In America, when you hear about Germany and its tourist attractions, you hear about Berlin and Munich and maybe Cologne. In Germany, when Germans talk about their favorite German cities, near the top of everyone’s list is Hamburg. I confess, I did not know what all the fuss was about and if Jeremy were me, he would have never gone to Hamburg, due to all the hype.

Flo and I spent four days in that city last week and I tell you: I totally understand the fuss! Hamburg is a wonderful city! It is the second biggest city in the country and a very old one. It dates back to 800-something and has been an important trade center ever since. These days, it is culturally superb, with many musicals and concerts and also has many museums and is, as an acquaintance of mine ecstatically proclaimed, great for shopping!

Our first day we walked around down town, went in the Hamburg Dungeon, took a harbor tour and went to a fair. Downtown has lots of brick buildings, the typical building material of Hamburg. Everything seems old and there are shopping galleries tucked away in every corner, almost. Cobblestone streets abound. The Christmas Market was being built while we were there, so everything had a festive air. Hamburg is a city where, you could be very comfortable if you have money. Tiffany’s, Jil Sander, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and on and on and on. There are also more affordable stores -- and good thing! Otherwise, it just seems like downtown Hamburg is very clean, chic and has a very positive energy. In comparison to Zürich, for instance. The Hamburg Dungeon is part spook tour, part history lesson. Real actors (and here I thought Bonnie would get a kick out of playing some of these people) basically take you through the history of the city and try to scare the pants off you in the meantime. We experienced the plague, the Inquisition, the Great Fire of 1842, the great flood and some other stuff as well. It was really fun! I actually fell asleep during the harbor tour (we had an early flight!), but Flo took a million pictures, which you can have a look at. Basically we got to see the whole thing, all the big container ships and also the smaller ships. Then we went to a volksfest, which I’ve never been to in winter before, so that was fun.

Our second day we visited the Reeperbahn, the Hamburg Museum (history of Hamburg) and saw Tarzan, the musical. The Reeperbahn is the red light district of the city. Don’t worry, we didn’t pick up any girls. It was day time. We just wanted to see how it was, as it’s famous and all. The history museum was fun, although there was so much in it, that it was hard to take it all in. My surprise from Flo for this year was to go see the musical Tarzan. What was really fun about that was that the lead actors for the musical were cast through a casting show on TV. We didn’t see all of it, but we saw some of it, so we’d actually seen these two actors competing for their roles. To be honest, the story of Tarzan isn’t really enough to make a whole musical, but the acrobatics of the ‘monkeys’ and the artistry and fun of the whole thing made you not really care that the plot was a bit thin. It was a great time and totally worth it. Thanks Flo!

The third day, Flo had training (the excuse for us to spend a long weekend in the city) so I shopped a bit and went to see the biggest model train in the world. That was actually a bit disappointing, because the tracks are so expansive that you have to wait quite a while until the trains go by. It was very impressive in how much detail all the scenes are done. It’s all to scale and has different countries or regions, such as America, Scandinavia, Germany. The Swiss part actually includes the Alps and therefore covers two stories. Anyway, in the evening we went to the oldest jazz club in the city. It’s called The Cotton Club and they had a blues band out of England playing that night, The Steelyard Blues Band. They were ok. The club wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. A small, dirty back room of a bar with low ceilings and wood paneling on the walls. I don’t think they’ve remodeled since the 70s. But we were there. That was the important part. It was fun.

The last day, Flo also had training, so I went to the art museum and shopped. I actually got lost in the art museum. I made it the whole way through the museum, chronologically from beginning to end and couldn’t find my way back out to the coat check. When I finally did (after asking the way twice), I realized I’d entered the museum from the wrong door. Not that it would’ve made a difference as far as finding my way back out again. And yes, I spent the rest of the day shopping. My friend Kathrin told me about a cool store called Die Wäscherei (The Laundry) so I took the subway out to another part of the town and found it. It is a furniture and home decoration store with a definitely Asian flair. Believe it or not, I didn’t buy anything for me or us. I only went in stores we don’t have in Stuttgart and I only bought Christmas presents. That’s right. Look at that self-discipline!

To see photos from Hamburg, click on this one here:

And I took this little video of some buskers on the bridge. Check it out.

We’re off to England for three days, so we’ll tell you all about it when we get back. And have a Happy Thanksgiving!