The Top 33 Things to Do and See in Hamburg

The Top 33 Things to Do and See in Hamburg

I tried an experiment last week: working from ‘home’ without actually being at home. A friend of mine, Vladka, whom I had not met in six years was working in Hamburg and suggested I come and see her. Couldn’t afford to lose any more holiday due to my long list of traveling plan for the year but wanted to see Vladka longer than just a weekend trip, I combined work and pleasure. I spent a week in Hamburg, working during the day and sight-seeing in the evening and weekend.

Some ideas on this list are taken from the Couchsurfing website, under the Hamburg section. Some come from my friend Vladka.

1. Sandemans New Europe’s Free Tours – I fist took a Sandemans free tour in Dublin. I liked the charisma and knowledge of my tour guide and decided to try this tour whenever I visit a major city. The 3-hour tour runs every day at 11 a.m. in front of Starbuck near the Town Hall. This tour is free; however, you should tip the tour guide if they do a good job. (http://www.newhamburgtours.com)

2. Rathaus – Hamburg’s town hall (included in the Sandemans’ tour)

3. St. Nicolai – The church is left in its ruined state that resulted from an Allies’ air raid during WWII. (included in the Sandemans’ tour)

4. Colonaden – the colonnade streets of Hamburg are among the oldest pedestrian streets in Hamburg. Since 1974 the streets are reserved for pedestrians.

5. Take the public ferry no. 62 at Landungsbrücken. This half-hour ride along Hamburg’s harbor shows you a splendid view of the waterway, the river, and many boats and ships passing by. It is free if you have a day pass.

6. Miniatur Wunderland – The world’s biggest model train exhibition with mini versions of various places from Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia and the United Stages.

Cheap hotels in Hamburg

7. Hafencity – A new neighborhood designed for rich people. While there, try to get a glimpse of the under-construction opera house which costs over 500 million EUR. This place was planned to be the city’s icon and a rival to the Sydney Opera. But first, it needs to get finished. Let see what the future brings.

8. Chilehaus – Built for the richest man in Hamburg at the time who owned a shipping company. He wanted the building to resemble a ship. If you can’t see the shape of a ship, try to walk around, walk away and view it from different angles.

9. St. Michaelis (the Michel) – St. Michaelis is the main Protestant and largest church in Hamburg. The famous classical music composer Johannes Brahms was baptized here. It’s free to enter the church and attend services, but you have to pay to see the crypt and the climb to the tower where you have a splendi view of Hamburg.

10. St. Jacob – The church is said to have an impressive organ, impressive enough to attract the attention of the young Bach when he was still an obscure musician. He applied to be an organist there. However, the church wanted him to pay the money to play at their venue. Guess who would be sorry later? (included in the tour)

11. Sunday Fishmarket at St. Pauli (Fischmarkt) – The market opens from 6:00 to 9:00 in the morning. Make sure you visit early to witness a unique event for which Hamburg is famous. You will see many locals and tourists carrying mixed baskets of fruit and vegetable. Each basket (all you can throw in) is sold for around €10. I saw a stall where the seller throw bananas to the cheering crowd to attract buyers to his stall.

12. Park Fiction – When you’re tired of all the walk and food at the fish market, go to a park just across from it to take a break alongside local Hamburgers and Hamburger wannabe. After the break, continue your Sunday pleasure by wandering the long street Hafenstrasse and examine small squat houses on the way.

13. Red-light district – If you’re a seasonal tourists or travelers in Europe, you know what’s going on in the red-light district. Need I say more? If you’re not, red-light district is where people go to commit “sin.” There are many bars, clubs, restaurants, night shows and brothels in this part of town. Don’t be shocked to find strings of prostitutes in this neighborhood.

14. Beatles-Platz – The famous Beatles started their career here in Hamburg, performing at clubs in the red-light district.

15. Marktstraße – If you fancy designer shops and have a thing for alternative lifestyles, check out this colorful and creative area. This market street has become an alternative shopping street of Hamburg with unique fashion studios, music stores, and accessories shops.

16. Schanzenviertel – A multi-ethnic and alternative neighborhood with graffiti-covered Rote Flora as its landmark, a former theater which turned into a squat hang-about. It seems that the alternative Marktstraße caters to a richer clientele than Schanzenviertel.

