Fermented Travel

Hamburg, Germany

Hamburg is on the Elbe River and is one of Europe’s largest ports, but it is also a great city to visit and go just this side of wild in. The Beatles made their name here in the smoky cellar bars in the St. Pauli district near the famed Reeperbahn, Germany’s and maybe Europe’s big Red-Light area. The city has a wonderful city center that is easy to walk and beautiful canals and a central lake, the Binnenalster, with many sights to see a main shopping street, the Poststrasse, and great museums and art galleries, like the famed Kunsthalle that has Caspar David Friedrich’s amazing “The Polar Sea” (1823-4). This city has many charms and depth, and is mostly overlooked as a tourist attraction, that is a mistake I can assure you as Hamburg has everything for everyone to enjoy. The city is home to fashion, millionaires, historic churches, seedy bars, wonderful restaurants, lovely canals that remind you of some sort of German Venice, pretty parks, good soccer (football) teams, a Neo-Renaissance City Hall, and much more. The central square, The Rathausmarkt is a great place to start your tour from and is an easy meeting place near the main rail station, Bahnhof, and both the U-Bahn and S-Bahn stops. I came by train and never needed a car or even a taxi during my time here, so easy and safe was the city to walk.
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Hamburg’s Hanseatic past runs deep and though Lubeck still has it’s old town intact, Hamburg has just a few streets that reflect this historic past, because in 1842 the city suffered an almost total loss of it’s wood buildings in a fire, and then was devastated again in July of 1943 when the allies firebombed the city to rumble, and at least 55,000 people died, as Hamburg was a major target during WWII. This Hansa city is known for its merchant class as well as its seafaring roots, though now it is driven by international finance and by being a hub for shipping. By being a port and merchant trading Mecca, Hamburg, like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, is known for being open to outsiders and is a welcoming city with a liberal view of society and tolerance towards foreign customs. This openness has been a major factor in Hamburg’s becoming a leading city in business and trade, but it also made it a center of shame too. The major plotters and terrorists in the 911 attacks, including Mohamed Atta lived and used Hamburg as their European base. Hamburg also has a huge branch of Melini Bank or Iran, that has come under scrutiny for it’s dealings in sourcing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and it has a large church of Scientology, which is not too much liked elsewhere in Germany. While no one would suggest Hamburg was to blame, it has been terribly unlucky for the associations. Hamburg, never mind who claimed to rule it whether they be Danish Kings or German Kaisers, has always been almost an independent state, and it’s legend is: a “Free and Hansa City”. The Hanseatic period was between 13th and 17th Centuries and was a loose trading group of city states in Northern Europe and the Baltics and made up what was known as the Hanseatic League of mostly merchant ports, like Copenhagen, Denmark, Riga, Latvia and Stockholm, Sweden all of which including Hamburg became rich cultural cities during this time.
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Like all of the North and Nordic cities, the Lutheran movement and the Protestant Reformation influenced Hamburg when Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church. This 16th Century movement led to a stable or independent working class and a rule of mans law instead of Church justice alone. This was also a time when these Northern cities embraced beer brewing as well, with Bavarian brewers bringing their yeast strains north to produce lager styles of beer and commercially sell them, and use these port cities as export trade sites. While Hamburg may not be well known as a great beer city it does produce some good beer and has many highly regarded brewpubs making many interesting styles of beer. I myself found one great small brewpub overlooking one of Hamburg’s beautiful canals, Joh. Albrecht Brauhaus, which makes small batches of seasonal beer almost daily. I really enjoyed their Weiss bier, served in a huge glass and the food was flavorful and fresh as well. I could enjoy Hamburg in any season, but being Californian and not suited for long cold Northern European winters, would recommend spring, summer or fall as ideal seasons for Hamburg. I was there in April and it was unseasonably warm with 70-75 F degrees, making lots of walking even more enjoyable with outdoor dinning as well. Speaking of churches, Hamburg has many lovely churches ranging from the mentioned Lutheran to Baroque and even Gothic in styles, the Nikolaikirche with its glorious spire being my favorite. The St. Nikolai was left partially destroyed and burnt from the firebombing in 1943 as a memorial, but it is still a thing of awe and beauty, though a solemn reminder of the horrors of the past.
