First morning on the trip to Hamburg… Many breakfast places were open late 🙂
Flemming and I started the day slowly. We enjoyed our al fresco breakfast, and then went shopping.
There are many good shops in Hamburg.
We didn’t really need anything, just curiously strolled around.
Later we went to Speicherstadt – the iconic area of HafenCity quarter of Hamburg.
Speicherstadt is the largest warehouse district in the world, built in 1883 – 1927. It is UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Though there are many museums, the warehouses of Speicherstadt are still in use – they handle approx. one third of the world’s carpet production, as well as other goods like cocoa, coffee, tea, spices, maritime equipment.
The 27 metres long oriental carpet on the photo below was made of marble. It conveys the values such as hospitality and cultural diversity:
This work of art is also a reminder that Speicherstadt is Europe’s biggest commercial shipment point for oriental carperts. The carpet was created in 2019 by Frank Raendchen, German artist.
The buildings of Speicherstadt stand on timber-pile fondations. In one place, we saw some of those oak piles exhibited – on top of them were many coins that obviously were thrown by the tourists:
Speicherstadt is such an impressive piece of history, with many channels, steel bridges, and wooden walkways on different levels. Flemming and I spent several hours there, just walking around and admiring.
In the evening, we were going to a concert at the Elbphilarmonie, popularly known as Elphi. We had seen the building from a distance, and looked so much forward to get inside. There was live music on the streets, and many people were hanging around, enjoying that nice and warm evening.
Elbephilarmonie was magnificent. With its 108 metres hight, it is the tallest inhabited building in Hamburg. The construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave (that’s what I saw), iceberg or quartz crystal resting on top of an old brick warehouse. In between, there is a viewing platform, open till midnight – always full of happy visitors:
Elbphilarmonie has 2 concert halls, a luxury hotel and residential apartments, restaurants and bars, other things. It was designed by Swiss architects and opened in 2017. The construction cost was 866 million EUR.
The Mississipi Queen paddle steamer (a replica of the original one) in the shadow of Elbphilarmonie:
Flemming and I went to the Elphi. An infinite escalator took us up to the viewing platform, and breathtaking views were from all sides:
One could either go outside or admire the glorious views through those endless windows.
There is not much bagage room in my Aeroprakt, but I manged to bring a pair of stilettoes with me…
The concert hall reminded us of the DR Konserthuset in Copenhagen, though it wasn’t as beautiful in our opinion. It was also round, but designed differently.
The concert was fantastic, and we were very happy that we got the last tickets available.
After the concert, bars in the concert hall were open – something we never experienced in Denmark. It was so nice, people stayed, they had a drink or two and a good chat.
Flemming and I went to the harbour afterwards, to experience the night life:
The Harbour Port festivities were in full swing. The night after we were going on a sailing tour to watch the fireworks from the water.
