Hamburg Harbor

Warehouses (formerly, now re-purposed) along a canal

Hamburg is not a city for sight-seeing. There is a beautiful harbor area with canal and little fingers of river going in all sorts of directions. But not only is there a dearth of must-see sights. There is an utter absence. (I'm here for people-visiting, rather than sight-seeing.)

German cities have the U-bahn and the S-bahn. The "U" in U-bahn stands for underground.

Except that some of the track is above ground. And a lot of the S-bahn runs underground, too.

As seen in the subway station. Yes, David Hasselhoff still rules in Germany.

And in Germany, non-alcoholic beer is marketed as a sports drink.

The things you learn while traveling.

This is the HafenCity neighborhood. Which was the second harbor. It became obsolete when larger containerized ships needed to dock.

This is the most hideously ugly building in Hamburg. Perhaps in all of Europe.

The Elbphilharmonie. Hamburg's concert hall. The roofline is supposed to resemble waves of the North Sea. It's an architectural trainwreck of a post-modern glass structure plopped on top of a historic brick warehouse that was historically protected. But insufficiently protected to prevent the ultra-post-modern monstrosity from being placed upon it.

This is St. Michael's Church.  Hauptkirche St. Michaelis.

It's Lutheran, as evidenced by the statue of Martin Luther off to the side.

And these are the ruins of St. Nicholas Cathedral.

Mahnmal St. Nikolai. St. Nicholas Memorial,

This is a huge cathedral, once one of the largest in the world, which was destroyed by the Allied firebombing of Hamburg in 1943.

The church, except for its enormous tower, largely was destroyed in the brutal bombing campaign.

This statue recognizes that horrific history:

More bridges:

Hamburg is the city of bridges. By some counts, it has the most bridges of any city on Planet Earth.

This is the Rathaus.

Hamburg's city hall.

The name "Rathaus" does not literally translate to "House of Rats." Disappointing fact.

More canals:

Canals with fountains:

A man could work up an appetite walking across all those bridges over all those canals. So it was time for a hearty German supper.

Kartoffelstube, which translates to "Potato Office". So potatoes were most definitely on the menu. For starters, the classic potato soup,

Potatoes, onions, carrots, and frankfurters. The broth had a slight vinegar flavor (like good German potato salad, which did not appear to be on the menu -- at least not in a form I could recognize in translation). It was very tasty. But heavy.

So heavy I could not finish my main course, pork schnitzel on a bed of peas and carrots, with a side dish of pan-fried potatoes. The potatoes were fried with the onions which we so carmelized they were burnt. But still sweet. Which is something I remember eating when I was little. The pan-fried potatoes with the onions slightly burned beyond carmelization. The schnitzel was schnitzel, but the pan-fried potatoes were excellent.

And a beer from the bar, of course, to wash it down.