Hamburg

Martin, Two hotels right across from the train station in Hamburg (Hbf) I would recommend, one of which I stayed at in June 2009...Hotel Fuerst Bismarck; at the opposite end of that block or the next is Hotel Graf Moltke. Bismarck is a bit more than Moltke, both are 3 star hotels, clean and comfortable with the facilities in the room. Stayed in a single at Bismarck for 73 Euro. For the same type of room at Graf Moltke, it would be less. Exit the Hbf. by way of the Kirchenallee...you'll see both hotels across the street. At Bismarck I got a ticket pass to ride the S and U-Bahn subway systems. I would stay at Moltke next time mainly because of price reductions available there.

Hamburg is Germany's 2nd largest and probably most beautiful city. It's got its unique culture and is far, far away from oompah and Lederhosen. There are more rivers, canals and bridges (!) than in Venice, Italy and a harbor cruise along with a guided city tour is a must-do in that city. If you have a spare day and the weather is good consider a day cruise out to Helgoland island. You'll pass the unique Watten Sea, UNESCO protected and see an island with war-torn history (it was English, than got exchanged for Sansibar to become German, than was English again for a long time after WW2, got destroyed completely but always remained a habitat for many, many birds and fishes. Today it's a sales-tax free shopping paradise, too).

Was just there but stayed at a friend's place. The Reeperbahn was interesting!! St. Michaeliskirche was the most touristy thing we did. I took about 17 pictures of the statute of the Archangel Michael. There are lots of restaurants need the train station, plenty of selection of price range etc.

We visited Hamburg in March, just before tourist season started. We walked the city seeing the beauty of just the city itself. Also took a boat tour of the harbor, one of the big bus tours, and visited St. Michael's church. If you do a boat tour of the harbor, know that it probably will only be available in German in November (as it was in March). Just seeing the canals and harbor is worth it even if you can't understand German! The big bus tours have the usual headphones so you can select your language of choice. Most of the people we encountered appreciated our attempt to speak German, but helped us out with English. Enjoy your trip!