Hamburg - Spring Edition (100 photos)

[mlm]

About Hamburg:
Hamburg is the 2nd largest in Germany with ~ 1,76 million inhabitants. The northgerman city is located at the river Elbe, and it has one of the largest ports of Europe only behind Rotterdam as far as I know. During WW2 a big part of the town was destroyed, but many older buildings in the center has been rebuilt and today it appears as a really beutifull city with a great mix of old/new buildings, and urban/green areas. The areas around the harbour has always been important to Hamburg, but in the last years even more than before. A huge developent is currently ongoing in the "Hafencity", which is mostly and old industrial area being corverted into thousands of apartments and offices. A lot has already been build and a lot more is to come. A lot more about Hamburg on Wiki should you be interested in more.

Me in Hamburg:
Despite the fact that I live only some ~350 km away from Hamburg, I've never really visited the city. I've drivin through the Elb tunnel many times and also had short stops at the main train station, but never any longer stays. So I decided to go this easter, and I really glad I did. The city and weather was awesome, and it was a great experience just as my visits in other German cities in recent years has been (Hannover, Frankfurt & Berlin). I was there from friday to monday, roughly 70 hours, and me feet still hurt from all the walking. But it was surely all worth it, there's really a lot to see there. So let's get started with the photos. I'll start with the inner city and move my way through some of the most interesting parts of town. Don't hesitate to ask if you have questions, or correct me if I got something wrong - I most likely did.

1: The beautiful townhall. It both works as a "regular" city hall and as home to the state parliament since Hamburg is a state of it's own:


2: People in line to get icecream - understandable since the weater was great and spring was really showing it's beautiful side:


3: View from cityhall square towards the 132 meter tall St. Petri church. I climbed the tower, and yes I mean climbed , there was no elevator. Tough after many hours of walking:


4: Nice old bridge between the Außenalster and the Binnenalster lakes. The later is smack in the middle of Hamburg creating a nice green/blue place to relex:


5: The ruins of Nikolaikirche which was bombed during WW2. The visiting platform at 76 meter can be accesed (with lift), but the views are quite obstructed:


6: Ah fresh smell of spring at a restaurant facing the Binnenalster lake:


7: If I ever get a garden I want a flagpole like this one. At the cityhall square:


8: Next to it there's an small model of the inner city.


9: Fake and real St. Petri:


10: City Hall from the top of St. Petri:


11: Same building but now from the Nikolaikirche:


12: Inner city view from a 3rd church, the St. Michaelis. This is probably the one of the 3 I visited with the best views. The tower is 132 meters and the viewing platform is at 82 m:


13: Not sure who this dude is, but as the rest of Hamburg he seems to like churches. And they surely have some impressive ones:


14: Area around Nikolaikirche. As many other places in this "Venice of the North" canals are well integrated in the city:


15: Nikolaikirche at night from a pedestrian bridge:


16: Old mayor, office building and yes, spring in the air:


17: Another view of the Nikolaikirche, impressive grade of details it must have had:


18: Another spring'ish view near Binnenalster:


19: Somewhere along an innner city canal:


20: View from St. Petri towards an archade between city hall square and Binnenalster:


21: St. Petri from Nikolaikirche:


22: From St. Michaelis viewing platform:


23: The 279,2 meter tall Heinrich-Hertz-Turm (TV Tower). Unfortunately it has been closed to the public since they found asbestos during a renovation:


24: The busy Hauptbahnhof:


25: North of the Hauptbahnhof the district of St. Georg begins. It's mostly a residential district with quite a lot of immigrants, but it's also home to some new office buildigns. I belive this is around Berliner Tor:


26: Same buildings seen from St. Petri. IBM seems to occupy one of the towers:


27: And again:


28: Western end of the Hauptbahnhof:


29: Heinrich-Hertz-Turm again, this time from St. Michaelis:


30: St. Petri and some other grand buildings from the city hall square:


31: Moving on to the Hafencity which is full of new buildings, canals and cranes:


32: There's a lot of cool details in the lights, pavements etc:


33: They made a small "viewing point" tower, where you can follow the development closely. View were not very "photo friendly" though:


34: The "tower" itself:


35: There's a few taller buildings in the area:


36: The famous Elbphilharmonie construction site. It's being build on top of and old warehouse of something, and I'm sure it will end up amazing. There's still a long way to go though:


37: Some other nice old warehouse buildings in the area:


38: The harbour between old town and Hafencity. It's full of sightseeing boats:


39: Hmm what to do when you can fit the building in the photo...


