Back in June, I went to Hamburg for a concert.  I decided to be adventurous, and get a hotel on the Reeperbahn.  The Reeperbahn, sometimes referred to as “The Sinful Mile,” is Hamburg’s red light district.  It’s also jam packed with bars, clubs, restaurants, and touristy things.  It’s sort of like a distillation of Las Vegas, but with legal prostitution.  All of my Reeperbahn pics are from the daytime, because I didn’t want to be that guy taking pictures there at night.  And there’s a good chance I would have gotten my camera smashed if I had.

I chose my hotel based on ratings and reviews on TripAdvisor, and I wound up with the Pyjama Park Hotel und Hostel. It was affordable, and it was pretty decent considering the location.  My only caveat:  Don’t choose this hotel if you can’t sleep with a little bit of street noise.  People who live in New York City will be fine here.

This picture is not the hotel, it’s just a place on the Reeperban that drew my attention enough to snap a picture.  I think it’s a bar.  They must really like their pigs.

After I dropped my bags off at the hotel, fellow blogger Scott met me there and we set out for lunch.  On the walk between the hotel and the closest U-Bahn station, we passed this building.  I immediately made the “Go home, building, you’re drunk!” joke because it’s all tilty.

For lunch, we went down to the Port of Hamburg.  The harbor is the largest port in Germany, and the third busiest port in Europe, after Rotterdam and Antwerp. (Note to self:  I need to get to Rotterdam next year. I really want to see it.)  In addition to being a massively busy shipping port, it’s also a nice place to go for lunch.  The Landungsbrücken area is kind of touristy, but full of restaurants.  The boat on the left in this picture is in front of a nice restaurant.  Naturally, I had the fish.

Many of the boats that stop here, like the two level blue boat above, and the two level red and blue one below, are ferries that you can ride between established docks in much the same way that you would use a bus inside the heart of a city.  Based on the recommendation of the Internets, I took the number 62 Ferry from there to Finkenwerder and back.  The journey takes about an hour and a half to get there and back, but it’s a very affordable way to get a nice mini-tour of the Elbe river in this area.

These crane things were busily moving containers around.  It was neat to watch.

I was a little taken aback to find the Louisiana Star paddle-boat in Hamburg, Germany.

Directly across the harbor from Landungsbrücken is the auditorium where they show Der König Der Löwen (The Lion King.)  Some of the ferry boats advertised this.  Note to self:  I’ve gotta see this musical!  I’ve managed so far to miss it every time I’m anywhere near it.

Before the concert that evening, I went to another nice area in Hamburg to meet Sarah after she got out of work.  We walked over to a Balzac Coffee and caught up for a bit.  I’d just like to say for the record that Balzac Coffee is kind of awesome.  I’ve been in Balzac shops several times before, and I wish we had them in Regensburg.

The concert was in an open area auditorium called the Freilichtbühne on one side of the city’s amazing Stadtpark.  I got to see the entire Stadtpark, because Scott gave me bad advice on which public transportation stop to use to get there, and I wound up on the opposite side of the park.  This is ok, though, because it was a nice walk through the park and I got there in plenty of time to catch the main act, Lindsey Stirling.

The following morning, I did a small amount of touristing on my way back to the train station to head back to Regensburg.    On the walk back out of the Reeperbahn, I spotted this place where you can get cheap sex right next to a place where you can get a cheap hamburger.  (Ok, in reality I had spotted it the night before, because I grabbed some chicken nuggets after the concert.  Despite being on the Reeperbahn, this is the quietest McDonald’s I’ve ever been inside.  Amazing!)

Walking into the city center before leaving town, I found this pillar in the courtyard in front of the Rathaus, in front of the canal.  I haven’t been able to find any information on what this is called, but it was neat looking.

Finally, there’s Hamburg’s iconic Rathaus, the Hamburg town hall.  I didn’t go inside, but I’ve found that for many cities, the Rathaus is just as interesting inside as it is outside.  This pretty much wrapped up my short hop into Hamburg.  I arrived on Tuesday morning and left on Wednesday morning, for a total time in the city of less than 24 hours.  I’ll have to go back sometime- I quite liked Hamburg.

Have you ever been to Hamburg?  Have you partied on the Reeperbahn or taken a ferry on the Elbe?  What’s your favorite harbor?