Day 1:
- Very easy connection from airport to city via S-Bahn 1, station is directly connected to airport terminals
- Day ticket (9 o’clock ticket) works well if you plan to be on and off the subways/trains
- Check in to Airbnb in Sternschanze neighbourhood: lots of bars, cafes, restaurants, smaller stores, and some cheaper student eats (university gathering area)
- Explore Speicherstadt, where old shipping warehouses were (in identical brick buildings with copper ceilings to indicate Hanseatic league membership)
- Miniatur Wunderland
- Museum of many miniature displays, including trains and cities from different countries
- Not too expensive but can get quite crowded
- You can reserve an entrance time online and then show up and go in without the ~50 minute wait that is enforced if you are a walk-in
- No fee to reserve online and you don’t even have to buy the ticket at the time so no cost to you at all!
- Nearby is a coffee roaster and cafe; Hamburg is famous for coffee apparently
- Le Crobag is a French bakery/cafe though it turns out it was actually started in Hamburg so therefore sort of a local thing
- A local pastry is französische brötchen, which is rumoured to have been German bakers’ attempts at croissants (which turned out flat and became a local specialty)
Day 2:
- Brunch near Gänsemarkt area in Neustadt
- Walk around Botanic Gardens (Planten un Blomen) and the greenhouse (free entrance)
- See Hamburger Dom, a festival/amusement park area with a ferris wheel (which closes early, so we missed it)
- Would go to the Dom next time!
- Walk to Rathaus past the small lake in the city
- Free walking tour of Hamburg with Sandeman
- St. Peter’s Church
- St. Nikolai Church memorial (ruins)
- Speicherstadt area
- Hafencity area with Elbe Philharmonie
- Expensive development projects that have run overtime and overbudget that all urban planners around the world love to talk about
- Sort of reminds me of harbourfront development in Copenhagen in terms of style and controversy over edgy design
- St. Pauli Elbtunnel
- Altona station
- Large hub outside of city with lots of grocery stores nearby
- Many buses connect here
- Most major trains stop here before/after Hbf
- IKEA nearby as well with some other shops!
- Red Light District
- Lots of cool things to see, feels just as lively (if not more) as Amsterdam though without so many visible prostitutes
- Mostly venues with entertainment and bars/nightclubs
- A lot of stuff is on the aptly named Große Freiheit street
- Lots of good late night food: döner, fast food, etc…
- Fishmarkt is a good place to go after a late night out if you make it until 5am (only open 5-10am)
- We missed it but would definitely put this on my list of places to go next time in Hamburg
Day 3:
- Blankenese is an area with lots of expensive houses built on a hillside facing the waterfront, with a bit of a Presidio-like feel (à la SF)
- Lots of steps and climbing but there’s a bus that goes from the bottom of the hill (i.e. beach) to the top again (i.e. S-Bahn stop) though it is an express so a regular transit pass does not include it (and you have to pay 2 euro extra)
- Lunch at a Portuguese tapas restaurant in Portuguese area near Landungsbrücken
- Walk around waterfront