Hamburg overview

With my best german-american friend I left the little town of Pattensen and we went to Hamburg.

First stop was the harbor with the old Elbtunnel which is really nice to see as you walk downstairs about 20m and then see two tunnels where cars can cross the river Elbe about 12m underneath the water. After they cross the river under it they have to drive into the elevator and wait until they can go up again.

Next station harbor again. We walked down along all the ships to the Speicherstadt (warehouse city) where the huge storages which formerly were used for coffee, carpets etc. partly are re-used or wait to be re-used. The address there is Kehrwieder - which means 'come back' and there is a Kehrwiederspitze, the comeback point which was used by women in times where the sailors left the city.

We walked along those large clinkerbuildings to see the Hafencity (harborcity). There is a viewpoint from which one can see what already is and what will be part of the immensely large project, that should be finished by 2025.

After that we took the ferry back to the underground station Landungsbrücken and from there went to the Rathaus (city hall/ town hall). As it was raining now we went inside and took pictures of the building. Back outside then we walked to Gänsemarkt (goosemarket) which is not a market where they are trading geese (it's just a square that happens to be called goosemarket) and then to the Binnenalster (Alster interior).

The Alster is a river but you don't really see the river in it :) With sunny weather it is supposed to be one of the nicest spots in Hamburg, but I'll check that out when the weather allows it.
For the first day that was about it. We checked out a Starbucks coffee (which I wish we had at home as well) and went back to Pattensen :)