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For my visit to Hamburg, I stayed in the notorious and lively St. Pauli district, home to the famed Reeperbahn, a street in the middle of the Red-Light heart of Hamburg, where you find neon lit strip and sex clubs, erotic shops, music venues, pubs and windows with sex for sale like Amsterdam. In fact Hamburg’s Red-Light district is bigger than any in Europe officially, even though Prague, in the Czech Republic, maybe bigger now unofficially! Also, there is the huge Erotic Art Museum for those who need to brush up on their sex history and the history of erotic art, though I meant to visit, I just ran out of time. I picked a quiet and small hotel a few blocks away from the main Reeperbahn up on Budapester Stasse and was happy I did, because it was not loud or neon light affected and right across the street from the home of the St. Pauli Football Club, and I enjoyed checking out Hamburg’s second biggest soccer teams’ home field. Since I was on foot, I was glad it was not too far away from the action and some really nice local pubs where Hamburg’s large brewers beer was on tap, Astra is similar to most international style lagers, though a little less polished with a slightly raw flavor which seemed to fit these ex-sailor and drive bars. Some of these places were so dark and gritty I felt like I had been transported to the age of hard sailing ship times. To get my nerve up to check out some of the more exotic clubs in St. Pauli, I stumbled in to the Thomas Read Irish Pub, where I found ex-pats and locals drinking good beers and watching soccer, so I felt right at home and quickly became happy and comfortably numb. Why do all of us ex-pats end up in Irish Pubs? That became the night’s big question that was left unanswered.
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Time to go wild in Hamburg, and visit a few places on the Reeperbahn and walk down sum interesting alleyways. During the day the Reeperbahn is pretty tame and you even see tourists and the whole family walking down it as if it were a normal attraction, but at night the neon glow gives it a real wild energy. While there is a main Police station right on the Reeperbahn and it is a fairly safe place despite its reputation, I was careful not to be pick-pocketed and didn’t flash money around. Best to be without the Rolex and expensive camera when you go out here, if just not to get the wrong attention. The Reeperbahn does have some seedy areas, some beggars, some druggies and even a few shouting crazies around, but you can easily avoid them and there is very little in the way of danger to fear here, even if you are a nervous type, which I’m not. With legal prostitution and health and protection codes, Hamburg is a center for safe sex tourism, and in which many of the sex workers say empowers women and reduces human trafficking, though I’m not expert and will not try to begin to give you all the stats from their argument. I did ask a few women about their lives and they seemed very adjusted, educated and financially secure, so I hope for the best and believe this legal activity is the right way, but everyone can believe as they see fit. My tour of the strip and sex clubs was a thrilling adventure and one I surely won’t forget even if it was tame compared to what Hamburg has to offer. Make sure you haggle with the door people as they can make their own deals to get you in with drink tokens and entrance fees, I learned this early and got some great deals on drinks and free previews of the girls which shows it pays to play hardball and go on off nights for even better deals. I went to a club, which advertised a 50 Euro entrance fee, but I only paid 24 Euros and got 3 beers, schnapps and a lap dance, with the regular 10 Striptease shows included. Not bad, and the women were all beautiful model-types and had smiles and conversations that were both charming and intelligent in manner and substance. Then it was to the next place and a step up in the erotic scale, a sex club where live sex acts can happen both on stage, in public and in private booths, though I only ended up having a nice chat with one of girls, a nice woman that neither pressured me or tried to sell me on anything, and though there was some wild scenes going on a few feet away, we happily talked about Hamburg, healthcare, politics and her nice flat in which she has all ready finished paying off. She was a confident and well-studied woman, who was getting her doctorate degree. While there was some more raunchy clubs and fetish type places, that may not appeal to me, but there is plenty of options for all kinds and all tastes.
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Hamburg is a historic and hanseatic city that has it share of flaws, but that has many more positives to enjoy and offers many interesting highlights for the savvy traveler. While I may not want to spend my whole vacation in Hamburg, if visiting Germany or Europe, it is a city not to be missed if you are in the area. I will most surely go to Hamburg again, as it is close to many of my other favorite cities, like Copenhagen, Malmo, Riga and is easy to get to, especially by rail and not expensive to stay in once there. Hamburg has great eating, shopping and every type of entertainment you could ever imagine and then some. The city is clean and has both a modern skyline and old world charm, but with lots of edgy character and a wild side too. With friendly beautiful people and with an interesting history, this city can capture you and enthrall you. While the relaxed attitude towards sex maybe not be the biggest selling point, with all the culture and maritime trimmings, it does give Hamburg more texture, and food scene is almost as exciting with a surprising array of local ingredients that are delicious. Hamburg is a great city to drink in and savor with an independent and prideful population that is welcoming and friendly.
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