Hamburg and the Speicherstadt

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Speicherstadt And Kontorhaus District With Chilehaus (2015); Germany'S Largest Port City, With The Elbphilharmonie, Miniatur Wunderland And The Reeperbahn · Hamburg, Hamburg

Hamburg is Germany's second city and its biggest port, and the part of it that carries the UNESCO listing is the Speicherstadt: a district of red-brick warehouses built from 1883 on oak piles, cut through by tidal canals and crossed by iron bridges, inscribed in 2015 together with the neighbouring Kontorhaus quarter and its ship-prow Chilehaus. Immediately west stands the Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall opened in 2017 on top of an old cocoa warehouse, whose Plaza viewing level is free and needs only a timed ticket. Inside the Speicherstadt sit Miniatur Wunderland, the largest model railway in the world, and the old coffee and spice stores. Beyond it the city runs from the Landungsbruecken piers and the 1911 Old Elbe Tunnel to the Alster lakes, the Sunday fish market and the Reeperbahn in St Pauli. Hamburg is a working harbour rather than a picture-book old town, the brick is sober rather than pretty, and it rains a great deal; locals treat all three as the point rather than the drawback.

Speicherstadt and the Kontorhaus district on the Elbe, with the Elbphilharmonie at the Kehrwiederspitze, central Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

The Speicherstadt streets, bridges and canal views are open air, free and walkable at any hour, and the warehouses are floodlit in the evening. Miniatur Wunderland opens daily, long hours, on timed tickets that sell out days ahead in holidays. The Elbphilharmonie Plaza opens daily with a free timed ticket from the machine or the app; the concert halls need a concert ticket. The Fischmarkt runs Sunday mornings only, very early, and is cleared by late morning. State museums normally close Mondays, as most German public museums do; last admission is often an hour before closing - confirm. HADAG harbour ferries and the Old Elbe Tunnel run all year, the tunnel free on foot.

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