Reeperbahn. Of course, its myriad stalls offer all kinds of seafood - prawns, fish fillets, eels and shelfish but also all manner of flora, clothes, fruit and vegetables and hot snacks for the early risers or late finishers still reeking of beer looking for a bratwurst and roll to soak up some of the night’s excesses. The whole atmosphere is enlivened by the cheeky patter of the spruikers hawking their wares or just flirting with the passers by with a wink and a theatrical leer. Live music pumps from the nearby Fischauktionshalle (Fish Auction Hall) where the audience chorus mixes with the pungent aroma of beer and sausage to fill the senses. Around 10:00am it’s all over for another week and the debris is swept up and the city relaxes into its Sunday before the working week begins again.


Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind