Hamburg – where the big, wide world meets

If you look at the following pictures, you might think that it is a typical gray November afternoon. In fact, we experienced this spooky late fall weather in early September. Hamburg simply didn’t want to show us its sunny side at any price. Nevertheless, when I’m in the Hanseatic city, I have to marvel at the big ships up close. You know, container ship romance and stuff…

It was clear without much discussion that the first sightseeing stop is the traditional harbor tour from the Landungsbrücken, despite drizzle and nasty wind. We looked for a sheltered corner on deck and kept the cameras ready to shoot.

The harbour tour on one of the ships of the Rainer Abicht Elbreederei (abicht.de) first takes us past the well-known fish market and the striking Dockland. From the roof terrace of the office building, which juts out onto the water like a ship’s bow, you have a great view over the port of Hamburg. This is followed by the so-called Pearl Necklace – an area on the Elbe Mile that was rebuilt as part of an urban planning competition.

We are not completely left to our own devices on the ship, as the tour is commented on in an entertaining way.

At the Elbe beach, our ship turns and we dive into the world of container ships. In the harbor we suddenly feel tiny on our boat. Completely different calibers are being manoeuvred around. I would love to know what is hidden in these many containers. By the way, if you want to know what kind of ships there are, you can find a ship radar with live information about the port on the Hamburg website. Just as impressive as the large ships is the huge dry dock of Blohm & Voss. This is where the Queen Mary 2 was born.

The last detour takes us with a view of the “fabulous” Elbphilharmonie, past the musical theatres (did you know that the musical scene in Hamburg is incredibly diverse?) to HafenCity. I had already heard countless things about HafenCity – the showpiece for contemporary urban development, high-density housing and dealing with brownfield sites. The rows of houses that I see from the ship do not yet trigger any enthusiasm in me. So gray in gray it’s rather a dreary story.

In addition to the many ships, the restrained Hamburg skyline also presents itself to us from a beautiful perspective. Despite the bad weather – the harbour tour is part of the first visit to Hamburg. What do you mean?

Note: Hamburg Tourism supported my visit to the Hanseatic city – thank you very much for this. As always, my readers can be sure that I always represent my views and enthusiasm here.