First looks

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Geo: 53.5633, 9.96822

After some online reconnaissance we ventured into the city today for a look around. We drove to a local train station and had no trouble buying day passes from a vending machine for €6 each. Parking was a little drama - the 'park n ride' we drove into closed at 9pm and there was a chance we'd be back later than that. So we parked on the street and stressed about getting a ticket (no, thankfully). Trains were comfortable, clean and convenient, and ran frequently.

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Photos

Landungsbruecken
Overlooking the port building rebuilt after WWII.

Rathaus (Town Hall)
Taken from the steeple of St Petri church, the oldest (foundations circa 1195) of Hamburg's seven major churches. As we climbed up the spire it became uncomfortably hot under the unlined copper roof. We only made 330 of the 544 steps.

Hafencity train station
Hafencity is an ambitious waterfront re-development project due for completion in about 10 years. This is the newest train station in Hamburg. The lights change colour to indicate the changing local weather conditions.

Jan of WaterKant tours
Jan and his partner started this niche tour company six months ago. It now rates highly on TripAdvisor and is growing rapidly. We had a personal, rain-abbreviated (so much for fine weather!) afternoon tour that was interesting and informative.
Learned a little about German spelling too. Their letter that looks like a Greek capital Beta is actually "ss". So Stra'B'e is actually Strasse. Vowels a, o and u with two dots above them are spelt ae, oe and ue in English.

St. Pauli Elbtunnel
Built in 1911 for worker access to the ship yards 500 m across the Elbe River. Now used mainly by pedestrians, bicycles and the occasional tourist vehicle. It's 30m depth is accessed by large elevators at each end of the tunnel; no on-ramps here.

Altes Maedchen Braugasthaus
Jan directed us to this popular spot behind the associated Ratsherrn micro-brewery. Good food and I enjoyed the local Pilsener.
Lowie, I hope you found this during your time here.

Comments

[Erin]

Looking good - have fun!

[Kerrie Lonn]

Still a good view

[Carol]

Now that looks like our kind of destination!!