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| | I like Hamburg because it's so versatile:
The "Michel" a.k.a. St. Michaelis Church, an example for 19th century wealth
and art AND Hamburg's most favourite landmark,
the harbour, seen from "Landungsbruecken", the place where in former days
the big overseas ships lay, letting the guests enter for a trip to America,
now a touristy place with many little shops and dozens of boats taking you
on trips to the "Speicherstadt", a part of the harbour designed back in the
19th century for storage of all the goods coming in from all over the world,
the "Passagen", inner city indoors shopping malls, built quite recently or
during the last 100 years,
Stadtpark and Jenisch-Park, beautiful parks with multiple possibilities,
pubs and clubs for literally every taste,
the famous "Elbstrand", a stretch of sandy beach along Oevelgoenne and
"Elbchaussee", a street lined by wealthy people's villas and private parks,
museums showing many aspects of Hamburgian life, archaeology, art - you name
it,
and many places I haven't seen yet.
I want to tell you about places I have been to and came to love. This list
can only be part of what there's to be seen in Hamburg, but, as I told you
before, this page is meant to be my private view on Hamburg and what I think
is worth seeing or interesting or important. If you believe you've found
something worth being included in here please feel welcome to tell me about
it. I'd appreciate it very much and try to add it to my informations as
quickly as possible. Thank you very much for your help. Please write to
me
And now let's start the sight seeing trip through Hamburg.
When I have guests who never have been to Hamburg before I like showing them
some of the famous landmarks of Hamburg first: Those are some buildings in
the inner city, Landungsbruecken at the Elbe river, and Fish Market
(Fischmarkt).
There's no loss at parking spaces in Hamburg, only be careful with parking
where there you aren't supposed to park your car. Hamburg's household is a
rather poor one so parking tickets are very easy to get and fees are from 30
to 50 DM (1 US$ is roughly 1,80 DM). Or you use public transport instead.
 The inner city is perfect to start any sight seeing trip. You may start at
"Jungfernstieg" near city hall (Hamburger Rathaus) and enjoy the view at the
Binnen- and Aussenalster, a lake which is part of the small Alster river on
which you can take tours by motor boat or hire rowing boats.
Along the border of Binnenalster you'll find many expensive and famous
shops, and from Jungfernstieg which is the name of the street at the end of
the Binnenalster you get into the largest, most important (and most
expensive) shopping area of Hamburg. Every boutique and international shop
can be found here, and the "Passagen" I've mentioned before. Have a go at
"Hanseviertel" or "Levante-Haus" at "Moenckebergstraße", the most famous
shopping street in Hamburg, or stroll through one of the smaller (and often
finer) malls at the "Colonnaden" or through the mall "Galleria".
You've already got enough of shopping?
Go and see the city hall. It's directly accessible from Jungfernstieg from
where you go to "Rathausplatz". You can't miss city hall: It's the richly
decorated large building with copper coated roof tower along that square.
It has been restored last year, inside and out so it's a real beauty again
and worth paying the entry fee (last year it was DM 4 for the guided tour).
From Jungfernstieg you can take the subway to Roedingsmarkt (or simply walk)
and visit St.Nikolai Church, once the most beautiful church in Hamburg, now
a ruin because of the WWII bombings. The remaining parts (after all it's
only the tower and part of the choir) are still impressive. 
From there it's only a short walk to either Nicolai-Fleet (in which "Fleet"
doesn't mean that there is a fleet of ships but a mere canal) along which
you can see old and restored buildings - a great place to sit down and have
either a cool beer or lunch or dinner or just a good time in one of the many
restaurants or pubs - see the going out section for more information - or
St. Michaelis Kirche (the tower on the right is a wooden model of this often photographed building).
It's a bit overdone for my taste - I'm more for the simple and classic
beauty of the "Deutsche Dom" in Berlin or the "Basilica" in Trier - but it's
a major attraction for the tourists.
But I invite you to climb the stairs to the top of the tower and enjoy the
view from there. It's breathtaking. You can see over most of the city with
the harbour, Elbe, inner city, Alster and quite a few of the suburbs.
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On the first picture you can see the MS Cap San Diego, a train of subway line 3, the Elbe River, of course, and part of the harbour.
The second picture shows the "Gruner & Jahr" building, and to the right and front you can find many Spanish and Portuguese restaurants. The third picture shows downward Elbe River and part of Altona. |
From St. Michaelis Kirche it's only a short walk to the so-called "Kammeramtsstuben", a tiny row of old buildings in a backyard. You reach it over a flight of steps towards the river. If you turn left on the bottom you can see the sign advertising the place. But be careful with your head: the houses have been built in a time when people were about 30 cm smaller!
Please read on on the next page.
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