Two weeks ago, I was visiting Hamburg. One of the last big cities missing on my "Cities to see in Germany"-list :-) As I was always curious of Hamburgs harbor, I was really looking forward to see it as well! And it was worth it. As Hamburg is also famous for the Reeperbahn, I also went there. Like the last trips, I was again couchsurfing there with Tim and his girlfriend together with my collegue Iwona.
Arrival
Directly after work, on Friday afternoon, I went to Vienna International Airport, like I did several times this year. This time: Hamburg in North-Germany. As already mentioned I was always curious about this city. It was the last (flight-) trip I did this year. After about a 1h20min-flight my former collegue Iwona her friends and myself arrived at Hamburg Airport
Willkommen in Hamburg - Welcome to Hamburg
Hamburg City
As usual, I was exploring the city and it's sights, like the "Deutsches Schauspielhaus"
Deutsches Schauspielhaus
A bombed curch that was never rebuilt, as a memorial for the implications of fascism (Nikolaikirchturm)
Hauptkirche St. Michaelis
The city hall of Hamburg at night
Shops next to Alster Fleet
City hall with Christmas Tree
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
Hamburg's shopping street: Mönckebergstraße
St. Pauli
With one of our couchsurfing hosts friend, we explored also the city district of "St. Pauli". Like the city center of Amsterdam, it's famous for bars, clubs and the red-light district. As everybody mentioned, wearing a camera in this area is not such a smart idea, I kept my camera locked in a locker.
St. Pauli station
For those, who don't know how "St. Pauli - Kiez - Reeperbahn" fit together. Here the answer to this problem: "St. Pauli" is a city-district of Hamburg. The "Reeperbahn" is a street in this district where many bars, clubs and red-light shops and this kind of stuff is located. But as there also byroads of the Reeperbahn with bars & clubs of course, you call this area next to the Reeperbahn "Kiez".
Reeperbahn
One very famous "hidden" streets is "Herbertsstraße": There you'll find prostitutes sitting behind "shop windows". It's very the same like in Amsterdam, except of as a matter of fact, it is forbidden for women to enter this street: There is a big wall, constructed as a sluice, which you have to pass.
I would say it's worth visiting this (actually very short) street, but of course without consuming services, except if you don't care about the money you'll lose or the diseases you might get ;-)
Davids Wache
We got told that the Reeperbahn is the most observed street in Germany. As there is police everywhere. Very famous is the "Davids Wache" which is directly in the center of the Reeperbahn.
Hamburg Habor
The habor of Hamburg is the world's 9th biggest. The dock, where they repair and build ships is the second largest right after one in Japan (which is only 20 meters longer, not such a big difference). I was making a boat trip through the "Speicherstadt" (which means something like "Storagecity").
Speicherstadt
Of course, you'll find big and large vessels like this container-ship
Container-ship Cosco
It was huge!
As the ships are tall, and bridges could block those vessels, there are tunnels down under the "Elbe", like this very old one:
Tunnel under the Elbe
There are four cabins for cars to get up/down the tunnel
After passing through the tunnel: Hamburg from a different point of view
Also very famous for Hamburg is the "Fischmarkt" (Fishmarket). It starts every Sunday around 5am in the morning and we went there :-)
In this case, he is trying to sell fruits
It's a nice market next to the Elbe-river
Conclution
Christmas-Car?
Hamburg itself seems to be a very active city and it is definitely worth to visit it. As we were there at Christmas time, it was nice to spent some time at the Christmas market :-)
Iwona and I were again Couchsurfing and as always it was great to meet some new and awesome people, like our host Tim and his girlfriend :-)
Me, Tim, Tim's girlfriend and Iwona.
Galleries