T. S. Eliot famously wrote that “April is the cruellest month” – and in Hamburg, summer can be the cruellest season. Wedged between two coasts as we are, summer weather often switches from swelteringly humid heat one week to gale-force gusts the next. Yet despite the potential for a complete wash-out (just Google ‘Hamburg summer memes’…), this is the time of year when our parks, lakes, and events calendar come into their own.
What is more, with summer nights short due to our northern latitude, even a few pesky afternoon squalls still leave plenty of daylight hours to enjoy. So if you’ve got a brolly and a reliable weather app, here are five ways to enjoy summertime Hamburg – and some tips about how to avoid the crowds of people looking to do likewise.
Get on a ferry
Day-trippers, overnight stayers, residents with guests to show around, annoyed locals looking for a seat: the 62 ferry from the Landungsbrücken quays to Finkenwerder packs them all in. The classic way to see Hamburg from the water, it’s still a fantastic option for a sunny morning – stress on ‘morning’ to beat the rush.
But why not try the less busy alternatives? If you’ve got time on a weekday, the 73 will take you along the gritty post-industrial backchannels of Steinwerder to the trendy end of Wilhelmsburg. Another option is to take a pleasant walk along the Elbe to Teufelsbrück and then hop on the 64 to Finkenwerder. At the weekends, the 65 will take you from there back over to the picturesque hill-village suburb of Blankenese. (Check timetables here.)
Get on your bike
Ferries take bikes, too, so if you cross to Finkenwerder and head past the Airbus runway (keeping your eyes peeled for the awe-inspiring A300 Beluga transporter), you’ll soon be cycling through the Altes Land, Europe’s largest contiguous fruit-growing area. With its miles of apple, pear, and cherry orchards punctuated by quaint villages, it offers plenty of places to stop for juice, cakes, and other associated refreshments – or to shelter from the rain. Use saddle-bags to take advantage of bumper crops at low prices (everything is flat out here, so no need to worry about weight). End in bijou Buxtehude or sweet Stade, both with beautifully preserved Hanseatic town-centres and S-Bahn connections back into town.
Other picturesque, if slightly more challenging routes, will get you away from the steady stream of like-minded cyclists. Why not take the (surprisingly hilly) Alster towpath up through the genteel northern suburbs, following the river out past horse paddocks and through woodlands as far as Rader Schule for an afternoon coffee/cold beer? Or, if you’ve got thighs of iron and an entire weekend to spare, you could try the Elbe cycle-path out to lovely Lauenburg, with a choice of chichi hotels and plenty to see and do while you’re there.
Get on the train
Lauenburg is a change of train away, either at Büchen or Lüneburg. Just 30 minutes from Hauptbahnhof, the latter is a gorgeous Hanseatic city which grew fabulously wealthy in the Middle Ages thanks to its salt mines, leaving it with dizzying, intricate church spires – and a serious subsidence problem. Leaning tower of Pisa? Leaning towers (plural) of Lüneburg!
Another medieval Hanseatic gem within day-tripping distance of Hamburg is Lübeck, a compact city with plenty to offer besides its trademark Holstentor gatehouse and atmospheric city centre. Gourmets will enjoy the marzipan for which it is known (potentially in ice-cream form if it’s a hot day) as well as a wide range of fish dishes – especially out at Travemünde, the seaside suburb just a few stops further along the line. Alternatively, there are trains out to the coastal resorts of Timmendorfer Strand and Scharbeutz, although those looking to beat the day-tripping crowds are best advised to stay on board until up-and-coming Haffkrug. For adrenalin junkies, the next stop, Sierksdorf, is the right one: as well as Germany’s highest and fastest rollercoaster, nearby Hansapark also has some of the best log-flumes in the business.
Go open-air swimming
For those who prefer their water-related kicks to be less vertigo-inducing, Hamburg has got so many open-air swimming options that you could (confession:) live here for decades and never try them all. If you’re in the market for a classic German Freibad experience, there is no better place to swim laps, belly-flop from diving boards, and people-watch than the Kaifu lido. If you’d avoid the fairweather posers, Bondenwald and Finkenwerder are quieter options. Municipal operator Bäderland also runs a natural pool filled from the Alster at Stadtpark – which, thanks to its opaque (yet clean) water, tends to put off the crowds.
Indeed, if you’re not put off by not being able to see the bottom, Hamburg has no end of free outdoor bathing spots. There’s no need to risk drowning or being mown down by container ships on busy, fast-flowing Elbe, either, if you trade the main beach for the river’s quieter arms – like the tranquil Dove Elbe, for instance, out east. Helpfully, the city authorities keep tabs of water quality here and at various other recommended swimming spots (list here).
Go to the Wasserlichtkonzerte
One final water-related tip: Wasserlichtkonzerte . It’s a bit of a cop-out to call things ‘untranslatable’, but these spectacles held every evening from 1st May to 30th September in Planten un Blomen park really are lacking an equivalent – even in other German cities. Yes, Hamburg’s “water-light concerts” are performed using an ingenious combination of high-pressure fountains illuminated by spotlights and coordinated with speakers to create a truly unique audio-visual outdoor experience. There is, quite simply, nothing quite like them. So take a picnic and enjoy this uplifting experience with friends (or dates…) after sundown. A tip for avoiding the crowds? Get a good picnic blanket with a waterproof underside so that you can go even when it’s been raining again and the grass is wet…
Share your own tips for what to do in Hamburg this summer in the comments section below.
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