Reeperbahn, St. Pauli, + the port

A visit to Hamburg (at least for first timers) isn't complete without a stop near the St. Pauli / Reeperbahn area. It's Europe's largest red light district - even bigger than Amsterdam's, but it's not as showy. Sure there are plenty of shops advertising things you've never thought of, but visitors also come for other things - like seeing where the Beatles got their start.

In the book Outliers, which I mentioned before, you can read all about the early days of the Beatles in Hamburg. While I'd like to show you pictures of all the places they played at the beginning, we didn't stay in the area too long. We did walk past the Herberstaße, a gated street where women and children are forbidden to enter, where I'm told ladies work the windows. We also saw a woman, presumably a tourist, getting kicked out. Odd. It all seems a bit sensationalized.

From St. Pauli we headed down to the Fish Market and near the harbor. Along the way there are tons of bright houses with interesting paintings, street art, and graffiti.

The area around the old fish market was one of my favorites. The buildings and brick work are much different than in Southern Germany. Even the repurposed buildings are amazingly taken care of and the mixture of old and new blend so nicely together.

A fantastic restaurant, called La Vela, is right near the old fish market - and the food is impeccable. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

The more touristy St. Pauli waterfront still had plenty of action. There are all kinds of interesting boats, including police, customs, and this old fire boat turned biergarten.

We decided to go on a harbor boat tour, which was really interesting. It's amazing to have these enormous shipping boats right next to tiny boats taking tourists around.

There were boats undergoing repairs on floating docks where the water is drained and refilled. It sort of made me feel as though I was in a children's book as we passed all of the bright colors and admired the details.

There were also many cargo containers being moved and loaded. It was amazing how simple it all looked, as if they were building blocks. Hamburg has around 40 of the big cranes to move things in the harbor - each one costing a cool €8 Million.

We were also lucky to see this oil rig that had recently come in from the North Sea. Our captain was telling us what a difficult job it was to work on that particular boat.

We'll definitely be back to visit Hamburg again. It looks like the gesellen aren't the only ones that love it! (I saw another one here in Munich last week - and this lonesome fellow while in Hamburg.)

You can see his traditional walking stick and a bit more of his costume than in the last photos.

Hamburg + Hafencity

Our first stop was to visit little Moritz and his parents. We had a great time with tons of friends, conversation, and lots of babies. We were the only couple without children. I can't say I envied people when it was time to eat and I didn't have a baby whining or wanting food from my plate. Eating in peace must be such a luxury once children are in the picture.

The day was absolutely sweltering, but everyone had a great time playing yard games after brunch. Later in the afternoon was a big potluck style cookout, which felt so similar to the American cookouts I'm accustomed to. It was really nice. Moritz enjoyed feeding Stefan and everyone was happy. (side note: he doesn't quite fit the lederhosen yet... hopefully next year - in time for Oktoberfest!)

Early Monday we went to explore Hamburg. I immediately loved that it's a decently large city (6th largest in the EU). It seemed like there was a lot more variety in terms of stores and products available.

Right by the train station was Mutterland, which was on my list of places to stop. It's a bit of an upscale grocery / deli / restaurant. Everything is absolutely beautiful - from the displays and product packaging to the food at the restaurant.

It melted my heart when we saw a dog come in and lay near our table while his owner went to get something. I couldn't help but pet him. I desperately need a dog! Instead of leaving with a dog, I left with a full stomach and some beautiful silver decorating sugar from a company called Zucceroo.

The salad was one of the best I've had in a long time. And what I loved most was that everything felt like you were visiting a friend - a friend that makes delicious homemade organic foods. If only we had a Mutterland in Munich.

We also got ice cream - you know I had to sample that. I love Stefan's expression of anticipation (and his Midwest fo Life shirt, being an Ohio girl and all).

After eating quite a large lunch we decided to walk around town and discover some of the sites, particularly near the water. I love cities that have distinct character and Hamburg is certainly one of those.

I noticed these stamps in a shop window - and the lovely handwriting on the card. So pretty! It reminded me of the ones I saw just the other day in Munich.

Once visiting Speicherstadt / Hafencity (warehouse district) it was official this was a charming place. Speicherstadt is the area where the warehouses and the beautiful architecture are surrounded by little canals and new construction.

There are tons of new apartments and lofts and it really integrates new and old very well. Oh, what I wouldn't give to have a beautiful loft in that area! It's one of the big rebuilding projects in Europe, and I can only imagine how cool it will be upon completion, but I was so happy to see it in progress as well.

It's really neat to think about all the produce and goods that are stored within these walls, including the largest storage of Oriental carpets in the world - worth over €1 Billion!

There's always something going on in the harbor and it's really quite fun to watch the ships at work. We stood in awe of how many containers many of them were capable of transporting. Funny to think the containers themselves also occasionally are turned into homes. I'd take one of those too, you know if the loft doesn't work out.

After being adequately worn out we stopped at Engelke for dinner. Throughout this trip I was constantly impressed with the quality, variety, and how reasonably priced food was. I think I need to move to a bigger city... I could really get used to these little luxuries.

Another blessing of being in a shipping town is the availability of products, including some delicious macaroons from Ladurée - direct from Paris.

Tomorrow I'll post about the port tour, the infamous St. Paul district, and the interesting urban details.

ahoy!

This weekend our friends invited us to Northern Germany and we decided to spend a few days in Hamburg.

Plenty of people have told us what an amazing city this is, but seeing is believing and now all I can say is that I'm one of those people that says - 'give Hamburg a visit, you'll love it!'

I'll write more once we get home later this week (in addition to plenty of photos), but there are so many charming details here, including:

• an enormous ship yard filled with loads of boats
• a sprawling and diverse city with canals virtually everywhere
• tons of adorable little shops
• amazingly delicious and inexpensive restaurants
• Speicherstadt + Hafencity - my favorite up and coming areas. All I can say is once this is completed it's going to be even more amazing, which is hard to believe. I even kind of wish I could move there.