Nicknamed Gateway to the World (Tor zur Welt), Hamburg is a cosmopolitan city with people from all over the world living here. Germany’s second-largest metropolis is renowned for its economic wealth, northern brick architecture, musical heritage, and maritime flair.
It’s impossible to see it all in the 24 hours I have here, but I might as well try. As I explore three incredibly diverse neighbourhoods, the city’s many faces come to light.
Speicherstadt Warehouse Complex
Always an early riser, I join a morning tour of Hamburg’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest historic warehouse complex. A district of connecting roads, canals, and bridges dating from 1885 to 1927, Speicherstadt’s gothic red brick buildings once stored high-value goods such as coffee, spices, and tobacco. Today, some of the warehouses are still in use as storage facilities, for example as Oriental carpet showrooms, while others house advertising agencies and other creative industries.
