What else did we see?

Well, after exploring the Christmas market and holiday decorations and lights on Saturday (plus doing a little retail therapy for both the Budman AND me), we decided to walk the city a bit on Sunday. As you can see by the photos, this is indeed one BIG port city. Even after having seen the ports of Hong Kong and Shanghai, we still found this one quite impressive in terms of its sheer size and volume of traffic. Supposedly, it is the second largest port in the world (behind Shanghai). So, it is no wonder that this city has thrived as a merchant city for hundreds of years.

View of Hamburg from the port; St. Michaelkirche, the signature landmark in Hamburg is in the distance.



Hamburg’s port.







Buddy on a tour of Hamburg's Port.



As is our habit, it is important to check out the local architecture as well. In most German cities, the churches often provide some of the most interesting and beautiful architecture, although in the case of Hamburg, there is a lot of new/modern architecture to be seen as well. Not usually being a fan of modern architecture, I must confess to feeling that the “old” and "new” were rather balanced in this city.

Most of the churches in Hamburg were destroyed multiple times (i.e. fire, war, etc.), notably in WWII. All but one has been restored to working churches, including St. Michaelskirche and St. Katharinenkirche. OK, so they are not the Gothic works of art we saw in France in September, but still….



One church, Alte St. Nikolaikirche, was all but virtually destroyed during WWII. One spire and a few ruins are all that remain of this church which today is a monument and reminder of the ravages of war.



Interesting footnote: Hamburg is a city of canals. Canals are everywhere, as you can imagine, being that these water roadways were used to bring merchandise and goods up from the port and stored in warehouses for further distribution. Today, many of these old warehouses are still used for storage facilities; however, more and more are being converted into retail space, offices, and residential housing. Very cool.

One of many Hamburg canals and footbridges.





Freihafen Hamburg (free port) and Speicherstadt (warehouses); these are the buildings being converted more and more to other uses.