Weekend ideas #9 – Hamburg, the city which never sleeps

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How to get to Hamburg

Sightseeing in Hamburg

Hamburg Rathaus (City Hall)

Hauptkirche St.Petri in Hamburg

Accountant offices. Contohaus

Chilehaus

Remains of St. Nicholas church in Hamburg

Speicherstadt

Hafen city

Reeperbahn district in Hamburg

Fish market in Hamburg

Miniatur Wonderland

Taking a ferry ride in Hamburg

St. Michaels Church in Hamburg

How to get to Hamburg

Hamburg is reachable from Berlin within 3-3,5 hours ride by bus or by train. If traveling in a large company you can take Woche group ticket and hop on a direct train at  6.45 from Hauptbanhof. In other case you can also take a bus to reach the city.

Sightseeing in Hamburg
On arriving make sure you are able to join a  free walking tour which starts at 11.00 near Rathaus (City Hall) in front of Starbucks. Young and professional guides will take you through a breathtaking excursion of the city. The tour is totally free, but every person is voluntarily deciding the amount of the money to be paid for the guide if you consider they did a great work. Indeed Sandeman’s free Walking Tour is doing a great job promoting Hamburg’s image and delivering interesting information for the tourists. Here you can find their Facebook group and goup on Tripadvisor.

Hamburg Rathaus (City Hall)

Hamburg citizens are proud of the fact that this building has 6 rooms more than the famous Buckingham palace in London. Since 1897 it was serving as a Seat of Senate and City Assembly. The Old Town hall was blown up to stop the fire spreading in 1842 during the Great Fire which destroyed almost all city. On the facade you can see statues of kaisers who ruled Hamburg with two the most prominent in the middle – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbosa, who granted the taxes abduction right to the city and the founder of the city Charles the Great who holds Hamburg fortress in his hand. Along the wall we can also see coat of arms of the cities Hamburg traded with and a statue of Phoenix, as a symbol of a suffering city, which always rose from the ashes of destruction.

This church was built in 1195 and is the oldest church of the city. It was hugely damaged by the great fire of 1842 and then rebuilt, it could be seen from black bricks in the facade which are placed among red ones. After the visit of Martin Luther in 16th century the church changed it confession to protestantism.

The best known artworks in St Peter’s are the lion-head door handles, located in the left wing of the west portal. It is said that citizens were making business deals in the front of the door, holding the lion handles and saying out loud their negotiation terms to the crowd.

Wikipedia

Accountant offices. Contohaus

The very first building of a so-called brick expressionism style. Built at the beginning of 1920 the building was served as the very first in Europe accountant office, which gave an incentive to growth of financial sphere, as previously these offices were operating within shipping companies. One of the very first skyscrapers in Europe which even had a prototype of a lift.

Chilehaus

The perfect example of brick expressionism, constructed from 4.8 million bricks in a shape of a vessel in 1924. The top of the building and its curvy lines resemble the ship. It derives its name from a tight bound of the contractor of the building, a rich citizen, who spent some time in this country. However, the bound between the building and Chile is barely visible and represented by statue of condor and other typical and non-typical Chilean animals on a facade.

Remains of St. Nicholas church in Hamburg

The church was destroyed two times. First one on 4 may 1842 during the great fire and then at 1943 air raid, which destroyed the half of the city and is also known as Homora operation. It should be mentioned that during this 8 day raid, over 740 planes dropped carpet and phosphor bombs on the city, bringing mayhem and destruction. This operation is also called Hiroshima of Europe for the destruction it caused. The yard contains these remaining of a church and a tower, which is being rebuilt, as well as a museum dedicated to this terrifying operation.

Old docks

It is said that the great fire of 1842 started from an arson of a tobacco factory at this very street. This district is linked with a canal, and these Dutch-style houses served as a warehouses for goods. We can also see an old crane they were using to lift the goods.

(lit. city of warehouses, meaning warehouse district) is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on timber-pile foundations, oak logs, in this particular case. It is located in the port of Hamburg—within the HafenCity quarter—and was built from 1883 to 1927.They are not operating, as the big cargo ships are not able to fit in narrow canal. Just imagine back in those days workers would tight themselves up and jump at the boat from the windows to secure and lift the goods inside. Hell of a work.

Hafen city

Hafen city is a district and a project of city-planning where the old port warehouses of Hamburg are being replaced with offices, hotels, shops, official buildings, and residential areas. The project is the largest rebuilding project in Europe in scope of landmass (approximately 2,2 km²). It used to be a depressing and criminal area until authorities decided to buy this land and invest more in modern buildings for rich tenants. Here you can find a mixture of a modern and traditional architecture.

 

Reeperbahn district in Hamburg

The partying district of Hamburg, which has dozens of clubs, night clubs, discotheques, strip bars and a red lights street.  There are also strip clubs, sex shops, brothels, a sex museum and similar businesses. The party and pleasure have connected here, giving a variety of options for everybody. The famous Beatles performed at some clubs here in early 60’s before they became famous.

The most popular activity is to stay all night long in a clubs in the Repherbahn district and visit a fish market at 5 a.m., which I should say we did with a great pleasure.

The district contains dozens of bars where you can start your pub crawl

A sneak photo of the Herbertstraße. Prohibited to enter for women and juveniles.

If you want to hear fishmongers trying to compete each other in an art of screaming whose fish is better, and this takes place at a sunrise – fish market is a place you should go. It probably one the most famous place in Hamburg, and a tourist who decided visit the city should definitely go there. It starts only on a Sunday from 5 a.m. and lasts till 9.30 a.m., when the first church mess is served. To my surprise, burgers made from raw fish are truly delicious at a 5 a.m. The other thing which may confuse you is the amount of people in such in early time. Except nice food and warm drinks we have also found a music band, playing rock-n-roll just at 5.30 in the morning. Highly advisable to it at least one time in your life while you are in Hamburg.

Would you guess what is depicted on the first picture? Is it a real city or just a meticulously built small artificial installation? If you think that miniature Wonderland is only for kids you are definitely wrong. It is the biggest museum of miniatures in the world which incorporates installations of cities from both hemispheres. The model area equals to 1300 square metres with a forecast of over 2300 meters by 2020. The total sum of investments expected by 2020 is 20 million EUR, now it has been already invested about 12 million EUR. Approximately 580 thousand hours were spent to construct these sections and a team of 230 people is working in museum now. The cars and trains, elevators and ski lifts are actually moving and a visitor can set in motion some sections of the site. The great change of day and night in museum is provided by a team of operators who control the busy day of the small city with a remote control and cameras.

The museum has installations of Hamburg, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, America and a big airport with a toy planes taking off and landing. Under construction two new exhibitions – Italy and France. More information could be found at museum’s web site.

The church is one of the highest building in the city the tourist can get. It is the one of the most prominent landmark, with a height of 132 meters, designed in Baroque style and always been a landfall mark for ships sailing up the river Elbe. The present church building is the third one at this site. The first one was built from 1647 to 1669.That church was destroyed on March 10, 1750, by a lightning strike. The original church has been replicated and built in 9 different cities around the world. In 1786, a new construction was completed. This is the church as we know it today. It was reconstructed twice in the 20th century: after catching fire in 1906 during construction work and after the bombings of 1944 and 1945. {Wikipedia}. Do not miss the chanche to take stunning pictures from this beautiful church.