Moin. The return to Hamburg felt as seeing an old friend. I might exaggerate or I really missed being a traveller. This time, I revisited the warehouse district Speicherstadt (UNESCO World Heritage Site), and made new discoveries – neighborhoods Blankenese and Altona, Stadthöfen / New Wall, plus the park Planten un Blomen.

This summer in Hamburg I saw the city differently than last year.

Blankenese

The neighborhood Blankenese is on the right bank of Elbe river. It has many steps and even an area that is called Treppenviertel. The beautiful colorful houses and roads with steps reminded me of Stuttgart.

On the way back from neighborhood Blankenese I stopped in Altona. I didn’t know that Altona had such an interesting history – first was a small fisherman village called Altwasser, even used to belong to the Kingdom of Denmark, then be independent and only recently (in the late 1930s) becoming officially a part of the city of Hamburg.

Also read first visit to Hamburg, inspired by Beatles song titles

Altona

In Altona I went to the city beach “Elbstrand”. At the beach I even saw a small celebration party. Made me reflect on how many birthdays or weddings and romance the beaches around the world have seen.

Best decision was to return in the city center by water and take the ferry 62, part of the public transport, not before listening to a spontaneous mini concert under the bridge, all at sunset. Perfect.

The ferry route 62 I had was “Neumühlen/Övelgönne” to Landing Bridge 1 with 2 stops at Dockland (Fischereihafen) and Altona (Fischmarkt). Somehow Hamburg seems a little cold and industrial at first, but now I saw another face of it.

New Wall / Neuer Wall

On the last afternoon, I pass Café Paris and look for Poststrasse 6 and find something much more beautiful.

Neueu Wall Strasse is today a shopping destination. But inside you can find also the exposition “from Stadthaus to the Stadthofe of today”. There, I learned a lot about the history of Hamburg, from the hears of the leader hanseatic cities, than years of socialism, French and alied bombing.

Before returning home in Berlin I went to see the city center again, had lunch at “Mama” trattoria, near Rathaus and coffee at “Public Coffee Roasters” on beautiful Wexstrasse, in Neustradt.