17. Altona neighborhood – Get bored of the city center? Go to the Altona to have a change of scenery.

18. Planten un Blomen – a beautiful park with large colorful flowerbeds, Japanese gardens, and greenhouses. There is a free concert every day that usually starts at or after 9 p.m. (http://plantenunblomen.hamburg.de/parksee-np)

19. Bismarck monument – Von Bischmark is a hero for many Germans. You will find him everywhere in Germany. And here in Hamburg, he has his own big status in a park, located near the Portuguese neighborhood.

20. Frauencafé Endlich  (Women Cafe Finally) – a cafe on Valentinstampp, next to Frauenhotel. The cafe’s back garden has romantic and lady-like (obviously) settings and atmosphere. The cafe is part of a women-only hotel [frauenhotel.de], I assume.  My friend found this cafe by accident but didn’t dare to come inside on her own and insisted that we (four girls) stopped for a visit. Yay, lesbians come in a crowd!

21. Erotica Boutique Bizzarre – We paid one euro to get in. They gave us a condom at the entrance to use as a credit to buy anything in the shop that worth up to one euro. One euro probably can’t get you anything, but if you go as a group, you can combine condoms together and get something home as a souvenir. Is that grand? I should have bought something and tell people that I paid for them with my hard-earned condoms. 😉 There are all kinds of ‘tools,’ ‘equipment,’ videos, self-help books, toys, clothing for anything related to sex, from normal to weird.

22. Atlantic Hotel – The setting of James Bond’s Tomorrow never dies. Everywhere Bond goes, he lives in style.

23. Hamburgische Geschicchte – A museum about Hamburg past present and future. It has miniatures of Hamburg before the big fire in 1842 and before the 1943 bombing. Here you see how Hamburg has developed throughout history.

24. See an opera and mingle with impeccably dressed Hamburgers.

25. Watch a Bundesliga football match – The Germans are crazy about football and insanely good at it, having won the World Cup three times. On the contrary, the local St. Pauli team isn’t any good and was recently relegated to a lower league. However, they are the first German football team to ban nationalist activities.

26. Day-trip to Luneburg – don’t recommend if you only visit Hamburg only for a couple of days. But if you’re here longer, you might be interested in visiting Luneburg, only 30 minutes away by train. The city has a beautiful old town.

27. Drink coffee, sample Lisbon custards, tapas and eat seafood and fish in one of many cafes and restaurants at Portugiesenviertel, Portuguese quarter, opposite the Landungsbrücken. Though the majority of the restaurants here serve Portuguese food, there are a few Spanish and Italian restaurants, giving this neighborhood a unmistaken Mediterranean vibe.

28. When in Hamburg, eat like a Hamburger and try Hamburg’s local sausage Currywurst on Monckebergstrasse, the tree-lined street from the central train station to the town hall.

29. Franzbrötchen – A sweet pastry, original from Hamburg. It looks like a croissant but softer and moist you can feel the butter and chocolate melted in your mouth.

30. Eat or buy white asparagus (‘spargel’ in German), a German delicacy, if you happen to be here during the summer. White spargels are expensive because they have a short harvest and require cover-up to avoid the sun. You get better deals buying asparagus in bundles at the fish market.

31. Turkish food might as well be considered part of the German cuisine given the large population of Turkish people in Germany. Besides the popular kebabs and Turkish pizzas which you will find almost in every corner of Hamburg, you should try Turkish style baked potatoes, stuffed with vegetables, corn, olives at on Schanzenstraße 95, an eatery  packed of locals.

32. Eat Vietnamese noodle soup, Pho, and many other delicious dishes at Ha Noi on Davidstrasse, red-light district, Thang Long on Osterstraße or Quan Do on Georgsplatz.

33. Hamburg drinks – Astra is a local Hamburg beer. It tastes bitter and to be honest not good. However, Astra is a Hamburg thing, so you might want to give it a try. Beck is a much better option. Alsterwasser, named after the artificial Alster lake, is a mixture of juice and beer. Apfelschörle is a Hamburg beverage with mineral water and apple juice. Mexikaner (vodka, Tabasco, tomato juice) shot is another Hamburg drink. I heard that you could only find it in Hamburg. A Mexikaner shot typically costs around €2, but you can have it for only €0.99 at Bar 99 cent in Reeperbahn, Red-light district.

Photo Credit: A.Currell, kevin.hackert, Glyn Lowe Photoworks., Andreas Quilling, morten f, dotpolka via Compfight cc

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