As we planned our trip to Copenhagen, Yannick immediately thought about visiting Hamburg. I never went there and so this was quickly decided. We plan to stay there for just one night as we wanted to drive to Copenhagen. Now I can say that one night in Hamburg is definitely not enough to discover this really nice city.

I’ll give you here some tips how to spend almost 24 hours in Hamburg to see the very main attractions of the city.

St. Pauli Piers

In German it is called Landungsbrücken are the largest landing places in the port of Hamburg. The first pier was built in 1839 and served for steamships as a terminal. In 1907 they added some new piers and today it is a landing place for ferries, harbor ships and passenger ships.

Beside the useful aspect of the Landing bridges, they became a very highly visited tourist attraction, which you cannot miss while visiting Hamburg.

Speicherstadt

In English Speicherstadt means „City of Warehouses“. It is one of the largest warehouse districts in the world and located in the port of Hamburg. It was a free zone to transfer goods without paying customs. On the 5th July 2015, the Speicherstadt has been awarded as the first site in Hamburg with the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

During World War II, bombing destroyed almost 50% of the Speicherstadt in Hamburg. Some of them were completely destroyed and not even rebuilt.

Something special of the Speicherstadt is that it is completely built on timber pile foundations, more precisely on oak logs. It is so amazing to walk through the streets surrounded with water and those amazing red brick stones. The warehouses can be entered by water and land.

My personal highlight in Hamburg in the Speicherstadt is the Poggenmühlebrücke because you have a really nice and amazing view of a small island between two channels. If you want to take a picture, be sure to find a time laps between two massive crowded tourist boats.

City Hall

The City Hall, or Rathaus called in Germany, is the seat of the government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. It is located in the old town quarter near the central station. The current City Hall has been built from 1886 to 1897 after that the old one was completely destroyed in a huge fire in 1842.

I really liked the architecture of the building. It has a lot of beautiful details, which makes it look very luxurious. It also has a courtyard with a Hygieia fountain, which was the goodness of health and hygiene in Greek methodology.

Unfortunately it just started raining when we arrived at the Ratshaus, but it didn’t make it look less beautiful.

St. Michael’s Church

The St. Michael’s Church is one of the five Lutheran main churches in Hamburg and also the most famous and visited church in the Hanseatic city. As its name mentions it already, the church is dedicated to the Archangel Michael.

The church is already remarkable when you’re far from it because of its black bell tower. The rest of the church is red, which makes it really unique from other churches. When you approach the church, you see a lot of plates with names on the floor. This are all the names of the people who donate something to the church for its renovation.

Just in front of the bell tower, there is a bronze statue of Martin Luther, because it is a protestant church. Above the main entrance of the church is also a huge bronze statue of the Archangel Michael.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to enter the church, although someone told me afterwards that this was the most beautiful church she’d ever seen. So I have a really good reason to visit Hamburg again.

Reeperbahn

The name Reeperbahn means literally ropewalk. It got its name because until the 1620s the ropewalk of Hamburg had been located there. It had been a ropewalk until the 17th and 18th century.

Today, it is a street and an entertainment district in Hamburg. It is the city’s major red light district, but also one of the two centers of the nightlife of Hamburg. The nickname of the Reeperbahn is Kiez but sometimes it is also known as the most sinful mile (die sündige Meile).

A very famous German artist is Olivia Jones. She is a drag queen and a star on the Reeperbahn. Most of the people visit the Reeperbahn only because they wish they could meet her. She also has a bar on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.

Furthermore, there is a very well known police station located on the Reeperbahn called the Davidwache. This station is located in the Davidstraße, where street prostitution is legal only during some times of the day.

Henssler & Henssler

If you are German, or at least know the German cook Steffen Henssler, you absolutely have to visit one of its restaurants in Hamburg.

It is a sushi restaurant and there I ate the best sushi in my life so far. I can only recommend it.

It is really a pity that we only spend 24 hours in Hamburg, but better this than nothing. But I definitely have to come back to visit this amazing Hanseatic city more in detail. Have you ever been to Hamburg? What is your favorite thing to do or see there? Let me know.