We chose Danemark for our summer holidays as it's among the most laid-back countries in Europe in these pandemic times: while Germany for instance mandates masks and tests or vaccines from 7yrs up in certain "Länder", masks were not needed anymore in Danemark. I can tell you that seeing people's faces (again, after so long) had a very positive psychological impact.
Besides, I guess it's preferable to visit cool northern countries in August rather than in Fall or Winter: days are longer, and the weather is nicer.
The problem: about 1100 km away and with 2 teens in a loaded car, Danemark was a bit too far to reach in one day. After all, we were going there to relax and driving for 11 or 12 hours in a row is not exactly the most relaxing way to start the holidays.
Thus we chose to spend two days midway, in Hamburg, and visit the city.
Hamburg from the "AussenAlster". Source: me, with a bit of help from Google Photos to correct the lighting. The weather in Hamburg was cloudy and rainy those days
Hamburg is a 2,000,000 people roaring trade center and has been bustling with economic activity for almost 1000 years, even if its early history was quite violent, the city being founded three times and razed to the ground twice.
Its first heydays were in the times of the Hanseatic League, which I mentioned in a previous post about Bremen. But I'll come back to Hamburg's history a bit later.
We took a hotel outside of the busy city center, the Novotel on Lübeckerstrasse. The main motivation was the availability of a reasonably-priced parking place. Here is a worn-down map of the city we got at the hotel which I photographed together with a "family card" for the U/S-Bahn (subway) system. Indeed, we let the car in the underground parking of the hotel and visited the city by foot / public transportation and the "Linie A" red double-decker busses
My three sleeping beauties in the Hamburg U-Bahn, on our way to the Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) to board the red doubledecker for a tour of the city. As you'd expect from a German U-Bahn (subway), Hamburg's is clean and functional but not fancy
We got off the double-decker at one of the landmarks of the city, the St Michaelis church. Unfortunately, it had started raining quite heavily, which made us wet and uncomfortable.
In the church we climbed up in the bell-tower which is considered by the locals as Hamburg's equivalent to the Eiffel tower: it offers a 360° beautiful panorama of the whole city. But for the occasion, it was raining cats and dogs, the wind was blowing hard and the clouds were so low I could not shoot a decent photograph with my smartphone.
So instead I can offer a shot ... from the crypt of the church. I said the crypt, as St. Michaelis doesn't sport its own crypto yet (StMichaelis token anyone?)
In the crypt we could see some ancient artifacts and watch a movie about the history of the city.
We then took the next red bus and stopped in the Hafen (the harbour). Hamburg is one of the most important maritime ports in Europe, able to handle huge container ships. We boarded a touristic boat which gave us a tour of the harbour. If only the weather had been better! I should have also taken a picture of the Elbphilarmonie, a quite daring concert hall on the banks of the Elbe, but the clouds and rain would not allow.
Hamburg is situated at the mouth of the Alster river as it flows into the Elbe. The last part of our visit was a boat tour on the Alster which looks (at its mouth) as two "lakes", the Binnenalster and the Ausseralster. Here is a picture (a bit oblique) of the former.
As the dusk drew closer we went back to the hotel and spent the evening relaxing.
Reflecting on Hamburg, I confess it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Perhaps the dreary weather played a part, but I imagined a more balanced city. Instead, I learned Hamburg is very much focused on money and trade and much less on intellectual and spiritual pursuits. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the way the various tour guides presented the sights we passed by: instead of talking about the history of the places, they were telling us ... how much the bourgeois mansions were worth, as if they were real estate agents, not turistic guides!
On a more objective note, Hamburg's University dates from 1919 only! I was shocked thinking that such a big city had no University until 100 years ago. Also, the frictions between Catholics and Protestants, always present, boiled over after the retreat of the Napoleonic armies in 1815. To take revenge on the Catholics (seen as having collaborated with the French occupant), the city Protestants tore down the Catholic cathedral (the "Dom") of the city. The place where the Dom stood is now ... an amusement park ...
Making up one's mind about such a big city after only one day (of dreadful weather) is unfair though, so give Hamburg a chance if you have the opportunity!