Wanderlust: Hamburg - port city of the north

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Bryan's first new city aside from Berlin, and we had the entire cabin to ourselves in the train - first class! haha. Then again, the only difference between 1st and 2nd class on Deutsche Bahn (german railway) is less people and the occasional cart person walking through. A bit underwhelming, but I've learned to be a little disappointed with DB's service :-p. Maybe I'm spoiled with the spotless and super-efficient japanese shinkansen trains. Granted, they are more expensive, but they were never late and there was no such thing as reserved and non-reserved seats shoved into the same cars, everybody jostling around each time new people get on/off at stations, and the conductor having to check our ticket 3 or 4 times because he/she's forgotten who was already checked and who was not. Japan's trains are so organized. Germany, not so much. Still, these trains beat the total lack of other travel options in the US, so i'm just being nit-picky.

Nobody I know has ever gone out of their way to visit Hamburg, but after having done so, I think it's a town well worth visiting. One of my favorites so far for that normal "good everyday life" feel.

The flat we are staying at in Hamburg is in the central neighborhood of Altona. From the second we stepped out of Hamburg Hauptbanhoff station, I immediately liked the town. They even had classical music playing overhead in the station.

just arrived!

Altona is a very quaint neighborhood with cobblestone streets and tree-lined sidewalk cafes. Our apartment is basically in a warehouse building with a flamenco dance studio and Aikido studio beneath, and there are three very bohemian guys living there, with all kinds of interesting nick-nacks they sell through an online store (giant dragon statues with color-changing light globes, hundreds of DVDs of old movies, suitcase trunks, etc).

our large room in the cool warehouse building apartment

Bryan getting settled in...

Our neighborhood of Altona here in central Hamburg

square near the apartment - lots of little restaurants around, and tables filling the square. Well into the night, this square is filled with people just eating, drinking, and enjoying life outside

Bryan never tried Falafel before (say what?!?!?) so we had to get some

My falafel with baba ganoush (roasted eggplant purée) in a baked potato

Because one pedestrian stop guy isn't enough ... here's TWO. You BETTER not walk!

I had read that Hamburg is one of the richest metropolitan areas in Europe after London and Brussels, and I can definitely see that. Compared to Berlin, Hamburg feels much more "established". The highlight of this interesting town is definitely the HavenCity (harbor city) which is an awesome mix of new and old Hamburg in the same neighborhood. One of the most important commercial ports in the world, Hamburg's harbor city is a new development of buildings along the waterside old port location. The harbor and canals wind around all of the buildings creating a really unique neighborhood.

Ships used to pull up right next to the buildings here in the canals to unload their goods into the warehouses.

Large cranes (the white thing hanging down) on top of each building to help ships unload cargo into the warehouses

Hamburg's new symphony hall (the modern glass bubbles) being built on top of an old ship warehouse. It is on springs and has two interior shell layers so any train/ship/car traffic vibration or noise cannot be heard inside of the symphony hall. Pretty cool how it's not on ground level and is instead totally on top of an old warehouse.

Aerial view of the harbor city canals/warehouses

What was most amazing was seeing the level of river height fluctuation that can occur on the Elbe river that the ships must sail through. There was a map showing all of the flood zones in the harbor city, and the height of the dock support pylons really show how much the river can rise.

See the height of those poles sticking out of the water? The ships and floating docks are moored to those poles - the height of the poles shows how high the water can reach, well above ground level of the surrounding buildings.

Lots of public space to lay out in the warm sun ... great public space is what instantly makes cities so much more livable

Grabbing my own outdoor nap time!

The following day, rather than opting for an expensive tour boat cruise, we simply took one of the city ferries for a one-hour trip around the harbor, all included with our unlimited day-transit pass. Speaking of which, public transit is cheap: for less than 10 euro, we got a pass good for up to 5 people from 9am to 6am the following day. Don't know how they can afford to make it so cheap (maybe the city government really subsidizes it?) but it was wonderful.

Busy Elbe river

Tugboats pulling and turning huge cargo ships around right in the middle of the Elbe river so they can line up with the docks to unload cargo ... an amazing sight

Overall, lots of cute boutique shops, beautiful lakes and harbor, and great restaurants. Its no surprise to me why Hamburg was listed as Monocle's top German city in terms of livability - laying out in the warm sunshine watching the boats cruise by in the harbor - it felt so perfect.

Lake in the center of town

Very few foreign tourists in Hamburg - most were from within Germany. Big enough, dynamic enough, yet still quaint and cozy - I really loved it here as an "everyday living" type of city.

We ended our three days here dipping our feet in the pond of the Japanischer Garten (japanese garden, largest in europe) while sipping green tea.