During a Korean travel show on Hamburg I remember seeing a rather unusual underwater tunnel. Aside from allowing pedestrians and bikes there was also a single lane for cars tightly packed in. I wanted to find this tunnel even though its not really a tourist destination.

The tunnel was easy to find in the cruise ship district which was full of tourists, tour buses, and tour boats.

London has a similar foot tunnel in Greenwich we used to visit as kids, built in Victorian times. The Hamburg one was built in a similar era but had a set of lifts while the London one had a single round one in the centre.

There was a long staircase down I wasn't comfortable with but there were lifts on one side. The lifts were free and were used by people walking and on bikes. At the bottom was a sentry directing traffic

I'd also visited a similar undersea tunnel in Tongyeong Korea built almost a century ago during Japanese occupation. Similarly it was nicely cooler at this depth (See entry Tonyeong Undersea Tunnel http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-en tries/londone7/1/1371410004/tpod.html )

At the southern end there were nice views of the river boats. However the area beside was quite undeveloped, and not somewhere you would want to hang around, especially at night.

My friend that lives in Hamburg explained the lift is free for cars. They are allowed to go in one direction for half the day, and the other direction the rest of the day.

It was more popular with bikers who were able to glide down the entire length of the tunnel.

Nearby was ReeperStrasse which is famous for Hamburg's Red Light District. I had timed it to get here early evening to see the lights come on.

The side street is closed off so you cant look in. The sign says no women or persons under 18 are allowed in.

Like Amsterdam it had ladies in lingerie sitting in windows. However no photos are allowed and they seemed bored sitting there checking text messages as it wasn't busy.

As it was early evening I went into a nearby Turkish restaurant to get some food I was deprived of in expensive Norway. I got a chicken wing platter with rice and naan for 8 Eu ($12).

Tired I took the U-Bahn back to the hotel. Ticket is only 1.5 Eu ($2.25).