Orientation

Hamburg lies on the northern bank of the Elbe river. The city’s Altstadt, full of old façades and labyrinthine canals, lies north of the Elbe and south of the Alster lakes. Binnenalster, the smaller of the two Alster lakes, is located in the heart of the Altstadt, with the bustling Jungfernstieg on the south corner. The much larger Außenalster, popular for sailing in the summer and skating in the winter, is slightly further north, separated from the Binnenalster by the Kennedy- and Lombardbrücken.

Five unique spires outline Hamburg’s Altstadt. Anchoring the center of the Altstadt is the palatial Rathaus, the ornate town hall, and its exquisite doorstep, the Rathausmarkt, regular home to both political protests and farmers’ markets. Alsterfleet Canal bisects the downtown, separating Altstadt on the eastern bank from the Neustadt on the west.

The Hauptbahnhof lies at the eastern edge of the city center, along Steintorwall. Starting from the Kirchenallee exit of the Hauptbahnhof, Hamburg’s gay district, St. Georg, follows the Lange Reihe eastward. Outside the Hauptbahnhof’s main exit on Steintorwall is the Kunstmeile (Art Mile), a row of museums extending southward from the Alster lakes to the banks of the Elbe. Perpendicular to Steintorwall, Mönckebergstraße, Hamburg’s most famous shopping street, runs westward to the Rathaus. Just south of the Rathaus, Saint Pauli bares long waterside walkways and a beautiful copper-roofed port along the towering cranes of the Elbe’s industrial district. Horizontally bisecting St. Pauli is the infamously icky Reeperbahn (appropriately pronounced “RAPER-bawn”), which is packed with strip joints, erotic shops, and a tourist mecca of clubs on the pedestrian off-shoot Große Freiheit.

To the north of St. Pauli, the Schanzenviertel is a radically liberal community on the cusp of gentrification. Rows of graffiti-covered restaurants and a busy late-night cafe and bar scene attract fleets of bargain-hunting students, while in late summer, the Schanzenfest illegal street market consistently breaks out into a full-fledged war of molotov cocktails and tear gas between cops and civil discontents. On the westernmost side of Hamburg, Altona celebrates with a mini-Schanzenviertel nightlife and restaurant scene. Altona’s shop-lined pedestrian zone, the Ottenser Hauptstrasse, runs west from the Altona train station.