In the 1960s the Beatles came to Hamburg to seek fame and fortune. A century earlier my ancestors departed from here to seek theirs.

We arrived in Hamburg by train from Copenhagen, which was an interesting journey in itself. The train follows a scenic route over many Danish bridges and has to go onto a ferry to make the crossing onto the Jutland Peninsula. We arrived at the Hamburg central station, which is massive and reminded us a lot of Berlin, and found our way to our nearby hotel.

The Port of Hamburg is the largest in Germany and trade has always been its raisin d'être. The sprawling port takes up more than an eighth of the city, with around 12,000 ships a year delivering and collecting goods. One such ship, the "Aurora", picked up my great-great-great-grandparents here in 1855. It sailed with the "Marbs" to Australia. These were the first German immigrant ships to sail direct to Moreton Bay. Later, in 1882, my Danish great-great-grandparents also sailed from here. I am so thankful for this, otherwise I may never have visited this lovely city.

Hamburg is a buzzing metropolis, with wide streets and footpaths, big open squares, fantastic shops and a very interesting history. It has more bridges than Amsterdam, Venice and London combined and we probably crossed most of them as we explored far and wide on foot. Here are some of our Hamburg hints and highlights.

Sightseeing
We just loved wandering the streets of this beautiful city and enjoyed the lovely autumn weather and being surprised with interesting sights. It is a city of lovely old buildings that blend well with sleek modern ones. The skyline is pierced by towering spires of churches and public buildings such as the town hall.

One of our favourite areas was the historical Speicherstadt (warehouse district) built in the 1880s, where goods, such as coffee, tea and spices, from all over the world entered Europe duty-free for further transport. The neo-gothic brick buildings stand along the waterways looking very impressive. This is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on timber-pile foundations, and it was awarded the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site in July this year.

I walked to Beatles Platz one morning, but it was a bit of a disappointment. In a seedy section of town, metal statues stand on a 29 metre diameter circular area paved black to represent a vinyl record. If driving by I would have easily missed it if I had not known the exact place to look.

We took a Harbour cruise on the Maritime Circle Line, which is probably a must since the harbour is such an important part of this city. It was interesting viewing the city from the water line. Surprisingly, the city is 160 kilometres from the Baltic on the Elbe River. We also walked under the Elbe and that was an interesting experience. The Alter Elbtunnel (built 1907-1911) is the shortest connection between St Pauli and the opposite bank in Steinwerder. Cars and pedestrians take a lift down 23.5 metres, then cross the half kilometre distance (in our case as fast as you can) to the other side. It is a single very narrow lane for cars, with a narrow footpath either side for pedestrians. On the other side of the river had a view of the Hamburg city skyline and also noted the site of a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp where Jews with ship building skills had been put to work.

Probably the biggest highlight for me was a visit to the Emigration Museum at BallinStadt, the site from where over five million European emigrants set forth for other parts of the world between 1850 and 1934. As well as learning something about that period of time, I was lucky enough to find a few bits of missing information in my family history research.

I also enjoyed rambling around the Maritime Museum on a rainy day (only the second rainy day we have had all trip), housed in the oldest warehouse in the city. It was amazing - 8 floors of incredibly history, artifacts, paintings, models, etc.

Food
When in Hamburg, eat hamburgers. Perhaps. While the inspiration for the hamburger came from this place, it is a common misconception that the first one was created here. If interested, you can read more about it at http://toriavery.com/history-kitchen/2013/08/a-brief-history-of-hamburgers/
While we did enjoy one delicious hamburger, we mostly settled for bread and cheese washed down with wine or beer. Come on now people - don't judge. One must drink beer in Germany. It is the law.

Street food was also very enticing and seemed to pop up everywhere. The best we experienced was a massive food fair that ran for several days around a lovely central lake. There were hundreds of tents selling delicious foods such as German sausages, seafood, pastries, bowls of garlic mushrooms, plus international foods from India, Greece, etc. Of course, in amongst all these were many, many beer tents.

We were also impressed by the supermarket prices. Under a Euro for a delicious, decent sized Camembert, nice bottles of reds for under 2 Euros (including French, Australian, Chilean, and others). How is this so? The breads and pastries in the many bakeries were also fabulous. Which raises another question - how come the locals are all so slender with all this good food and drink?

Language
I think I must look like a famous local called Morgan because whenever I was out walking each morning and said good morning to anyone they always nodded and replied, "Morgan." Seriously though, You have got to admire the German language when their word for town hall is "Rathaus". There is also a lot of "fahrting" going on in signage all over town.

You don't hear very much English, but they switch easily and most efficiently into it when dealing with mono-lingual people like us. There are detailed signs and information in historical sights, but unfortunately for us they are mostly in German only. I wish I hadn't 'fahrted' around so much when young and learned to sprechen Deutsch.

Summing up
Six days here was a great length of time to get to explore this fascinating city. We would have been happy to stay longer if possible, but the next adventure awaits.

Now, like the Beatles and a few of my ancestors, I can say I have spent time in Hamburg. I did not find fame or fortune, but I found a great deal delicious food, beaut beer, interesting sights, some missing links in my family history, and much happiness. This city is one of the loveliest, most exciting places we have ever visited. If you have never been, consider putting it on your bucket list. I am sure you will be as impressed as we were.