Stop 2 of 12 – Hamburg, Germany

Recently I took a 7-week walkabout to 12 cities in Europe. I decided to stop in Hamburg, Germany for a few days on my way to Berlin.  It’s not that Hamburg has an amazing general tourist draw, but some of its history intrigued me. I took the Flixbus from Amsterdam and loved seeing the countryside.  Hundreds of wind turbines dotted the agricultural fields and along the roadways were brilliant yellow fields of rapeseed.

Hamburg is a large city, so I took the Die Roten Doppeldecker Stadtrund Farht (Hop on and Hop Off) bus tour, which was excellent. Although the guide spoke German, headsets for English (and other) translations were available.  Some of the things I learned on the tour were:

Water plays an important role in the city. The city is located on the River Elbe where it joins the River Alster and River Bille.  The River Alster was dammed in several places to create two lakes within the city center called the Inner Alster and the Outer Alster.  There are beautiful walking paths around the ‘lakes’.  Hamburg is Europe’s third largest port and there are more than 2,500 bridges over the various canals and waterways within the city – more than Amsterdam, Venice, and London combined.

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The beautiful diplomatic area has a number of large mansions and meeting sites along the outer Alster.  The area is known for hosting significant international conferences and summits such as the G20.  The current German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is from Hamburg as was the former chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

Hamburg was almost totally destroyed by the bombing in WWII, but by 1960 had rebuilt substantially and become an economic center. The rebuilding continues and the latest major project is the Hafen City which will house 10,000 residents and 15,000 workers. 

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Admittedly the connection of the Beatles was one of the things I was interested in learning about.  In 1960 when the Beatles were still developing, Hamburg was much more financially secure than Liverpool, and offered fledgling bands an opportunity to intern in the Reeperbahn, which was the large red-light district of Hamburg near the seaport.  The living conditions were awful, but the bands got experience performing in front of live audiences for hours at a time, as well as exposure to others in the music industry.  The Reeperbahn area hasn’t changed much, but tourists not interested in the nighttime pleasures and entertainment are welcome to wander through during the day and the hop on, hop off buses do a tour of the area.

The city has a large park in the city center called Planten un Blomen, which is open to the public and has walking paths and gardens of various styles surrounding a waterway. 

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I also had the opportunity to visit the Museum for Kunst and Gewerbe (arts and crafts/industry), which focuses on understanding people by the tangible things they use in their life.  For example, there is an exhibit of story telling on Greek vases used in symposium, which is a drinking party where people discussed certain issues or learned about a topic.  The pictures on the vases gave a good glimpse into what these symposia looked like and how they fit into the society. 

Another exhibit I found fascinating was an exhibit on the items used in Jewish rituals and how many of them were obtained by the museum.  During WWII, the Nazis ordered all Jews to turn over silver and other valuables.  Various museum curators negotiated to save some of these items for historical exhibits and at the end of the war, were able to acquire others to preserve this important part of Jewish history.

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I stayed at Boutique 020 Hamburg in the St. Georg area which is a hip, modern hotel, with small well-appointed rooms. When I tried to leave the hotel the morning after arrival, I discovered that the small lobby and the sidewalk outside the entrance had been turned into a movie set.  I had to wait off to the side until a break in the action to leave, but it was fun to watch.  Outside, the hotel signs were all renamed and there were extras who were walking in the background, plus a ton of trucks, equipment, and people.  I never found out what the movie was, but everything was back to normal at the end of the day. 

Hamburg offers a different look at Germany. It’s doesn’t have the charm of Bavaria and isn’t infused with Medieval architecture, but is nice glimpse of a modern German City that has a great combination of beautiful waterways, lush parks, fun entertainment, and a strong sense of history. 

Next stop:  Berlin, Germany