Hamburg; Saturday, 16 June, 2007

Taking advantage of the free use of an umbrella that each room is equipped with I ventured out into Hamburg. My first stop of the morning had been one of my last yesterday evening, St Nicholas's Church. The church was once the tallest in the world, and had been destroyed twice in it's history before its final destruction in the firestorms that swept Hamburg on July 27th 1943. The fire destroyed large parts of the city, but this was one area which was not repaired or rebuilt. Instead it's remains, some fragments of the walls, and the whole of the tower (now singed black) were left as a memorial against war and to the victims. In the former crypt is a document centre which has more details on the history of the church, today the tower houses a lift which speeds you to the base of the spire, about half-way to the top. From here there are stunning views over the city centre.

After taking in the views I descended back down to street level and wandered the short distance to the docks area. The warehouses and canals are still a hive of activity, even if the docks are no longer in use (a much larger container terminal is located a little further along the river Elbe). Today they are home to several museums, galleries and a few wholesalers (mostly of rugs!). One of the largest museums, and the cheapest (being free) is the Zollmuseum, the customs museum (as in drugs, smuggling and border control, not traditions!) The museum tells the history of the development of Customs in Germany from the Roman empire to the modern day. It also has some exhibits on Customs in the rest of the EU, and some of the ways people try to smuggle contraband into the country.

From the museum it was a short walk back through the docks to the "Hot Spice" museum. This tells some of the background to the spice trade, which Hamburg was an important part of. One of the main attractions is the sheer smell, lots of examples of spices are out for you to look at and sniff and the aroma is a little intoxicating. Just round the corner from the spice museum is "Miniatur Wunderland"

The Germans are the world leaders in model railways, and massive layouts are treated with great reverence (and as a way of making some people lots of money, at €10 for entry, and at least 200 people in whilst I was there its clear there is money in it). The museum has several large displays, the main one being a series of scenes in Hamburg. Every few minutes the lights dim and you can view it all as if it is night. It's quite interesting, but the sheer number of people makes it a little unpleasant, especially on a sticky day!

By the time I left Miniatur Wunderland it was already almost 4 so I stopped for a quick bite to eat, before walking around to the Rickmer Rickmers. This was originally built as a trading ship to the East Indies in the middle of the 19th Century. After many years of service it was seized during WWI by the British and then given, for a reason that I could find no explanation for, to Portugal as a training ship. It served this purpose until the middle of the century, when it was decommissioned and left to rot. The ship was saved and brought back to Hamburg, the city of it's birth, to be restored and opened to the public. You can look around parts of the ship to see what life was like, or stop for a bite to eat in the restaurant that occupies the first deck. Its also a convenient place to hide when the heavens decide to open. After looking around this ship I decided to have a look around the one almost next door.

The Cap San Diego is a typical freighter built in the early 1960's. According to the guide books it is very interesting to look around. Sadly, it was closed for an event when I got to it (they didn't bother mentioning this at the land end of the 400m bridge that links it to the harbour wall, only when you actually get onto the landing stage do you find that out!

There are several different companies which offer harbour and river tours, all sailing from the landing stages near the Cap San Diego, most cost €15 and are only in German. However, there is a cheaper way to see the harbour, and that's on board one of the regular ferry services that ply up and down the Elbe, run by HVV they are included in the public transport ticket in the same way as busses or metros, and the 62 runs every 15 minutes about half an hour down stream, turns round and comes back. It made for a very pleasant end to the afternoon.

I popped back to the hotel to drop stuff off and then headed back out for dinner. Afterwards I walked back via St Nicholas's church. In the summer, on Friday and Saturday nights, the tower is open until 10pm, so with dusk starting to fall, I ended the day as I had started it by taking some more photos from the top of the tower.