By GlobalDetail.com reader rhode

New:Show Hamburg on GoogleEarth

Hamburg has over 800 years of trading tradition with the harbour being pivotal to this heritage. For centuries Hamburg has welcomed ships from all over the world into its port, both coming in via the North Sea as well as upstream the river Elbe – reaching well into the heart of Eastern Europe. Hamburg is still called the “Hansestadt Hamburg” – the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Many centuries ago the ‘Hanse” or ‘Hanseatic League’ – a trading network connecting many ports and cities and stretching throughout the Baltic region – defined the wealth and prosperity of a large region of what is now Europe.

At the heart of Hamburg’s harbour, and instrumental to Hamburg’s status as one of the biggest ports in the world (2nd biggest in Europe, 3rd biggest outside of Asia, 9th biggest in the world), lies the Speicherstadt. 'Speicherstadt’ means ‘Storage City’ – and with it being the world’s largest connected warehousing structure it is a city within a city. Many of these enormous store houses were built on wooden stilts well over 100 years ago and are still in use today. They form part of Hamburg’s Free Port facilities, which means goods can be stored here without import duty or taxes being due. This is very attractive for many importers and its popularity has not decreased over time.

Today, the Speicherstadt stores anything from Tea and Coffee to Cocoa, as well as spices from around the world, Tobacco, Computers and most impressive of all the largest storage of Persian Rugs in the world. Built into the water, the store houses are most accessible by barge through a bewildering network of canals. Even today, maybe somewhat unexpectedly for a world port, you can still see the original features on the buildings. Metal pulleys above the top floor doors were used to get the goods from the boats into the various store rooms, and some of these are still being used today. With the emergence of newer technologies, as well as access via bridges and land, easier ways were found to access the storage facilities. But look around and you can still discover gables and turrets, paying homage to the original design of the buildings. Here and there you will also be able to see old water marks from past floods striking Hamburg’s harbour from the cold and stormy North Sea.

The cubic and imposing red-brick buildings surrounded by canals and cobbled street have long been a talking point. Visible from the ‘Landungsbrücken’ – the harbour’s piers for the many tourist and transport boats – and near the heart of the commercial part of the harbour, discussions over its future use have been waging for decades. Suggestions ranged from their use as luxury apartments to their demolition and replacement by more suitable storage facilities. However, tradition has prevailed and parts of the buildings are being converted into luxury apartments. The retro style is combined with modern aspects and the result has already won over many investors and locals.

The Speicherstadt is also home to a number of appropriate museums. You can visit the Spice Museum, the Customs Museum, as well as the Miniature Wonderland – one of the world’s largest mock-up miniature model railways. The Spice museum has a selection of around 50 different spices in anything from powder to their original form and will give you a background on he tradition of the spice trade and Hamburg’s role in storing them. The Custom’s museum has a great choice of real-life smuggling tools. You can see how many a criminal has attempted to smuggle goods into Hamburg without declaring them to customs – and failing miserably. They even have one of the world’s largest X-ray machines, which allows them to X-ray entire trucks without having to open them (how cool is that). The Miniature Wonderland has a huge mock-up of an entire railway network. With over 5 kilometres of tracks, 450 railway carriages, 7500 trailers, 50000 trees, 30000 figurines, 10000 cars, 3000 houses and plenty more, this is a truly impressive museum.

While you don’t need to take a boat or barge to see these museums, you may wish to go on a “Hafenrundfahrt” – a Harbour tour by barge – which will take you through the canals and on throughout the harbour. Leaving from the Landungsbrücken, English language tours are available and they are usually led by real Hamburg Harbour characters. During the hour-long tour they will not only give you an insight into the history of the Speicherstadt, but will also go past many of the past and present harbour sights. The huge and impressive Docks of ‘Blohm & Voss’ – one of the world’s most renowned and oldest ship builders – are clearly visible from across the river, but only a barge trip will allow you to appreciate their sheer size. If you are lucky you will be able to see a large cruise liner or tanker in the dry docks – guaranteed to put you in awe.

The boat trip will also give you a different perspective on Hamburg’s city centre. Seen from the water it gives you the opportunity to sit back and look at everything from a quiet (but maybe slightly bumpy) back seat. Hamburg’s low skyline really comes to life from here and you will be able to admire the city’s stunning architecture – combining tradition with modernity.

Background Hamburg:
Hamburg is Germany’s 2nd largest city behind Berlin. Despite its 1.8m inhabitants Hamburg comes across as very laid back and you would be forgiven for thinking Hamburg was smaller than it is. The low skyline, largely dominated by the city’s 7 main churches, is as beautiful as the buildings that make it up. The architecture originates from the city’s heritage as a trading city – with many trading and merchant’s houses making up the city centre. Also in the city centre are the two big lakes, fed from the river Alster. The outer lake (Aussenalster) is larger and is home to many sailing clubs, while the inner city lake (Binnenalster) is surrounded by the city’s stunning shopping arcades and top hotels. The city’s second (and larger) river – the Elbe – cuts the city in two with the main commercial and residential parts to the north and large parts of harbour to the south. To people who have not yet been to Hamburg, the city is often believed to be dominated by industry. This may be true for the southern harbour parts, but the main city area is lush and green with many parks, lakes, canals and inner city gardens. Did you know that Hamburg has more bridges than Venice?

For more info:

Harbour barge tours (Hafenrundfahrt) with ‘Barkassen Ehlers’:
Call +49 (0)40 300 51 555 to book tickets or enquire about departure times.
Roundtrips take about one hour. Costs are around EUR 9.00.
Leaving from the Landungsbrücken – get the U-Bahn or S-Bahn to ‘Landungsbrücken’

Miniature Wonderland
Open daily from 9.30am to 6pm (Tuesdays till 9pm, Sat/Sun from 8.45am till 8pm)
Address:
Im Kultur & Gewerbespeicher
Kehrwieder 2, Block D
20457 Hamburg

Customs Museum – Entry Free of Charge (Deutsches Zollmuseum)
Open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00am to 5pm
Address:
Alter Wandrahm 16
20457 Hamburg
Telephone: +49 (0)40 300876-11
E-Mail: museum@zoll.de

Spice Museum (Spicy’s Gewürzmuseum)
Open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00am to 5pm
Am Sandtorkai 32 – Speicherstadt
20457 Hamburg
Telephone: +49 (0)40 367989

Public transport information:
Http://www.hvv.de

For more details on Hamburg also see:
a href="http://www.hamburg-tourism.de">http://www.hamburg-tourism.de

For Travel to this destination also read GlobalDetail's Ultimate Guide to no-frills airlines

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