.: Hanseatic Hamburg :.

H and I spent a very fine long weekend discovering Hansastadt Hamburg. One of the first impressions that struck us was how—despite being the second largest metropolitan area, trailing only Berlin, different that this city-scaped seemed compared to others.

It is easy to make general- isations, and indeed we did see quite a lot of gentrification (punctuated as it were since it was an election-weekend also) later on and I am sure that each borough has its own character different from what we were able to experience in a short time, but it did seem like quite a livable, accommodating place, even it probably was out of our price-range.

That first evening, the rich architectural heritage was absorbed by the night’s shadows but elements did show themselves. Having the most bridges of any urban area in the world, some 2 400 of them, Hamburg also boasts more canals and waterways than Venice and Amsterdam put together.

The navigable passages that cut deeper into the city are called Fleete and made a really dramatic backdrop, by night or day. Massive blocks of warehouses made up the so called Speicher-Quarter, once an enormous storage site for goods from all over the world but now functioned mostly as office space. Though the way that shipping and delivery has changed logistically and the lager room may not be necessarily needed, the real-estate of the free-port is still highly valued.

This matter of transport was also very striking as even though Hamburg is a nexus of cargo and cruise ships, Hamburg is closer to the Baltic than it is to the Atlantic, with only the mighty Elbe connecting it to the seas. We saw a bit of St. Pauli and the infamous Reeperbahn neighbourhoods.

Aside from exploring the core of the old town that reflects the riches earned through trade, and whose piers and wharfs are just out of site from any angle, the Rathaus included, walking along the débutantes’ promenade (Jungfrausteig) that embraces the series of lakes and waterways that extend into the hinterland, we also took a tour of the harbour on a little ship. We were afforded great views of the waterfront architect and the machinery that powers the business of import-export. Afterwards, we took a second look at the Hafen-City quarter, crowned with the newly completed prestige-project in the Elbe-Philharmonic tower and a fun, classic haunted-house treatment of Hamburg’s history. It was very nice to have the place more or less to ourselves, but I think it will be well worth to seeing again in the summertime, braving the crowds, to paddle up and down those canals ourselves.