Easter holiday - Part 1: Hamburg

Our first outing this year in our camper took us to Hamburg, via Harwich and Hook of Holland.

For the first few nights we were staying with friends in Ahrensburg, just outside Hamburg. Kirsche and Ewan were superb hosts and gave us personalised tours of the area.

Day 1 was a cycle tour of Hamburg - Ewan stayed at home for this one.

We bought a group day ticket (allowing us to travel into and around Hamburg), which included our bikes, for a total of just over 9 Euros - a bargain.

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany and the eighth-largest city in the European Union. The city is home to over 1.8 million people, while the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighbouring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than 4.3 million inhabitants. The port of Hamburg is the third-largest port in Europe (third to Port of Antwerp and Rotterdam), and the eighth largest in the world.

Hamburg's official name is the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg). It reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, and also to the fact that Hamburg is a city-state and one of the sixteen States of Germany.

The city takes its name from the first permanent building on the site, a fortress ordered built by Emperor Charlemagne in 808 AD. The castle was built on rocky ground in a marsh between the River Alster and the River Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion. The castle was named Hammaburg, where burg means fortress. The origin of the Hamma term remains uncertain, as does the exact location of the fortress.

Hamburg was destroyed and occupied several times. 

In 845, a fleet of 600 Viking ships came up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. In 1030, the city was burned down by King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland. Valdemar II of Denmark raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214. The Black Death killed at least 60% of Hamburg's population in 1350. Hamburg had several great fires.

In 1842, about a quarter of the inner city was destroyed in the "Great Fire". This fire started on the night of the 4 May 1842 and was extinguished on May 8. It destroyed three churches, the town hall, and many other buildings, killed 51 people, and left an estimated 20,000 homeless. Reconstruction took more than 40 years. 

 Hamburg Town Hall - Das Rathaus in German - seat of the Senate and Parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. It was built between 1886-97 and replaced the one that was destroyed in the "Great Fire" of 1842.

 

 This is my idea of how to travel!!

 

The Atlantic Hotel was featured in the 1997 Bond movie, "Tomorrow Never Dies". There is now a "James Bond Suite" - you obviously have to order vodka martini (shaken, not stirred)

 

The Gothic Revival Church of St. Nicholas (German: St.-Nikolai-Kirche) was formerly one of the five Lutheran Hauptkirchen (main churches) in the city of Hamburg. It is now in ruins, serving as a memorial and an important architectural landmark. When Hamburg residents mention the Nikolaikirche, it is generally to this church that they are referring, and not the new Hauptkirche of St. Nicholas, which is located in the Harvestehude district.

The church was the tallest building in the world from 1874 to 1876 and is still the second-tallest building in Hamburg.

 

Kirsche and Ann on a ferry outside what will be the new opera house

Views from the ferry

 

In the West of the Elbe Beach is the “Alter Schwede” – a 217 ton heavy stone pulled out of the Elbe River. The colossus with a circumference of 19.7 meters was found during dredging work in the river in October 1999.

 

"Don't push me in!"

 

Flottbek Hockey Club - where Kirsche plays.

A thoroughly enjoyable day out in Hamburg - and we greatly appreciated the personalised tour. We celebrated with a meal at a Greek restaurant in Ahrensburg. See part two for the next stage of our tour of Germany.