40: More new buildings:


41: Oh made it anyway:


42: Residential tower under construction. I belive it's the 58 meter tall Marco-Polo-Tower:


43: Wohoo, a paper thin office building...:


44: ...or is it:


45: Nah, but looks so from the "right" angle:


46: The old warehouses again...retro styled:


47: And once again at night:


48: Facing the old town there's a lot of these old renovated warehouse buildings. Most are likely protected today:


49: Some nice relaxing areas facing the Elbe river:


50: Hamburg has a great U and S bahn system, if you get tired of walking:


51: Another residential building in Hafencity, this one's a little taller than it's neighbors:


52: Time to get into the Elbe and check out the huge port. First a little ovewview from St. Michaelis:


53: Cranes for the many many containers:


54: There's also plenty of Docks, many ships are being build here:


55: Huge and small in the busy harbour:


56: More cranes, there's really a lot of them:


57: And a lot of sightseeing boats in the harbour too:


58: From the Landesbrücke where many of the trips start out you also have a great view of the new small skyline in St. Pauli/Altona. This in west to the inner city:


59: Another view:


60: Specially the Astra Turm seems quite nice to me:


61: Along the Altona coast of the Elbe there's also a lot of new buildings:


62: Closer look at one of them:


63: And another view from St. Michaelis towards west and Altona/St. Pauli:


64: Another nice new building:


65: Other people on the boat seemed to enjoy the trip too:


66: There's boats in all kind of shapes, here the old Mississippi Queen:


67: Another rather large new harbourfront building:


68: ...before the view again is blocked by another boat:


69: A little further west there's also a beach. In summer this is supposed to be packed with people:


70: Time to get back on land again, but first a view towards St. Michaelis and the old ship Rickmer Rickmers:


71: St. Pauli is home to the football club of, well, St. Pauli. The club is said to have a unique culture and loud fans. Their home is the Millerntor-Stadion (capacity of 22.200) and 3/4 of the stadion is well, rather old. They do have plans ready though, but not sure if they have any money. Sure some of the Germans will know better than me. Here's something from behind of the old "stands":


72: Right next to the Millerntor-Stadion there's a big Tivoli called "Dom":


73: And right next that is a big botanical garden. Spring spring spring again:


74: St. Pauli is probably most known for it's huge party/red light district. It's full of bars, clubs, cultural institutes, sex shop/bios and well prostitutes. If you're having problems with the chicks I suggest you buy one of these, they surely seem to love it. You could also just go some 100 meters towards Herbertstraße and they'll come to you all by themself...that'll cost you too though:


75: One rather deep metrostation at the nearby Messe:


76: Moving back towards the old town, here's a little different stuff. First a street view close to St. Michaelis:


77: The archade previously seem from above:


78: The very small viewing "room" of St. Petri chuch. This is what awaits you after 123 meter of walking upwards:


79: Spring again...can't help myself:


80: You also see a lot of sightseeing busses in Hamburg:


81: Lonely swan in the Binnenalster lake:


82: Young kids dancing as evening is coming:


83: Final day of my trip, I decided to check out early and go the the Hagenbeck Tiergarten (or the Hamburg Zoo) and relax a little:


84: Nice ass:


85:


86: Nice hair!


87:


88:


89: That's one bored looking turtle. Why do they always have to place these in such bad environments, it's the same in the Copenhagen Zoo. Maybe the turtles don't even notice/care, but I get sad by seeing this. I have to say that most other animals seems to have a lot of space in this zoo though:


90: Where's my ice???


91: Trying to get out?


92: Nice with some cold toe dipping on a warm spring day:


93:


94: These always reminds me of Miami Vice :


95: Before driving home I stopped by the Color Line Arena and the HSH Nordbank Arena. Color Line Arena is used for Icehockey, Handball and concerts and has a capacity of ~13.000 for sports and ~16.000 for concerts:


96. The 2 arenas are located right next to each other. Between them a huge foot sculpture:


97: HSH Nordbank Arena (used to be AOL Arena and before that Volksparkstadion):


98: It's home to HSV in case you didn't know:


99: What the players see when entering the field:


100: The stadium has a capacity of 57,274. It's build in the same spot as the old Volksparkstadion and it was opened in 2000:


That's it. A few leftovers might come later...

