A taste of Hamburg adventure
August 2002 - Just a family holiday. So don't expect anything spectacular. But this city surely is worth a solid expedition. What a possibilities here!

Since this was just a family outing I couldn't really explore. I was regularly reprimanded because I was "always filming and photographing". Doing anything more than this would put too much strain on the holiday atmosphere > But in the train I already saw that this would be a great day. A city that has a bridge network like this must be exciting > And these bleak urban landscapes also look promising to the trained eye of the urban explorer > Gradually I realized that Hamburg must have some kind of underground. Look at these wonderful manholes > Only Copenhagen has nicer ones than these > And then the underground was revealed when I met these workmen, behind the main station > This delay gave me some acidic remarks from my wife but it was worth it. Look > The workmen were not very communicative, it was a dirty job to clean the fitting of this manhole. But I insisted, and they told me that this network runs under the whole city > But I don't have the faintest idea what it carries. Neither do I know whether the side tunnels are walkable > But there were enough opportunities for fun climbing. This sturdy mast simply asks to be climbed > Look at the ladder like structure > I wonder what the view from the top looks like > And this bridge is also very climbable, easy, not more than 5b > And the reconstruction of the docklands still leaves a lot of opportunities to explore the scaffolding > It has 5 - 6 floors at least > And during the day it looks very accesible > Then there is the U-bahn with it's wonderful steel viaduct > It's very easy to get onto the walkway under it > The "do not enter" sign is on the other side, so I didn't see it > The viaduct also crosses the water, great chilling place > And a nice old cast-iron station > From here we took the metro to the end of the line. We were sooo tired > Underground stations just as in every city > But here they have a special station for Borgs > Again a lot of interesting bridgeworks > These should be great to visit at night > And on the way back we had the front seat and could look through the front window of the metro > Nice rail-spaghetti > More bridges > Arches > Tunnels > Stations > Harbour towers > Viaducts > Office blocks > And more tunnels > But all the time I wish I had a rowboat, or a simple inflatable boat > Look at all these canals, what fun it must be to explore them at the water level > No one does it, at least I saw not one boat here > You could even pass under the metro line > But this TV-monitor landscape is pure fiction > Just like this nice and explorable factory. It's a mega size model railway > But this again is the real harbour of Hamburg. This site looks operational, but there must be a lot to explore there. It was on the other side of the water, I used my maximum zoom > So we need someone to go there and make a more detailed report. Who wants to take this responsibility ?


Mail me at kazil a.t euronet d.o.t nl (spam-obfuscated e-mail address)

© 2002 Petr Kazil - 13 August 2002