May 2014
Yes, the hamburgers are named after the second largest city in Germany, Hamburg(population: 1.8 million). To be technical, what was invented in Hamburg was the hamburger patties, and the current sandwich form was started in the U.S. So it will be safe to say a hamburger is as American as an apple pie or baseball.
We were in Hamburg on three different occasions mainly to visit my cousin and his family. Each time, we spent a couple of days in the city. Hamburg is a major port, but this city does not sit by an ocean. Elbe River runs through the city, and it connects the North Sea to Hamburg. The river and the lakes and the canals make the city look more attractive, and it retains the old charm even though most of the city was rebuilt after the WWII.
My cousin’s house is in the wooded residential area Southwest of downtown, and, we used the train(S-Bahn) to get to the center. From the main train station, the City Hall is an under 1km walk. Around the City Hall and the lake, it is very pleasant to walk around and see charming buildings and streets, like the one below.
From here, the UNESCO World Heritage site Speicherstadt is another 1km south. This waterside old warehouse district is next to the ultra-modern Hafen-City, and the whole area has lots of cafes, restaurants, and shops.
On another day, we took the ferry from the southwest bank of Elbe River and went across the river to reach the area a bit west of the downtown. There were lots of seafood restaurants in this area, and St. Michael’s Church was close by.
During the summer months, a water garden concert is performed daily at Planten un Blomen Park. We were lucky to catch this one summer.
The Beatles honed their skills at nightclubs in Hamburg between 1960 and 1962, and there is a monument to that in Reeperbahn Night Life District. We visited this area one morning, and nothing was open. We could see very clearly, though, what might have happened the night before: there were plenty of remnants of a big street party.
One nice surprise was that the best Korean restaurant in Europe, in our opinion, was in Hamburg: Hanmi Restaurant.
Small Wide World 