[Kampflamm]

Awesome shots. The trains never look this clean here in Cologne.

[Justme]

Great set of photos, thanks for posting. And year, Hamburg is a top city.

I like your photography style as well

[ØlandDK]

World class pictures as always! Love all the small comments to each picture.

About the Millerntor stadium: It's currently being renovated (and expanded if I remember right). Had the chance to experience the atmosphere there once and it truly is amazing!

[El_Greco]

Awesome photos as always.Hamburg looks very nice.

[Bavarian Angelshark]

wonderful thread

I LOVE Hamburg!!

And yeah, the weather is great these days, 24°C yesterday in Bavaria.

[Svartmetall]

Hamburg is an amazing looking city and your photos definitely do it justice! These are some of the best taken on SSC - a great overview and surprisingly good weather for so early in the year too!

[D34511]

Hamburg looks great

[simcard]

great pictures of hamburg

[Ji-Ja-Jot]

great photos.

[Dr.Seltsam]

Holy cow! Your pictures are ingenious! And your comments are interesting and funny too. Thank you!
I miss Hamburg...one of the best bigger cities Germany has to offer!

[Tiaren]

Woahaaa! The pictures you took are amazing! You really got talent.

And as always Hamburg amazes me too. Seems like the only big and bombed German city, that almost looks better today, than 100 years back in time. The modern architecture there is very high standard!

[SimsPlanet2]

Your pictures look great. I really like all of them, enjoyed it very much! I've been in Hamburg for one time, only on the highway, lol. I like pictures 59, 61 and 69. Things that I didn't expect of this city.

[Llinass]

I didn't see better photo thread here, just WOW, and Hamburg is must visit city

[christos-greece]

Very nice Hamburg the city is awesome, great architecture style and modern too

[erbse]

This ought to be one of the best photo threads on SSC I've seen so far, honestly!
Your style is ingenious and I loved the comments. You really got to know the city well.
Did you have some guide? Or where do you got all the information? German SSC?


Many thanks & congratulations to this masterpiece!

[Farrapo]

Speechless!!!

Great thread, the pictures are amazing!

I've never been to Hamburg, but I already love it!

Thanks for sharing and congrats!

[mlm]

Thanks a lot for all the kind comments.

A few of my own:

Originally Posted by Kampflamm

Awesome shots. The trains never look this clean here in Cologne.

I did book the hotel a few days upon arrival so they had a little time to get em cleaned up.

Originally Posted by ØlandDK

Had the chance to experience the atmosphere there once and it truly is amazing!

They were actually playing Duisburg while I was there (2-2) and I was in the area shortly before the game. Some dude sold tickets on the street, but he didn't think they would allow me to go in with my camera (+bag). Would have been cool but that'll have to be another time.

Originally Posted by Tiaren

Seems like the only big and bombed German city, that almost looks better today, than 100 years back in time. The modern architecture there is very high standard!

I agree with you, specially the inner city is really beatifull with only very few ugly 1960s-70s buildings that you see so often in many other German cities.

Originally Posted by SimsPlanet2

I like pictures 59, 61 and 69. Things that I didn't expect of this city.

Sure does seem like Hamburg has a little bit of everything to offer.

Originally Posted by erbse

Did you have some guide? Or where do you got all the information? German SSC?

Got a few good tips for the churches from the German SSC section, otherwise I just had a little guidebook. Mostly just walked around the city myself and shot what I found interesting. One great thing about Hamburg IMO, despite the rather large population, is that the inner city/St. Pauli aint bigger than you can walk your way through most of it. And when your feet eventually start hurting too much to walk anymore, there's always the U and S bahn which seems to cover the central parts very well.

I must also say that I can't remember I've ever felt as safe as I did in Hamburg. Maybe the intire population was just in good mood because of the amazing weather, but everyone seemed to be very friendly.

[Kame]

What an absolutely amazing collection of pictures, thanks a lot!

I actually wasn't aware of the fact that you can climb St. Petri's tower. Do you have more pics from that view point? I guess that location offers some great views if you can manage to take a look through those awful windows!

[GeneratorNL]

Wow, you really put a lot of effort in this! This is without any doubt one of the best en complete photo threats I've seen so far on SSC.

I have visited Hamburg one time, but unfortunately I could only stay one day. I really like the city, and I'll definitely go back one day.

Thank you for this great threat and keep up the good work! I'm now going to check out your Berlin threat.