Hamburg, Germany

We left Bergen, Norway early in the morning and, after a stopover in Copenhagen, made it to Gothenburg, Sweden by about 10 p.m. We spent the night in a hostel and then departed early in the morning for Hamburg. About half way through the ride, our train boarded a ferry to cross the Baltic. It was definitely interesting being on a train that was on a boat. After two straight days of travel, we finally arrived in Hamburg. We made arrangements through Couch Surfing to stay with a family that lives in the suburbs of the city. We were so fortunate to have stayed with Mel, Sven and their four year old son Lars. And although shy, little Lars was not too interested in us, we found him to be quite adorable. They were very gracious and welcoming and made us feel right at home. We hope to see them again if they travel again to California.


The following day was spent walking around Hamburg’s city center. We took another free New Europe walking tour and learned quite a bit about the city’s history. In a nutshell, the city has had numerous devastating fires through the centuries. First, the Emperor of Germany in the ninth century, Louis the first, ordered the archbishop of Hamburg to convert the Vikings to Christianity. That didn’t work out so well, and the Vikings burned Hamburg to the ground. Apparently they enjoyed destroying the city so much that they returned another eight times to burn it down after the city was rebuilt. Then the entire city was victim to arson in the mid-nineteenth century that destroyed almost all of the buildings, some dating back to the twelfth century. No one knows who did it or how, but they know it was started at a cigar factory, which is now a restaurant. And finally, after many years of rebuilding, the city was repeatedly bombed during WW2 and again lost many of its structures. The church of St. Nikolai is a preserved example of some of the bombing devastation. The church was basically hollowed out, but the glockenspiel (bell tower) and spire remain intact. An elevator takes visitors to the top for a wonderful view of the entire city. The remains of the church are now a memorial dedicated to Holocaust victims. There are several memorials throughout the city dedicated to individuals from Hamburg who died in concentration camps, with placards placed in front of buildings where they once lived.


Hamburg’s history was deeply rooted in the shipping and trade industries. It is known for being a huge import city from countries all over the world, evidenced by the architecture of many of the old port buildings. Because of this, Hamburg has always been a rather wealthy place. We also found out that Hamburg has the most bridges in all of Germany, which they are very proud of. In addition, the city has more canals than Venice or Amsterdam, supposedly. There is a famous story about an apparently well known German pirate named Klaus Störtebeker, who is seen as almost a hero in history. The story goes that he and his men were caught in Hamburg, guilty of piracy obviously, and were sentenced to die. After unsuccessfully pleading for his life, Klaus made a deal with his captors that would hopefully set some of his men free. He knew he would be executed by beheading, so he told his captors that after his head was cut off he would run as far as he could along a line of his men and each one he passes gets to go free. Sounds ridiculous, I know. And apparently, with his head chopped clean off, he was able to run past eleven of his men, saving them from his fate. There is even a live stage show depicting this highly inconceivable act. The story is apparently very popular amongst school children.


The weather was changing by the hour, from sunny to rain, but it was still fairly cold. We unfortunately didn’t spend enough time in Hamburg to really take in all the sights. It would have been really nice to take a ferry into the city or to get further outside of the city center. It really is a beautiful place with a rich and interesting culture. It’s very unfortunate that Hamburg lost so many of its historic structures, effectively losing lots of its history. We made the best of the time we had and we were glad we took the time to see Hamburg.



Coming soon: Berlin!